JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

RJC: Dems who like McCain

By Ami Eden · September 23, 2008

Sit down and clear your head before reading…

Last week the Republican Jewish Coalition published an ad making an issue of Pat Buchanan’s saying “I think Barack is right, we ought to talk to the Iranians” and “he’s right to say the Palestinian people have got a terrible deal over there and their suffering ought to be recognized. That’s Obama’s position. It’s my position.” (Click here to read my critique of the ad.)

Now the RJC has a new ad, this one featuring positive quotes from Democrats about John McCain. One of the quotes comes from Ira Forman, the National Jewish Democratic Council: “I have to take my hat off to [McCain] for putting principle in front of politics… I wish there were more John McCains.”

As it turns out, the quote in question comes from a 1999 JTA article. And, while these days Forman is pretty harsh in his criticisms of John McCain, the NJDC leader is not being quoted out of context. At the time, he was expressing genuine admiration for McCain, after the Arizona senator declared that there was no place in the GOP for Buchanan.

Here comes the punch line: George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas and a candidate for president, took the opposite view, arguing that there was a place for Buchanan in the GOP primary race. That position drew criticism from Forman. And guess who defended Bush?

The Republican Jewish Coalition last week said Buchanan’s views were abhorrent and that he had no place in the GOP. But Matt Brooks, the group’s executive director, defended Bush’s stance, saying it made practical sense.

“What (Bush) has done is to make sure Buchanan can’t leave the party and take Republican support with him (by) saying he was forced out of the party,” Brooks said.

JTA’s Eric Fingerhut spoke to Brooks and Forman. The Jewish Democratic leader called the recent ad “pretty ironic” given the back-and-forth over Buchanan. “Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Chuck Schumer and I have two things in common,” he continued. “The first is we thought the old John McCain had qualities you could compliment, but the new John McCain is radically different. The second is we’re all endorsing Barack Obama for president.”

Forman said that using the quote is a distortion because he was talking about a different John McCain. “I still wish there were more old John McCains,” he said. But the McCain of 2008 “is a radical new one” and “bears no resemblance to the John McCain of 1999.” These days McCain “is someone who’s willing to defend his campaign lies.”

As for Brooks… he said Forman’s quote “speaks for itself” and is “an absolutely legitimate quote” even if it is nine years old. It shows Forman believes “John McCain is a principled person.”

Brooks said that back in 1999 he was only “explaining Bush’s position,” not supporting it. He noted that the article does say the RJC had previously called for kicking Buchanan out of the party.

The point of the ad is to “underline that John McCain has always crossed party lines and had the respect of leading Democrats.”

2 Comments | Share This | barack obama, george w. bush, John McCain, NJDC, RJC

Koch: Obama is my guy—Palin is scary

By Ami Eden · September 9, 2008

Back in June, as the New York Observer reported, Ed Koch was holding out on whether to endorse Barack Obama. Well, now the former Big Apple mayor – a Democrat who has endorsed Republicans, including President Bush in 2004 – is on board (see full endorsement below). What changed? Apparently, according to Politico, Koch is not a big fan of Sarah Palin:

“The designation of Palin to be vice president,” he said. “She’s scary.”

He said he was alarmed by the report that she’d triggered a conflict with the local librarian in Wasilla, Alaska by inquiring about the possibility of banning books.

“Any time someone goes to the library and says, ‘I want to ban books,’ and the librarian says ‘no,’ and she threatens to fire them – that’s scary,” he said.

(Palin at the time said she was just inquiring about the library’s policy on banning books, with no aim of actually banning any. “It was a rhetorical quesiton – nothing more,” the McCain-Palin campaign said in a memo yesterday. And no books were banned, the town says.)

Here’s the full endorsement:

Ed Koch

Presidential Endorsement

September 9, 2008

The time has come to declare whom I will be voting for.

When I made my decision four years ago and supported the reelection of George W. Bush, I said at the time the overwhelming issue for me was international Islamic terrorism, including al-Qaeda. The goal of Islamic terrorists was and still is to reestablish the Caliphate encompassing most of the Muslims living in a host of nations from Spain to Indonesia and placing them under a single religious leader with full authority over the civil affairs of the countries, in the style of Iran. That goal includes the deaths or forced conversions of Christians and Jews as infidels or the payment by them of tribute, and the elimination of the State of Israel.

In 2004, I concluded that the one person running for president who understood that danger best and was prepared to fight it and defend America and its allies was George W. Bush. Even though he is now at a low ebb in popularity, I have no regrets for having campaigned and voted for him. I said at the time I didn’t agree with him on a single domestic issue and so far as I can currently see that is still true with the exception of drilling for oil off our coasts and building nuclear energy plants.

