They gave Grover Norquist a pledge: Like Tevye’s daughter and her future husband, a poor tailor, up to 39 senators and 219 members of the House of Representatives gave conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist a pledge - never to vote for a tax hike.
With the Nov. 6 election results, Republicans who signed the pledge think they do not need to keep the pledge now that tax increases for the rich are acceptable to the public at large. The concern here is not the tax issue but the principle: Some Republicans are poised to break their promises. President Clinton’s violation of his marriage vows led, in a strangely legalistic way, to his impeachment. Why should these idiots be given a pass for breaking a sacred promise?
The “Fiddler on the Roof” pledge was, joyfully, for the couple to wed, while the Republican pledge is one that many folks, this writer included, hope that they do break. Yet a pledge by its very nature is supposed to be inviolate. Some excuses for breaking the pledge, as The New York Times reports, are precious:
Rep. Peter T. King from Long Island: “A pledge is good at the time you sign it…I don’t want to rule anything out.”
Rep. Scott Rigell, Virginia, in renouncing the pledge: “Basically the pledge is like a Master Lock.”
Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma, now describes the pledge as a “tortured vision of tax purity.”
Sen. John McCain, Arizona: “Fewer and fewer people are signing this, quote, pledge.”
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Georgia: “I’m frankly not concerned about the Norquist pledge.”
Norquist should not be so shocked. What kind of politicians would they be if they did not break promises?
The vile, vile (Congressman) West: U.S. Rep. Allen West, a Republican, has only one month left to cause mayhem in Washington, D.C. In the last 23 months, he accused 78 to 81 of his colleagues in the House of Representatives of being members of the Communist Party. No explanation for the three-person difference.
He even insulted his own congresswoman by calling her “vile, unprofessional and despicable.” He was angry that Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz criticized him on the House floor for attempting to scrap Medicare as we know it. She had the gall to emphasize that West’s constituents in south Florida might be unhappy about that.
West is allowed to represent a congressional district where he does not live so long as he resides in the same state. He lives in Wasserman-Schultz’s district west and south of Fort Lauderdale and represents coastal communities between Lauderdale and Boca Raton. After redistricting added more Democrats to his district, West ran in a GOP-leaning district further north and lost anyway.
Once West departs, we will miss him…in terms of comedy relief.
A closet opens in Harrisburg: Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe - one of the most right-wing members of the House of Representatives - may be less pleased that Rep. Babette Josephs is departing than one might think. Josephs, one of the most liberal representatives in the state, sat next to Metcalfe week after week in Harrisburg on the House State Government Committee.
Metcalfe chairs the panel because Republicans control the House, and Josephs is ranking Democrat. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette puts it, she “sits elbow-to-elbow with Metcalfe, and they often glare daggers at each other.”
Metcalfe, who lives north of Pittsburgh, assails Josephs’s Philadelphia as a hub for “homosexuals, immigrants (and) poor minority neighborhoods,” as quoted in Philadelphia Magazine.
Josephs claimed that a series of anti-immigrant bills “show fear and contempt against a group of people - and we know they’re Latinos.”
After 37 years representing much of downtown Philadelphia, Josephs was ousted in the 2012 Democratic primary. In the process, she may have gotten the last laugh.
Her successor, Brian Sims, will be the first openly gay member of the Pennsylvania House. He won the general election without opposition. Maybe he holds the secret to getting along with Metcalfe.
First the Democrats can install Sims as ranking Democrat on that committee, so Metcalfe can sit “elbow-to-elbow” with a homosexual from Philadelphia. Then Sims can follow up by inviting Metcalfe to dinner and a movie.
Vote for the mensch: Josh Mandel is the third Jewish Republican I can recall in recent years who was beaten by a gentile candidate in the Jewish community. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Lutheran, was returned to office on Nov. 6 by a majority of Ohioans, which included most voters in Cleveland’s eastern suburbs - a region that hosts the most synagogues in Ohio.
Mandel lost Beachwood - home of many Jewish facilities - by 4,728 to 1,962 votes, The Cleveland Jewish News reports. Only one guess as to which Senate candidate lives in Beachwood. Relatives of Mandel’s wife, a very prominent Cleveland family, publicly voiced their opposition to the conservative policies represented by Mandel.
In Pennsylvania, the late Sen. Arlen Specter was defeated in the 2010 Democratic primary by Rep. Joe Sestak, who went on to lose to Republican Pat Toomey in the general election. No doubt many Jewish liberals voted against Specter as punishment for serving as a Republican for most of his 30 years in the Senate, before switching to the Democratic Party.
Joe Hoeffel, a Protestant, beat Rep. Jon Fox in nearly every town with a sizeable Jewish population in both their bouts for Fox’s House seat covering most of Montgomery County outside Philadelphia; Fox is Jewish. Hoeffel lost the first time, losing Abington Township, where both candidates live. Two years later, Hoeffel was elected, taking the same Jewish towns plus Abington.
