Recap: NRA leader vs. feminist icon on Palin
Just in case you missed it during yesterday's deluge, two trailblazing Jewish women – one Blue, one Red – offer opposite takes on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin... Sandra Forman, the only Jew and only the second woman to lead the NRA, has a piece out hailing the Republican vice presidential candidate (and noting that Obama is no hunter).
The feminist guru Gloria Steinem, on the other hand, says Palin would be bad for the women.
18 Comments |
Share This
| 
Sarah Palin |
Lots of lawmakers at RJC bash
Every Jewish lawmaker in Congress (OK, that's only three) and a multitude of other members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives turned out Thursday afternoon for the Republican Jewish Coalition's "Salute to Pro-Israel Lawmakers" at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis (see video).
Sens. Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.), locked in a tough re-election fight with Al Franken, spoke to the hundreds gathered, as did House Deputy Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) that featured lots of talk about how Barack Obama, and Democrats generally, would be unreliable in protecting Israel.
"If you care about the United States of America, if you care about Israel, this election is absolutely critical," said Sen. John Ensign (Nev.) in a sample of the kind of talking points the GOP will likely use in the next two months.
"We can have a friend of Israel and a pillar of American strength, or have somebody who believes in moral equivalency ... [that] there is no difference between the Israelis and Palestinians, said an excited Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), practically screaming into the microphone.
And then there was Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kent.), who basically said that the Democratic Party isn't "pro-Israel."
"There's an important and fundamental difference between the two parties in Washington, and I know you're not going to be fooled by Democrats claiming that just because they're for foreign assistance to Israel that they're pro-Israel," said McConnell. "Israel's security and U.S. security are inextricably intertwined and they involve ... having an assertive, aggressive pro-active approach to danger."
Of course, AIPAC might disagree about the importance of foreign assistance. The lobbying group calls foreign aid "vital" and a "cornerstone" to U.S. foreign policy in a memo on its Web site. And when McConnell's fellow Republicans in the House voted against the foreign aid bill in 2007 because they objected to an amendment that provided funding for women's overseas health groups that provide abortions, Republicans felt it was important enough to sign a letter to the pro-Israel lobbying group affirming their backing, despite their vote on that bill, for aid to the Jewish state.
Among the other members of Congress who attended Thursday afternoon were Sens. Jim Bunning (Ky.), George Voinovich (Ohio), Orrin Hatch (Utah), John Thune (S.D.), John Kyl (Ariz.) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), and Reps. Adam Putnam (Fla.), Chris Shays (Conn.) and Chris Smith (N.J.).
1 Comment |
Share This
|
Barack Obama,
Eric Cantor,
Israel,
Norm Coleman,
Presidential Race,
Republican convention,
RJC |
Iran. Iran. Iran. Iran. And that’s it.
No Israel meat on the last night of the Republican Party's convention in St. Paul. The candidate, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and three of his senatorial acolytes each devoted a line to Iran's nuclear threat - and that's it. Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, got in his Israel licks Wednesday night, but overall, not as intensive an Israel pitch as at the Democratic confab in Denver, where candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) touched on both Israel and Iran in his acceptance speech.
0 Comments |
Share This
|
Barack Obama,
John McCain,
Presidential Race,
Republican convention,
rudy giuliani |
JTA VIDEO: Hanging with GOP lawmakers
Ron Kampeas and Eric Fingerhut file their final report from the Twin Cities:
0 Comments |
Share This
|
JTA Video,
Republican convention,
RJC,
Sarah Palin |
From Ak. to Fla., heritage across the USA
Over at Politico, the prodigious Ben Smith wonders if the "Christian Heritage Week" Alaska Gov. (and John McCain's Veep pick) Sarah Palin signed into law will make Jews nervous.
Dunno, but it'd be a hard case for the Democrats to make, considering how one of their top Jewish surrogates, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), has made passage of the federal act that created Jewish Heritage month (based on a Florida model) a signature of her first term in office.
0 Comments |
Share This
|
Alaska,
Debbie Wasserman Schultz,
Florida,
John McCain,
Presidential Race,
Sarah Palin |
Were the kids wearing buttons too?
When will this Buchanan thing die?
This time, blame the Republicans (perhaps unwittingly) for perpetuating the false tale that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice presidential pick of Sen. John McCain (D-Ariz.), once backed Holocaust diminisher Pat Buchanan. (She wore a button as a courtesy when he visited her town.)
In a fundraising letter, Palin slammed "vicious" Democrats for attacks on herself, her family and John McCain.
Clearly, the viciousness of an attack is in the eye of the beholder, and attacks on candidates are par for the course. But attacks on candidates' families is another matter – so Jake Tapper of ABC asked the McCain-Palin campaign to elaborate.
All they had was the Buchanan smear. Tapper wrote:
In other words, they can't name one person affiliated with the Obama-Biden campaign who attacked the Palin family.
0 Comments |
Share This
|
Sarah Palin |
Rubin smells Rove
Jamie Rubin, a Clinton administration assistant secretary of state, smells Bush strategist Karl Rove tactics all over efforts (led by the Republican Jewish Coalition) to tar Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) as unfriendly to Israel. Rove's strategy is to beat at an opponents perceived strength until it crumbles (witness the Swift Boat smears targeting the 2004 Democratic candidate, Sen. John Kerry, a decorated war hero). Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) picked Biden as a running mate in part because Biden's close ties to Israel and the pro-Israel community help make up for Obama's relative greenness in that area.
4 Comments |
Share This
|
Barack Obama,
Israel,
Joe Biden,
Presidential Race |
“Thank God for Joe Lieberman”
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) just finished up his speech at the convention, which was mostly a paen to John McCain's support of the surge. But he added that "one Democrat broke from his party and supported the surge. Thank God for Joe Lieberman."
If the Democrats end up one senator short of a 60-vote majority in the Senate after Election Day, will Graham still be saying that – or will it be the Democrats?
0 Comments |
Share This
|
Joe Lieberman,
Republican convention |
Gymnast carries Jewish torch on RNC final night
Republican Jewish Coalition chairman David Flaum was originally scheduled to speak on the final night of the Republican National Convention, but apparently the loss of Monday's program and the subsequent rescheduling of much of the convention meant Flaum was bumped from the schedule Thursday evening. Or maybe it was because Flaum wasn't strong enough on the parallel bars, because there was a Jew on Thursday night's program.
Mitch Gaylord, a 2005 inductee in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, was one of eight Olympic athletes tapped to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the night. Gaylord was a member of the 1984 gold medal winning U.S. gymnastics team, and won three other medals during those Olympics.
And then there's Joe Gibbs, who was a late addition to the Thursday night schedule. He sort of qualifies. While the retired Washington Redskins coach is an evangelical Christian, Jewish Redskins fans (as well as Redskins fans of every other faith) treat him like a god.
0 Comments |
Share This
|
Republican convention,
RJC |
Need to know? Get JTA's free e-newsletters!
Recent Comments
