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Political tidbits: Burns likes Obama’s stance on Iran, Fleischer calls Obama new Carter (UPDATED)

By Eric Fingerhut · October 28, 2008

• Former Bush administration official Nicholas Burns says Barack Obama is right: The United States should talk to adversaries like Iran, in Newsweek.
  
• Former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer calls Barack Obama “the Jimmy Carter of the 21st century” and brings up Jeremiah Wright when talking to Jewish voters in Las Vegas, reports the Wall Street Journal.
• In Israel, boxing promoter and Israel supporter Don King endorses Obama because he’ll speak softly but carry a big stick, according to the Jerusalem Post.
  
• The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg rips the “Jewish extremists” behind the distribution of the film “Obsession” in swing states.
• Stop using Hitler “as a political tool,” writes Brad Hirschfield on Beliefnet, in a response to that Pennsylvania e-mail.
  
• George Costanza – actually, Jason Alexander – campaigns for Obama in South Florida, writes the Huffington Post.
• Jewish Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle (R) is on the campaign trail too, for McCain, reports the Honolulu Advertiser.
• The Christian Science Monitor reports that Israelis are “uneasy” at the prospect of an Obama election.
• Young non-Orthodox Jews don’t give Israel high priority when voting for president, according to a new study reported in the Jerusalem Post.
  
• Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Alaska) conviction yesterday means Ethan Berkowitz’s chances in his race against longtime incumbent Republican Don Young, just got better. Here’s the New York Times noting Republicans bailing out on Young, who is implicated in the same scandal as Stevens.
• The New Republic wonders about the National Republican Sentorial Committee’s “Sex-and-Al Franken Obsession.” And even Norm Coleman says he was “astonished” by the comic-book style mailer and that any more copies should be collected and destroyed.



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Political tidbits: Franken up by nine, Mason flip-flopped on McCain

By Eric Fingerhut · October 6, 2008

• Al Franken (D) leads Sen. Norm Coleman (R) by nine points in a new poll of voters in Minnesota, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The paper also has a report on the first debate of the campaign, held Sunday night.
• On “Meet the Press"… Democratic strategist Paul Begala warns that the GOP’s guilt-by-association reasoning could be turned on its head to make John McCain look like someone who has associated with anti-Semites.
  
• Jackie Mason flip-flopped on McCain? The Miami New Times posts a video of the comedian calling John McCain a “disgusting lowlife” and a “fraud” during the Republican primaries, quite a contrast with his pro-McCain, anti-Sarah Silverman video released Friday.
• Andrew Silow-Carroll, in the New Jersey Jewish News, decodes the presidential candidates’ High Holiday messages – and finds that they encapsulate their strategies for winning the Jewish vote.
• By the end of this campaign, every South Florida Jewish voter will have been interviewed at least once about the campaign. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel contributes with this article.
• And Salon does its part, but with a fresher spin – it finds a lot of Florida Jews who really don’t like Sarah Palin.
• Palin said during the vice-presidential debate that she backed a Sudan divestment bill in Alaska, but the bill’s Democratic sponsor says she was against it before she was for it, according to ABCNews.com.
• And Joe Biden’s statement that the U.S. and France “kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon” wasn’t accurate either.
• The Levin brothers, Carl and Sander, stump for Obama at a Bucks County, Pa. synagogue, reports the Bucks County Courier Times.
• Menachem Rosensaft urges Jews to listen to Ed Koch and vote for Obama.
  Willy Stern, in the Weekly Standard, quotes a Palestinian pollster who says Palestinians aren’t that optimistic about an Obama presidency.
• Fox host Sean Hannity uses a source with a history of anti-Semitism to attack Obama, according to Todd Gitlin at TPMCafe.
• The Jewish Council for Education and Research has released a video of seven former IDF generals and Mossad chiefs endorsing Barack Obama, but two of them say they had no idea their interviews were going to end up in a pro-Obama video, according to Haaretz.

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Franken: “I don’t think Minnesota is ready for a gentile in this seat”

By Eric Fingerhut · September 23, 2008

Two Jews running against each other for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota? It’s not unique, it’s tradition, says Democratic candidate Al Franken. After noting to JTA that the three previous elections for the seat have also matched two Jews – Rudy Boschwitz vs. Paul Wellstone twice, then Wellstone (before he died in a plane crash a week before Election Day) vs. current incumbent Norm Coleman. “I don’t think Minnesota is ready for a gentile in this seat,” he quipped.

Franken, best known for his tenure as a writer and performer on “Saturday Night Live,” told the same story a few minutes later to the crowd at the National Jewish Democratic Council’s Washington Conference. And it’s clear he’s not leaving his sense of humor behind while campaigning.

