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.

A top Jewish Democrat says Sen. Joe Lieberman’s message of bipartisanship Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention is undermined by the fact that Republicans were too partisan to put him on the John McCain ticket.

National Jewish Democratic Council executive director Ira Forman — who hadn’t said much since the man who was once the most famous Jewish Democrat in America decided to speak at the Republican National Convention — also said in an interview with JTA Wednesday that “we’ll look back and say this isn’t [Joe Lieberman's] finest hour.”

Forman was particularly bothered that Lieberman picked out one vote Barack Obama had made in Congress and charged that the Democratic presidential nominee was “voting against funding for our troops in the battlefield,” noting that Lieberman had promised not to attack Obama but only talk about why he supported McCain.

“It goes against the persona we thought him to be,” said Forman.

“Most jarring” to Forman was that Lieberman’s speech was based on reaching across the aisle, and yet media reports indicate that McCain’s desire to reach across the aisle and pick Lieberman as vice president was prevented by fears that Republicans would revolt.

Forman also was surprised that Lieberman was able to praise Palin’s thin record as a “reformer and leader” while at the same time putting down Obama’s lack of experience — calling them “the words that must have stuck most in his throat.”

Forman said he doubted that Lieberman’s convention endorsement of McCain would have much of an impact on Jewish voters because it will be “overwhelmed by the Sarah Palin tidal wave” of attention.

Paula Waterfield wears three items around her neck: A Magen David for her religion, a flag for her country and a silver star for her son, James, who is on his sixth tour of duty in Iraq.

Waterfield is a member of the organization Families United For Our Troops and Their Mission, which is in Minneapolis for a “Support Out Troops” rally on Monday to coincide the Republican National Convention. And on Sunday afternoon, the Nebraska City, Neb. resident and other members of the organization were invited guests to the premiere of the movie “An American Carol” — directed by “Airplane!” director David Zucker, who just happened to be a Sunday school classmate of Waterfield’s when they both were growing up in a suburb of Milwaukee.

Waterfield said she doesn’t often talk to her son, 41, about being Jewish in the military — although she said he does wonder if wearing a Magen David around his neck is a good idea — but did say that James does get to attend religious services on holidays “once in a while.”

The chair of Families United, Merrilee Carlson, also was in Denver last week outside the Democratic National Convention and said she had been “underwhelmed by the strength of the anti-war protesters,” feeling that the “wind has been pulled out of their sails” by the success of the “surge” in Iraq.

Waterfield said she frequently gets to speak to her son, but asked if she had a message for him, she said simply, “I love you.”

“I don’t want anyone to blame Hillary if [Obama] loses the election,” said Jewish Democratic National Convention Hillary Clinton delegate Bill Kling Wednesday morning. Her speech was “absolutely heartfelt. …I think she did enough to show her support.”

The 80-year-old Plantation resident was representative of his fellow Florida Jewish delegates pledged for Clinton. They lauded her speech Tuesday night, said they were 100 percent behind Barack Obama but acknowledged that some of their fellow Jewish Clinton supporters in South Florida were still not sold on the presumptive nominee.

“A lot of [Jewish Democrats] are saying …. they’re not going to vote,” said Kling.

Diana Mazel Pittarelli of Hollywood said she said seen the hostility toward Obama in Broward County that others have also described. “A lot of these people … don’t know enough about him.” She added that many of the reasons they provide for not liking Obama — from his name to his policies on the Middle East — are simply “excuses for other things,” namely their reluctance to vote for a black candidate. As a realtor who has brought black families to South Florida condo boards, Pittarelli said she is familiar with it.

Others were more optimistic. “Little by little,” she’s seeing former Clinton supporters jump on the Obama bandwagon, said Diane Glasser, first vice chair of the Florida Democratic Party and a superdelegate. She hoped she’d see some further movement when she returned home, due to Clinton’s speech.

“It’s hard for older people to let go,” said Bunny Steinman of Boynton Beach, president of the Democratic Club of Greater Boynton. But “I see people coming around. … I think it’s doable.”

Steinman, like others, said the most help would be for the Democratic candidate himself to introduce himself personally to their neighbors. “Obama needs to come down and get in to some of these older communities,” she said.

Even an Obama delegate could understand the reason for some reluctance by Clinton supporters. “It’s a process,” said Mark Alan Siegel of Boca Raton. “When the future of the Jewish people is at stake, you want to be really careful.” He said that more education and dissemination of “accurate information … around the minyan table” should do the trick.

When it comes to Barack Obama and the Jews, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has some advice as old as Hillel, and it sounds a lot like “Do unto others.”

Waxman, the powerful chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee adds a twist to familiar appeals to Jewish Democrats attending the party convention this week in Denver not to pay attention to smear rumors targeting Sen. Obama (D-Ill.), the party’s presumptive nominee.

