JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Engel: Robinson award ‘a mistake’

By Eric Fingerhut · August 4, 2009

 A Jewish Democratic congressman is now criticizing President Obama's choice of Mary Robinson for a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“It think it's a mistake given Mary Robinson's bias and statements and actions,” said Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday evening in an interview with JTA. "She personifies everything wrong with the United Nations."

Engel, the first Democratic congressman to publicly criticize the administration's selection, said he didn't think the White House would withdraw the award, because "they don't want to look like they buckled under to pressure," but "I hope that they would."

"It's a poor choice," he said.

Engel didn't think the Robinson selection was meant to send any kind of message about the president's Middle East policy, but was likely just a "screw-up" by the White House.

The congressman did caution, though, that he didn't want to "blow it out of proportion," noting that there are "a lot more important things" going on in addition to the Robinson controversy.