I believe that Bush and Tony Blair, Bush’s main international ally with regard to the war in Iraq and against Islamic terrorism, will be redeemed by history. President Harry Truman was reviled when he left office, but is now honored for his courage and vision.

Now, once again, I have to make a decision to either endorse the Democratic ticket of Obama and Biden or support the Republican ticket of McCain and Palin. I am 83 years old. If I am lucky, I may yet vote not only in this election, but in the presidential election of 2012 and perhaps, if luckier, even in that of 2016. I believe I must vote my conscience, and that means for the presidential candidate who in my estimation will best protect the U.S. over the next four years.

I personally know two of those running: Joe Biden and John McCain. I like and admire them both. John McCain is a genuine war hero and patriot. Joe Biden is a friend well versed in foreign and domestic affairs, who had made judgment calls on domestic and foreign policy and legislation that I agree with. I do not personally really know the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, having spoken to him only once and briefly, or the Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.

One foreign policy issue that particularly concerned me in 2004 was the security of Israel. I thought in 2004 that issue was better left to President George W. Bush, and I believe I was right. President Bush understood the need to support the security of Israel and did so. I did not feel that way about Senator John Kerry.

That is not an issue in this election. Both parties and their candidates have made clear, before and during this election campaign their understanding of the need to support Israel and oppose acts of terrorism waged against it by Hamas and other Muslim supporters of terrorism.

So the issue for me is who will best protect and defend America.

I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.

If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency.

I reiterate the question each of us must answer in making our choice, who will best protect and defend America, domestically and with respect to the literal defense of the country? I hope I’ve made the right decision but only time will tell.

Whoever wins should and, I hope, will, following the election, receive the support of all Americans, no matter how they voted, especially in these perilous times. God Bless America and the next president and vice president of the U.S.

4 Comments | Share This | barack obama, Ed Koch, george w. bush, John McCain, Presidential Race, Sarah Palin

Rosen to the defense of Biden

By Ami Eden · September 4, 2008

Jack Rosen, the former president of the American Jewish Congress, and maybe the only person in the country to have backed Bill Clinton, then George W. Bush and now Barack Obama, sent along the following e-mail in defense of Joe Biden:

The smear campaign against Joe Biden on the internet, spread by viral emails, attributes to him all kinds of beliefs that he has never held. This is a man with a clear public record over many years, and it is a record of friendship and support. I think it is outrageous when some in the Jewish community unthinkingly or with malice pass on these scurrilous lies. Jews should know better than anyone how a small lie endlessly repeated becomes a big one, and how innocent people can be harmed by such falsehoods.

The Jewish community ought to take particular comfort in Obama’s choice of my friend Joe Biden as his running mate. I’ve known Joe for many years and we have discussed Israel and the Middle East privately many times. I can tell you, he is in private as he is in public: Joe Biden cares about Israel.

Nobody has a longer record on the issue, spanning nearly four decades. Joe’s relationships with Israeli leaders go back to Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan, and include virtually every top Israel figure ever since. He has been to Israel dozens of times.

Joe is the kind of friend who will be there on a rainy day. He supported Israel at times when it was not popular – like defending Israel’s right to use cluster bombs in the 1980s. He delivered multiple speeches in 2002 denouncing the false portrayal of Israeli military operations against terrorists in Jenin as a “massacre.” He voiced strong support for Israel during its 2006 war with Hezbollah.  He has consistently defended Israel’s right to target terrorists who intend to strike at Israel. He said a few days ago, “Israel has an absolute right to defend itself. It doesn’t have to ask us.”

He is an outspoken supporter of the search for peace, but he also has a consistent record as a realist.  For example, he was the original co-sponsor of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 which banned direct U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority as long as it is led by Hamas. He is a fierce critic of Arab extremism, and constantly reminds his many friends in the Arab world that they need to do more to end their state of belligerency with Israel and to end the economic boycott against Israel.

On Iran, Joe supports tough and urgent diplomacy and economic pressure to prevent an Iranian nuclear threat. He regards the danger of Iranian nuclearization as one of the central challenges of our era. According to the Washington reporter for Ha’aretz, Joe Biden believes “options should not be taken of the table – that is, he isn’t willing to swear off the use of force as a last resort to prevent the nuclearization of iran ”

Joe Biden has been steadfast in opposing the transfer of arms to Arab nations that might erode Israel’s qualitative edge. With Congressman Mel Levine, Biden spearheaded legislation in 1988 to modify the Arms Export Control Act so that American arms sales to Arab countries would be severely constrained in the absence of their reaching peace agreements with Israel. Levine recently said, “Joe Biden has been as consistently supportive of preserving Israel’s security as any Member of Congress.”