Waxman notes that U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) was similarly targeted by anti-Semitic smears propagated by allies of an African American rival in the majority black district.

Cohen won the primary earlier this month with an overwhelming majority that included three quarters of the black vote.

It’s an example Jews can use, Waxman told JTA.

“There’s a very cynical effort by Republicans to raise a lot of anxieties in the American Jewish community about Barack Obama,” he said, and listed false rumors of an association with Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic black nationalist; false rumors about Obama being a Muslim; and smearing Obama as having a secret antipathy to Israel that he will unleash only after his election.

“We have to reject these smears just as people in the African American community rejected smears against Steve Cohen because he’s Jewish,” Waxman said.

The GOP convention has made it to half a minyan.

David Flaum, the chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, is one of five Jewish speakers scheduled to address the GOP convention next week in St. Paul.

Of course, that’s about how many Jewish speakers the Democrats have in a given night this week in Denver. But the GOP is batting nicely in the quality department: In addition to an invocation by Rabbi Ira Flax from Birmingham, Ala., speakers include homeboy Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle (who might have a thing or two to tell fellow Republicans about mocking native son Barack Obama’s vacation choices).

And then there’s Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) Didn’t he play a role in another convention a while back?

There’s converting and there’s becoming a priest.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is one of four people formally nominating Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to the presidency on Wednesday evening at the Democratic Party convention in Denver.

Wasserman Schultz, of course, was one of the more avid supporters of Obama’s rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)

True, you interject, but didn’t Hillary urge her followers to back Obama Tuesday night in what is already being dubbed as one of the most galvanizing ever convention speeches?

Yes, but Sen. Clinton is also being formally nominated Wednesday evening, a nod to the close race she ran – and Wasserman Schultz has opted out of that party. (Unknown at press time: Whether Clinton has asked her delegates to vote for Obama during the roll call Wednesday night. That meeting is taking place today at 1:30 or thereabouts.)

The potential for an attack on Iran? That’s not Charlie Wilson’s war.

“I don’t think we should invade Iran tomorrow,” the former Texas Democratic congressman famed in print and on film for his efforts to rout the Soviets from Afghanistan told JTA. “I don’t think we should invade Russia. I’m a little concerned that the current administration is a bit trigger happy…” and then he trailed and begged off, noting that as a happy retiree in Texas all this war talk wasn’t his business anymore.

Wilson, in his time a leading congressional friend to Israel (who drew on the friendship to help arm the Afghan Mujahedeen) was attending the National Jewish Democratic Council’s Sunday evening convention launch, and there were a lot of friendly hugs and how are yous.

One overheard tidbit: Wilson told friends he thought Julia Roberts, who played Joanne Herring, the Texas socialite who financed his escapades and, um, enjoyed his company, got the role just right in the film of his exploits starring Tom Hanks. Herring is on the record as saying Roberts’ portrayal veered into unladylike behavior she would never have countenanced.

Jimmy Carter’s speech at the Democratic National Convention will be on videotape from New Orleans, but he will be present in the convention hall in Denver on Monday night.

Obama convention spokesperson Jenny Backus called to clarify her e-mail yesterday and said the controversial former president will “be recognized” before his speech and may even introduce it. But the speech itself will have been previously recorded and originate from New Orleans, as a part of the program dedicated to remembering the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Carter will discuss, said Backus, “Americans coming together to help their neighbors and friends, fitting our theme of one nation. He will discuss programs that we can do together to make America stronger” and not talk about foreign policy.

The Republican Jewish Coalition has called for his removal from the convention schedule because of “troubling anti-Israel bias” and on Thursday, the National Council on Young Israel also urged the cancellation of his speech, calling it “an affront to the State of Israel, and to all American Zionists, whether they are Christians or Jews.”

Carter also spoke at the 2004 convention, but that was before the publication of his controversial book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”

In case you missed it, JTA Washington bureau chief Ron Kampeas reported last week that Hadassah Lieberman will be joining her husband at the Republican National Convention. She’ll be a special guest at the Republican Jewish Coalition National Women’s Committee luncheon, fashion show and silent auction to benefit the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure at the Minneapolis Nieman Marcus on Monday, Sept. 1.

News on some congressional races to watch over the next few months:

Could we have a Jewish member of Congress from Alaska? Two weeks before the primary, it’s certainly not out of the question. A poll shows state represenative Ethan Berkowitz is looking pretty good in the race to be the Democratic nominee, and in the general election he is up by 15 points on scandal-plagued Republican incumbent Don Young. The polls show a much closer race, though, if Young is knocked off in the GOP primary by current Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell. The Cook Political Report rates the race a tossup.