Asked by JTA about the importance of NJDC to his campaign, he replied, “Being Jewish myself, it’s a natural constituency. And being a Democrat myself, and liking committees – and national ones at that – it’s a perfect fit.”

In his remarks to NJDC, Franken criticized Republican Coleman for his “100 percent rating by the Christian Coalition.”

“I can’t figure out how a Jew is for school prayer,” he said. “The only way I’d be for school prayer is if it were the Sh’ma.”

Franken said the difference in his race – which is currently a dead heat – would be the question: “Who is your senator going to work for?” Coleman, he said, is the “largest recipient in Minnesota political history” of donations from the pharmaceutical, oil and insurance industries.” Is he “working for the special interests,” asked Franken, “or the people of Minnesota?”

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Political tidbits: A West Bank rabbi for Obama

By Eric Fingerhut · September 23, 2008

• A George Mason University professor and rabbi has news of a West Bank, pro-settlement rabbi for Obama. Rabbi Menachem Frohman, in an open letter to Obama, says his election “will be God’s outstretched hand for peace.”
• Haaretz’s Shlomo Shamir says Rabbis for Obama is one sign of the increasing influence of rabbis in the Jewish community.
• After a week talking to people in Israel, the Israel Policy Forum’s M.J. Rosenberg writes on TPMCafe that Israelis are now backing Obama.
  
• Caroline Glick, in the Jerusalem Post, says Sarah Palin would have delivered a “remarkable speech” at the anti-Iran rally, but Jewish Democrats prevented it because they value abortion more than Israel.
• Rush Limbaugh, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, uses the anti-Iran rally fiasco as an example of Democrats not wanting to “unify” on anything – but he gets the facts wrong when he blames the Obama campaign for the disinvitation to Palin.
• Jennifer Rubin rounds up the negative reactions of some Jewish groups to Palin’s disinvitation.
• Clyde Haberman in the New York Times on how the annual visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes “some normally sensible New Yorkers lose their bearings” – and this year it was the Jewish organizations’ turn.
• Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken admits that he did suggest an idea that turned into a Saturday Night Live sketch this past weekend making fun of John McCain’s ads – but didn’t write it and says he didn’t even realize it would turn into a sketch. (By the way, it wasn’t nearly as funny as the Palin-Clinton sketch the previous week.)

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Pigs. Jews. Saints. Can’t wait for the debate with Franken.

By Ron Kampeas · September 2, 2008

Sen. Norm Coleman (DR-Minn.), welcoming the Republican national convention to his home state on Tuesday, managed to get Jews, pigs and St. Paul into the first three sentences of his speech.

“Good evening, and welcome to Pig’s Eye, Minnesota. That’s right, we were called Pig’s Eye until a Catholic priest built a wooden chapel a few steps from here dedicated to St. Paul. Although I am a person of the Jewish faith, I often reference St. Paul. And as former mayor of this city that was named for him, I proudly welcome you to my city of St. Paul.”

Umm, was Norm a little caffeinated? Or should we save that line for Orrin Hatch....

Incidentally, here’s the colorful explanation for St. Paul’s original name.

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Ellison on blacks and Jews, Al Franken and the platform

By Ron Kampeas · August 26, 2008

We just spoke with U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress - we’ll post the video later this evening soon.

Ellison talked about how he worked with Jewish supporters in his Minneapolis district to get elected in 2006, and how that could translate into a nationwide model for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

He also spoke about his get-out-the vote efforts for Al Franken, the comedian/talkshow host attempting to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) (both candidates are Jewish).

Ellison noted that Franken is catching up with Coleman in recent polling. “The momentum is with Al Franken,” he said. “We’re going to make Al a senator.”

More substantially, Ellison differed with his party – and its presidential candidate – on tough language in the platform on Iran, which talks about keeping “all options on the table” in attempting to get the Islamic Republic to stand down from its suspected nuclear weapons program.

“When you explicitly say the military option is on the table it’s like saying, ‘Let’s negotiate, but this Colt 45 is gonna be sitting here just in case the conversation doesn’t stay right’,” Ellison said. “I don’t think that the implied threat of force is necessary.  I hope the Obama administration understands that peace is wrapped up not ultimately in military solutions but in trying to make parties come together.”

Ellison says the United States should draw its example from Israel, which is actively pursuing peace talks on multiple fronts.

“Israel itself is saying our security cannot be exclusively wrapped up in military options.”

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A “Frozen Chosen” congressman in Alaska?

By Eric Fingerhut · August 12, 2008

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.

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Al Franken on the run

By Ami Eden · February 28, 2008

The Forward reports that comedian Al Franken is making headway in his effort to unseat U.S. Sen. Norm Colemen, noting a recent poll putting him ahead 49% to 46%. Surveys also put him ahead of his rivals for the Democratic nomination, and he also holds a commanding lead in the money race over his top primary rival, Mike Ciresi.