In all three races, Jewish voters got the unspoken message: Vote for the mensch.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Silly stuff: President Obama and Michael Douglas
So often I am tempted to write up some dumb, and not always so dumb, observations about politics and society in general. Finally, I chanced upon just the right format. Hope you enjoy it.
The Obama-Douglas defensives:
President Obama’s fiery defense of U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice over the fatal raid in Libya was impressive, but hardly original. No surprise if Obama saw the 1995 film “The American President” starring Michael Douglas as a widowed president attacked for having a girlfriend played by Annette Bening. People who yearned for a real president to issue his defiant speech got their wish, sort of. Check the similarities:
President: “She has represented the United States and our interests in the United Nations with skill, and professionalism, and toughness, and grace.”
Douglas: “Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, ’cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.”
President: “If Senator (John) McCain and Sen. (Lindsey) Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me…I’m happy to have that discussion with them.”
Douglas: “If you want to talk to me about character, Bob, you’d better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I’ll show up.”
As they say in the movie, Susan E. Rice, knock ‘em dead.
Filibuster busters: What does Elizabeth Warren know that Harry Reid doesn’t? Warren, who ousted Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, vows to seek to end or curtail the power of the filibuster in January on the first day of the Senate’s session. Until recently, even some Democrats saw nothing wrong with a legislative rule that in effect requires 60 votes to allow a majority vote on legislation. Reid, the Senate majority leader, made a deal with GOP leader Mitch McConnell two years ago to retain the filibuster so long as Senate Republicans do not abuse it. Of course, the GOP abused it and often incited Reid to rave and rant about it. Finally, Reid last May declared that he changed his mind about the filibuster, but was vague about what he would do. Warren, a half-dozen other new senators and three incumbents who pressed for filibuster reform in January 2011 appear likely to remind Reid. Let’s hope so.
Death to…us? Arabs holding a vigil in Bethlehem outside the Church of the Nativity held up banners that read: “We would die for Gaza.” They almost did. A Hamas rocket targeting Jerusalem landed in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Ironic if their brothers in Gaza were to level the Church of the Nativity by accident.
Post-traumatic Berman-Sherman Disorder: The long nightmare suffered by my brethren in Los Angeles may be over, but now Jewish Angelenos must endure the emotional aftermath. Because of California’s strange and counter-productive new primary system, the vast majority of L.A.’s 600,000 Jews live either in the merged congressional district in which Brad Sherman fought and won two monumental contests against fellow incumbent Howard Berman, or where Henry Waxman had to stave off a so-called independent who previously contributed $285,000 to Republicans. Now these poor Jews - not to mention their righteous Gentile neighbors - must contend with…Shetl shock.
The Obama-Douglas defensives:
President Obama’s fiery defense of U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice over the fatal raid in Libya was impressive, but hardly original. No surprise if Obama saw the 1995 film “The American President” starring Michael Douglas as a widowed president attacked for having a girlfriend played by Annette Bening. People who yearned for a real president to issue his defiant speech got their wish, sort of. Check the similarities:
President: “She has represented the United States and our interests in the United Nations with skill, and professionalism, and toughness, and grace.”
Douglas: “Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, ’cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.”
President: “If Senator (John) McCain and Sen. (Lindsey) Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me…I’m happy to have that discussion with them.”
Douglas: “If you want to talk to me about character, Bob, you’d better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I’ll show up.”
As they say in the movie, Susan E. Rice, knock ‘em dead.
Filibuster busters: What does Elizabeth Warren know that Harry Reid doesn’t? Warren, who ousted Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, vows to seek to end or curtail the power of the filibuster in January on the first day of the Senate’s session. Until recently, even some Democrats saw nothing wrong with a legislative rule that in effect requires 60 votes to allow a majority vote on legislation. Reid, the Senate majority leader, made a deal with GOP leader Mitch McConnell two years ago to retain the filibuster so long as Senate Republicans do not abuse it. Of course, the GOP abused it and often incited Reid to rave and rant about it. Finally, Reid last May declared that he changed his mind about the filibuster, but was vague about what he would do. Warren, a half-dozen other new senators and three incumbents who pressed for filibuster reform in January 2011 appear likely to remind Reid. Let’s hope so.
Death to…us? Arabs holding a vigil in Bethlehem outside the Church of the Nativity held up banners that read: “We would die for Gaza.” They almost did. A Hamas rocket targeting Jerusalem landed in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Ironic if their brothers in Gaza were to level the Church of the Nativity by accident.
Post-traumatic Berman-Sherman Disorder: The long nightmare suffered by my brethren in Los Angeles may be over, but now Jewish Angelenos must endure the emotional aftermath. Because of California’s strange and counter-productive new primary system, the vast majority of L.A.’s 600,000 Jews live either in the merged congressional district in which Brad Sherman fought and won two monumental contests against fellow incumbent Howard Berman, or where Henry Waxman had to stave off a so-called independent who previously contributed $285,000 to Republicans. Now these poor Jews - not to mention their righteous Gentile neighbors - must contend with…Shetl shock.
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