JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

When Jews parody Dickens…

By Ron Kampeas · October 6, 2008

An American Carol, David Zucker’s broad blast at the American left and the creative offspring of a Republican Jewish Coalition shidduch between Zucker and co-writer Myrna Sokoloff, opened this weekend - and it’s tanking.

It’s more or less tied with, of all things, Bill Maher’s Religulous, but that’s deceptive - Maher’s film is a documentary (they traditionally underperform) and opened in a third of the theaters.

The almost universally thumbs down “Carol” got from reviewers probably didn’t help. Best (reviewer) line so far: “I laughed harder at Munich.” I guess it’s not a great sign when the reviews raise more laughs than the movie.

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Shonda? or Karma? We report - You decide.

By Ron Kampeas · September 16, 2008

Gabriel Nathan Schwartz, a Denver delegate to the Republican Convention in Minneapolis earlier this month, wuz robbed. By a pretty lady who slipped him a mickey in his fancy hotel room. To the tune of $120,000 according to disbelieving cops; Schwartz says it’s more in the range of $60,000.

Schwartz won earlier notoriety (one he likely welcomed) when he told a lefty webcast that he’d like Israel to, uh, do to Iran what he no doubt had hoped would happen to him up in the hotel room.

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Matthews to Cohen: Hitler and Jesus are off limits

By Ron Kampeas · September 11, 2008

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) backed off likening Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, to Jesus, saying the comparison was a mistake.

Cohen, who is Jewish, told the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday that Jesus, like Obama, had been a “community organizer” and that Pontius Pilate was a governor – leaving unsaid but understood the parallel to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential pick who had mocked Obama’s community organizer past in her speech last week to the Republican Party convention.

Chris Matthews carpeted Cohen on “Hardball” on Thursday in a short segment that seemed to have been arranged solely so Matthews could, well, carpet Cohen.

Here’s the transcript of the exchange, courtesy of the Federal News Service:

MR. MATTHEWS: Congressman Cohen, was Jesus a community organizer? I thought he was a carpenter.

REP. COHEN: Well, he was several things, but he was an agent for change and he was outside the system. I certainly didn’t mean to compare Barack Obama to Jesus as a –

MR. MATTHEWS: No, Al Sharpton is a community organizer. Jesus was a carpenter.

REP. COHEN: Well –

MR. MATTHEWS: I just think it’s – well, how do you make – why do you come up with comparisons like that? I thought the rule was stay away from Jesus; stay away from Hitler. These comparisons never work. I’m not giving you a hard time, but metaphors in that category are generally very dangerous.

REP. COHEN: They are dangerous, and I shouldn’t have done it. The first minute of my speech was accurate, and it was the disingenuousness of the Republicans condemning community activists, who brought about much of the change in America. I’d seen a bumper sticker on my e-mail that morning from an activist friend in Memphis. Those things are more for activists and less for congressmen, and I’ve learned from this particular speech.

Matthews then graciously (to Cohen, anyway) segued into a softball about suspicions among Democrats that deriding “community organizers” - former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was even harsher than Palin in his convention speech - was racially charged. That let Cohen get in some campaigning - a sweet chaser after the bitter admission that he had gone too far with the Jesus analogy (and that it had been inspired by a bumper sticker!)

MR. MATTHEWS: Congressman, do you think the phrase “community organizer” is meant to suggest a kind of inner-city, big-city, ethnic, black, if you will, background and somewhat different or remote from the experiences of voters they’re trying to reach? In other words, are they setting up a caricature here through innuendo? Remember welfare mother? Remember how Reagan would talk about the young buck with his – I remember how Reagan used to do it – the young buck with his food stamps buying a bottle of gin. That was a fairly innuendo there. Is that – is this another one of these welfare mothers, community organizers, code phrases?