Franken has led the Democratic field in recent polling — he held a wide margin over Ciresi, 32% to 17%, in a survey conducted in early February by Minnesota Public Radio and the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs — but the race could prove unpredictable, because of Minnesota’s arcane primary process. While the official primary for the Democrats, known as the Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party, will be held in September, 1,400 party delegates will issue an official endorsement at a state convention held in June. By tradition, the endorsement is seen as binding, and both Franken and Ciresi have vowed to withdraw from the race without it.

The American Jewish World, Minnesota’s Jewish paper, recently ran an article profiling Franken and looking at the race. The Democratic candidate said that if elected he would work with the new administration to actively seek peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

“I think Bush missed a huge opportunity when [Yasser] Arafat died,” Franken said. “We had [Mahmoud] Abbas in and Hamas was not there… We’re sort of the indispensable power in the Middle East, and in the world, and we have to play a much more active role than we’ve been playing. We kind of know what a two-state solution would look like, we just got to get there… We need patient diplomacy and that requires two things: patience and diplomacy. The bottom line is Israel deserves to exist with neighbors that recognize its right to exist and who have renounced terrorism as a way of achieving political objectives. With Hamas in Gaza, that’s very, very hard right now.”

Franken encourages continued talks with Abbas as well as talks with the leaders of Syria and Iran.

“As Yitzhak Rabin said, ‘You don’t make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies,’” Franken said. “And I liked Yitzhak Rabin a lot.”

Here’s the full story:

By ERIN ELLIOTT
American Jewish World
Minneapolis, Minn. — His recent television spots have sought to remind Minnesotans that he is serious about becoming their next U.S. Senator. And, should he ultimately win the seat currently held by Sen. Norm Coleman, Al Franken would be the fourth consecutive Jewish senator to hold the seat since 1978.

A Franken-Coleman race would also be the fourth time two Jewish candidates ran against each other, with one of them as the incumbent.

The late Sen. Paul Wellstone first unseated Republican incumbent Rudy Boschwitz in 1990. In 1996, Boschwitz sought to take his seat back, but Wellstone held on. Wellstone was again challenged in 2002, by Norm Coleman, with Coleman winning the seat after Wellstone’s death in a small-plane crash. (Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale stepped in as the DFL candidate following Wellstone’s death on Oct. 25.)

Dr. Hyman Berman, a history professor at the University of Minnesota, cited the remarkable succession of Jew-versus-Jew Senate races, “in a state like Minnesota where the Jewish population is less than one percent of the total population of the state.”

In the quest to prove his seriousness as a candidate, Franken has earned a great deal of support from the Minnesota Jewish community, including high-profile Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) activists Sam and Sylvia Kaplan. The Kaplans first met Franken through Wellstone, and later worked with him as the Minnesota chairs of the John Kerry campaign in 2004.

Although they admired Franken’s commitment to the DFL, the Kaplans were reluctant to lend their support to Franken’s Senate campaign.
“It was his ideas, but also his electability that convinced us to support him,” Sylvia Kaplan said. “Now, we’re working really hard; we think he’s going to get the nomination, and we think he would be a great senator. Campaigns are tough, but the first thing you have to do is get people’s attention and he’s certainly able to do that.”

Franken has garnered a lot of attention for his vociferous criticisms of Coleman and the Bush administration. But he makes no apologies.

“They deserve sharp criticism,” Franken told the AJW this week. “I feel that it’s totally legitimate to have been criticizing. I wouldn’t have been doing my responsibility as a citizen if I hadn’t been criticizing Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld. Norm never called for Rumsfeld’s resignation and didn’t do his job. Of course, that was his job — not to do his job. Coleman has said how can I work with people in Washington when I’ve been so critical of them, but I would point out that everyone I’ve been critical of is either gone, will be gone or is in prison.”

Republican Norm Coleman is still around, however, and Franken has been preparing for several years to take on the incumbent senator.
“Norm Coleman has sort of aligned himself with the neo-cons who I think have actually been very destructive, and have been the worst friends of Israel and putting Israel in a much more precarious place,” Franken said. “But Jews are also not just one-issue voters. Also on separation of church and state, Norm, I know, has a 100 percent rating with the Christian Coalition, and that includes things like school prayer. I’m against organized prayer in school, unless it’s the Shema… I think that Jews should be uncomfortable with that stance, which Norm evidently has, which is that we should have school prayer.”

The Republicans clearly are giving serious attention to Franken’s candidacy.

As the AJW went to press this week, prominently placed on the homepage of Coleman’s Web site, http://www.colemanforsenate.com, was an article accusing Franken of distorting Coleman’s voting record on funding for veterans. The story took issue with Franken’s comments last week on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midday.

Coleman’s campaign has cited Franken’s criticisms before.