Twenty-nine year-old Jewish Democrat Josh Segall has raised more money than any other Democratic challenger in the state of Alabama, although the incumbent in Alabama’s Third District, Mike Rogers, still has more money in the bank. That race is still rated likely Republican by Cook.

In the only U.S. Senate race in the country where two Jewish candidates will face off, incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken are battling over who can cut Iraq reconstruction funds more. Last week, Coleman proposed a cut of $1.1 billion because of Iraq’s big surplus due to oil and gas revenus. Franken raised the ante Monday, calling for $7.1 billion in funds to be rescinded and put towards repairing America’s infrastructure. That race is considered a tossup.

Finally, in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.) in New Jersey’s Third District, Democratic state Sen. John Adler’s huge fundraising advantage–due to a rough Republican primary his opponent Chris Myers had to spend lots of money on–led CQ Politics to move the race from Leans Republican to No Clear Favorite. Cook also has the Cherry Hill district rated a tossup.

Barack Obama has Dennis Ross advising him on the Middle East, but apparently not the actor who played Dr. Doug Ross on the hit television show ER. The Obama campaign is denying a story in the London Daily Mail claiming that Clooney was urging Obama to be more “balanced” on U.S. relations on Israel. The original article quoted only anonymous “Democratic Party insiders” and an unnamed “acquaintance” of Clooney’s as saying that the actor and the candidate spoke frequently about policy and presentation, and an Obama spokesperson is calling it an “inaccurate report.”

How about Carl Levin for Barack Obama’s VP? Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic makes a pretty good case–national security experience, attractive to Jewish voters–but doubts it will happen because we haven’t yet heard the Michigan senator’s name floated.

Meanwhile, over on the GOP side, Joe Lieberman’s name is once more being bandied about as a possibility for John McCain’s number two, with a report the other day that he’s on the “short list.” Lieberman seemed to say he wasn’t interested a couple weeks ago on Meet the Press, and I’m willing to believe him. Sure, it might be historic to run for the VP nomination of each party in an eight-year span, but do you really want to run twice for vice president?

A top evangelical leader warns McCain that picking Lieberman would be a “catastrophe.” But the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land likes the possibility of Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia because of his “pro-life” record. Land does say he would “love” Lieberman as secretary of state or defense in a McCain administration–but not as attorney general or on the Supreme Court.

Lieberman will continue to work on the Jewish vote for McCain: he’s scheduled to be stumping Michigan tomorrow and Pennsylvania next week.

When he called Eric Cantor “wildly out of step” with the Jewish community’s values, was National Jewish Democratic Council executive director Ira Forman implying that Cantor is not truly a part of the “Jewish community”? It sounded that way to Denver-area Rabbi Levi Brackman, and he doesn’t like it.

Rep. Steve Cohen’s (D-Tenn.) victory in yesterday’s Democratic congressional primary wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but his 60 percentage point margin of victory was unexpected–and perhaps a sign why his African-American opponent, Nikki Tinker, was desperate enough to run an ad deemed anti-Semitic by many observers.

First of all, if you never saw the ad, which portrayed Cohen as an outsider because of his Judaism, you can check it out here.

The Atlantic’s new blogger, Ta-nehisi Coates, argues that the advertisement was race-baiting, but doesn’t quite rise to the level of Jew-baiting. I’m not really buying the argument–when you combine the line about visiting “our churches” with the line “he’s the only senator who thought our kids shouldn’t be allowed to pray in school,” would the ad make sense against a white Christian candidate?

Coates also explores whether the Congressional Black Caucus should have allowed Cohen to join when he applied to be a member last year.

An interesting argument: If Cohen had lost, it would have been deemed a horrible day for black-Jewish relations? So shouldn’t his resounding win be seen as a really good day for black-Jewish relations?

A Nashville blogger calling herself “A Progressive Jew down in the Bible Belt” says the EMILY’s List endorsement of Tinker demonstrates that the feminist organization “may have outlived its purpose.”

And a religion blog argues that some of the media overlooked the religion angle in favor of playing up the race angle, and thus is missing part of the story.

In the ooops category … The Republican Jewish Coalition issued a statement Monday blasting Barack Obama for planning to take Chuck Hagel with him on his upcoming trip to Israel [UPDATE: RJC has taken down the statement from its Web site and issued a new statement]. To hammer home the point, the RJC cited a previous statement put out by the National Jewish Democratic Council in 2007, raising questions about the Nebraska Republican’s record on Israel.

Only one problem … While Hagel and Obama are taking part in the same congressional trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama is separately visiting Israel, and Hagel won’t be with him on that trip, according to the Obama campaign.

But before you spend too much time poking fun at the RJC … Hagel has been rumored to be on Obama’s short list for Veep and Pentagon chief.