REP. COHEN: I believe it is. I saw (New York) Governor (David) Paterson reference that. And I felt it when I saw Governor (sic) Giuliani make the comment, as well as Governor Palin. Community activists, community organizers, do a lot of good in helping feed people, helping to take care of health needs, Habitat for Humanity efforts. And if you look at Dr. King and Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth, they’ve done so much good. That’s where change comes from. But I think it is a way to categorize somebody as a liberal, a leftist, an inner-city person. And that’s wrong. You know, Cesar Chavez helped farmers in California, and there have been efforts to help the people in the rural South as well.

Even sweeter, Matthews sent props to Cohen’s hometown before sending him on his way:

MR. MATTHEWS: Well, there’s nothing wrong with Memphis, is there? Congressman, thank you very much –

REP. COHEN: Memphis is great.

MR. MATTHEWS: Thank you for coming on and taking – explaining the whole thing.

The question remains, though - is this the first time a bumper sticker was read into the Congressional Record?

3 Comments | Share This | Republican convention, rudy giuliani, Sarah Palin, Steve Cohen

Cohen accepts Jesus - as a metaphor

By Ron Kampeas · September 10, 2008

Looks like U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) took the Christ talk to heart. Last month, the Memphis lawmaker trounced an opponent in the Democratic primaries after she failed to convince Cohen’s majority black constituency that he wasn’t “Christian” enough to represent them.

Cohen, among the first Jewish Dems to endorse the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), took aim Tuesday at Republican vice presidential pick Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, who has mocked Obama’s background as a community organizer. Cohen, echoing a trope that arose almost as soon as Palin (and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani) initiated the dig last week, argued that Jesus might have been considered a community organizer - and pointed out that Pontius Pilate was a governor.

That’s already raised hackles among Republicans who are crying religious bias. And considering the hits Cohen took, he should be careful with religious analogies - this is the ad his opponent ran against him.

Republicans should be careful crying bias, though: the legitimate point Palin and Giuliani were making, that Obama lacks executive experience, might have effectively been made picking at any of the many jobs on the candidate’s resume: Law professor (12 years) state legislator (eight years) U.S. Senator (four years) law firm associate (11 years) author (two best-sellers.) Yet Giuliani and Palin somehow picked the one job, community organizer (three years) that screams “African American.”

2 Comments | Share This | barack obama, Congressional races, John McCain, Presidential Race, Republican convention, Sarah Palin, Steve Cohen, Tennessee

Lieberman won’t be lunching with Dems for a while

By Eric Fingerhut · September 9, 2008

The fallout from Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) speech at the Republican National Convention continues back in Washington. Not only is there talk that the former Democratic vice presidential nominee might lose his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, but now Lieberman has decided that he shouldnt be attending the weekly Democratic caucues or the biweekly chairman’s lunches used to formulate policy.

“It was not fair for me, since I’m not supporting Sen. Obama, to be there,” Lieberman told The Hill newspaper. “I think I’ll stay away for a while, with respect.”

Earlier reports had Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) excluding Lieberman, but Reid put out a statement denying that story. Here’s that press release:

Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, made the following statement today regarding false reports that Senator Joe Lieberman is excluded from Democrats’ future weekly caucus lunches:

“While it is no secret that the Democratic caucus is disappointed in Senator Lieberman’s attacks on Senator Obama, the irresponsible report that Senator Lieberman has been excluded from caucus meetings is completely untrue.  Senator Lieberman has chosen to not attend Democratic caucus lunches, and that is his choice.”

2 Comments | Share This | Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Presidential Race, Republican convention

Lots of lawmakers at RJC bash

By Eric Fingerhut · September 4, 2008

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.

By Ron Kampeas · September 4, 2008

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.

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JTA VIDEO: Hanging with GOP lawmakers

By Ami Eden · September 4, 2008

Ron Kampeas and Eric Fingerhut file their final report from the Twin Cities:

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“Thank God for Joe Lieberman”

By Eric Fingerhut · September 4, 2008

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?

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Gymnast carries Jewish torch on RNC final night

By Eric Fingerhut · September 4, 2008

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.

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