Specifically, campaign staffers have brought up Franken’s career as an entertainer and satirist.

“Minnesotans are not going to be fooled by anyone, let alone a career comedian,” Coleman’s campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan, told ABC News earlier this year. “Al Franken’s record of reckless statements, crude jokes and attacks are no substitute for real positions on real issues, and Minnesota voters deserve to know where those who want to represent them stand.”

But local attorney Marshall Tanick said Franken has “really worked hard and done his homework” when it comes to the issues. Tanick and his wife, attorney Cathy Gorlin, hosted an event for Franken on Jan. 27 in advance of Minnesota’s Feb. 5 caucuses.

“The more I listened to him on his Air America radio show, I became impressed with how knowledgeable he is on issues and how insightful he was about issues,” Tanick said. “He’s very serious… He’s cloaked that in the garb of being a satirist, but I don’t think that’s disadvantageous. I think oftentimes, and he’s said this himself, that satire can illuminate issues.”

Minnesota Sen. Sandy Pappas, who is supporting Franken, also sees no problem with Franken’s career choice.

“I do think that people will understand that when you’re a satirist, that you do satire and you can get away with things that you say a lot more than a politician like me can,” Pappas said, laughing. “Or if you were an actor like Ronald Reagan. That was your career and that was what you did.”

Pappas first met Franken when he began supporting DFL candidates in Minnesota and referred to him as “a team player.”

Another Franken supporter, Minnesota Rep. Phyllis Kahn, was also impressed with his commitment to DFL candidates, particularly of State Sen.-elect Kevin Dahle, who defeated Ray Cox in a special election on Jan. 3 to represent Northfield, New Prague and Faribault.
“Everyone I had talked to had totally given up that there was any chance that the Democratic candidate would win that against the former Republican representative,” Kahn said. “Al Franken went down and did two rallies… They just got huge voter turnout from the student district and supplied the big part of the margin there. I was just very impressed by that.”

Ahead of a Franken-Coleman contest in the general election, the St. Louis Park native, who first came to national prominence as a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live, has to win the DFL endorsement. Also vying for that prize are Mike Ciresi, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Jim Cohen and Dick Franson. Ciresi is Franken’s most formidable competitor — and one with significant backing in the Jewish community.

Elliot Kaplan, a partner with Ciresi in the Minneapolis law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi, goes back nearly 40 years with the lawyer who’s best known for his legal work on the landmark tobacco settlement.

Ciresi is a “proven leader” and a champion of the underdog, according to Kaplan, who added, “He has a record of accomplishments that, perhaps, cannot be equaled by anyone seeking political office.”
Ciresi also has been a good friend of the Jewish community, supporting the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning and the Jewish Community Relations Council, in addition to his broader civic philanthropy, noted Kaplan.

“Mike is the best candidate that the Democrats could put up against Norm Coleman,” Kaplan said. “I certainly think Al is a good candidate; I think Mike is better.”

Minnesota Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, is one of several Jewish legislators supporting Ciresi. While he acknowledged that any of the candidates seeking the DFL endorsement “would be much better for Minnesota and much better for the United States” than Coleman, Paymar lauded Ciresi’s long history.

“He has a track record of being tough and working for consumers, and he’s bright, he’s courageous and he’d be a great addition to the United States Senate,” Paymar said. “I think we have a great opportunity to take this seat back.”

In the money department, Franken has emerged as an impressive fundraiser. Year-end totals list Franken as having raised $1.9 million to Coleman’s $1.7 million. According to the Star Tribune, Franken boasted 81,000 donors, 15,000 of which were Minnesotans.

Should he win the seat, Franken said he would work with the new administration to actively seek peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

“I think Bush missed a huge opportunity when [Yasser] Arafat died,” Franken said. “We had [Mahmoud] Abbas in and Hamas was not there… We’re sort of the indispensable power in the Middle East, and in the world, and we have to play a much more active role than we’ve been playing. We kind of know what a two-state solution would look like, we just got to get there… We need patient diplomacy and that requires two things: patience and diplomacy. The bottom line is Israel deserves to exist with neighbors that recognize its right to exist and who have renounced terrorism as a way of achieving political objectives. With Hamas in Gaza, that’s very, very hard right now.”

Franken encourages continued talks with Abbas as well as talks with the leaders of Syria and Iran.

“As Yitzhak Rabin said, ‘You don’t make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies,’” Franken said. “And I liked Yitzhak Rabin a lot.”

Franken has been compared with his good friend Wellstone, who served two terms in the seat Franken is seeking.

“He’s an inspiration,” Franken said. “But I’m not Paul Wellstone and those are awfully big shoes to fill. I’m going to be the best me I can be, and fight for the things he fought for and stand up to special interests. It’s something to aspire to.”

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