Joe has many, many ties to the American Jewish community. His daughter-in-law is Jewish, and he is close to his Jewish relatives. Many years ago, he was the one who discovered Tom Lantos, who he hired as an adviser early in his Senate career. Their relationship over the last thirty years was close, and Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, continued to be a mentor to Biden on the issues of Israel, genocide-prevention, and human rights.

Joe Biden is a man we can count on. His record speaks for itself.

0 Comments | Share This | barack obama, Bill Clinton, george w. bush, Israel, Joe Biden, Presidential Race

Nu, clear?

By Ron Kampeas · September 3, 2008

Someone misunderestimated Sarah Palin.

The John McCain campaign sent out the Alaska governor’s prepared remarks just as she began delivering her speech accepting the vice presidential nomination at the Republican Party convention in St. Paul.

I thought the idea was to keep us on tenterhooks, to stop leaks but ... it appears that the campaign was working on the speech until the last minute, because it was not cleaned up for press.

It included ellipses to flag pauses for applause.

It also included a none-too-subtle reminder that President Bush, the least popular president in modern history, was not to be invoked.

A couple of bloggers have already noticed that Palin pronounces “nuclear” in the same trisyllabic way Bush does.

Palin had this reminder in the written speech:

Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines ... build more new-clear plants ... create jobs with clean coal ... and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.

You saw that right: new-clear.

1 Comment | Share This | george w. bush, John McCain, Presidential Race, Sarah Palin

Joe noodges, Bush winks, Sarah smiles

By Ron Kampeas · September 2, 2008

Joe Lieberman wentandunnit and urged his erstwhile party-mates to vote Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) president.

The Connecticut senator, addressing the Republican convention in St. Paul on Tuesday, also brought about the first Clinton applause line at a Republican convention, albeit at the expense of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic nominee:

“Let me contrast Barack Obama’s record to the record of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who stood up to some of those same Democratic interest groups, worked with Republicans, and got some important things done like welfare reform, free trade agreements and a balanced budget.”

Which is not to say he did not have kind words for Obama – these, however, did not earn the cheers the Clinton mention did:

“Senator Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who I think can do great things for our country in the years ahead.”

Meantime, President Bush delivered his remarks from the White House, ostensibly because he had to manage the hurricane-crisis-that wasn’t (but perhaps he was wary of the sort of GOP confab that would applaud Bill Clinton?).

In any case, Bush delivered one of his famous coded messages (remember the bizarre reference to Dred Scott in the 2004 debates? This one was about abortion, too). Ostensibly talking about the McCains’ adopted daughter, he launched into a paean to McCain’s respect for human life:

“John is a leader who knows that human life is fragile, that human life is precious, that human life must be defended.”

Translation: Forget what you once believed about McCain and a woman’s right to choose.

Finally, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s VP pick, reassured AIPAC types about her Israel bona fides.

We hear there’s going to be red meat for the pro-Israel crowd in her speech Wednesday night.

4 Comments | Share This | barack obama, george w. bush, John McCain, Presidential Race, Republican convention, Sarah Palin

Frum: The Democratic axis of chocolate

By Ami Eden · February 5, 2008

JTA’s Ron Kampeas was at a Republican Jewish Coalition event on Monday night, featuring former Bush speech writer David ”Axis of ...” Frum. Like his new book, most of the night was dedicated to his take on all of the GOP’s headaches.

This time around, Frum said, the Democrats don’t know problems.

For them, he added, it’s “shall we have the dark chocolate with the chiffony center or shall we have the white chocolate. ... We love them both.”

If that rubs you the wrong way, at least know that Frum is just as eyebrow-raising about his former boss. Here’s my favorite passage from Frum’s book on his stint in the White House:

“In the six weeks after I joined the White House, I became so fascinated by Bush’s extraordinary intimacy with [Karen] Hughes that I asked four different people who had worked with them in Texas whether they thought there was, or ever had been, something between them: if not a relationship, then perhaps an attraction. Everyone of them was astonished by the idea – and not just the men, who can be obtuse about these things, but women, too. My theory, for what little it is worth, is this: Bush had a much more strained relationship with his mother than is often acknowledged. Barbara Bush can be a difficult-to-please woman – and George W. Bush was a son it would often have been difficult to be pleased by. ... When it came to marry, Bush sought a woman as unlike his mother as possible: warm not stern, shy not assertive, domestic not political. When he ran for governor, he recruited Hughes – a woman very like his mother (she even looks much as Barbara Bush did in her mid-forties), but who offered him the unqualified admiration his mother never did. His wife was his mother antidote. His aide was his mother substitute.”

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