NJDC's Blog

An antidote to the right-wing propaganda

The right-wing attempts to drive a wedge between Jewish voters and the Democratic Party are getting increasingly desperate. We thought we'd offer a little common sense to counter the right's scare tactics.

Here's a detailed discussion of potential Democratic committee chairs who would oversee the issues crucial to the pro-Israel community. As you'll see, they are unanimous in their support for Israel's right to self-defense and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.

And here's a list detailing Republican statements hostile to Israel and the interests of the Jewish community. This list is not comprehensive, but it shows the party's hypocrisy on these issues, as none of these statements have been refuted by the party.

We encourage readers to circulate these links.

The Plot Thickens in Illinois' Tenth District

Last week, the NJDC blogged about a breaking story out of Illinois' 10th District, in which a staffer for Rep. Mark Kirk sent an email threatening the Chairman of Tel Aviv University's American Council for his support of Kirk's opponent, Dan Seals.

The former Congressman for the 10th District, Abner Mikva, is formally requesting an investigation into whether Kirk's staffer, Caryn Garber, broke federal law when she said that Robert Schrayer's support for Seals "can have a very bad effect on the university" and threatened "revenge."

Mikva is a respected and honored figure in the Jewish, legal, and political communities.  He has served with distinction in all three branches of the federal government. In addition to his service in Congress, he has been a White House counsel and Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He is renowned for his legal expertise and his commitment to public service. He's been recognized by the University of Illinois with the Paul Douglas Ethics in Government Award, and by the Chicago Jewish News as one of the Chicago region's most important Jewish public figures of the century. He is, in short, someone who speaks with authority when it comes to questions of politics, ethics and the law.

Mikva's letter indicates that he takes this matter very seriously. As Sweet notes:

Mikva said Garber's note was "an overt threat of revenge against Mr. Schrayer and the university" and may have violated state and federal law "that criminalizes intimidating, threatening or coercing members of the public in an attempt to thwart the free expression of their vote."

The NJDC has also put an advertisement about the incident in Illinois' Jewish press, and our voter guide for the race is here. With only a week before Election Day, this story isn't over yet.

Why Is Karl Rove So Confident?

Josh Marshall raises an excellent point:

All sorts of articles have been written over the last week or so with one question: Why is Karl Rove so confident? What does he know that the Dems and the pundit-predictors don't?

The answer is really, really simple: nothing.  There's not anything he knows.  In fact, he's not even confident.  It's a bluff. 

There are ten different reasons to know this.  But the most compelling and sufficient one is to look at his history.  In fact, go back to the second post I ever did on TPM just a couple weeks shy of six years ago.  It was about a stunt Rove pulled that almost lost Bush the presidency in 2000.

Going into the big day the polls all showed a very, very close race, with perhaps ever so slight an edge for Bush. Conventional logic would have dictated sending Bush to swing states like Florida. But that's not what Rove did. He chose instead to send Bush to California and New Jersey -- states Bush could only have any hope of winning in a blow-out. The reasoning was simple. Rove figured that he could accomplish more through convincing mainly the press, but also activists and even highly-plugged voters, that Bush was going to win big than he would by sending his guy into a state like Florida for some last minute retail politicking.

It's the bandwagon effect. Psyche out the other side. Act like you're winning and you'll charge up your activists/voters and demoralize the folks on the other side. Mainly, get the press to believe your hype and they'll do the charging up and demoralizing for you. As it happened, it was a really dumb decision in 2000. If not for faulty ballots and election stealing, Bush would have lost Florida and the presidency. And given the margin, at least conceivable that Bush could have won fair and square had he spent the last few days on the ground in Florida.

Now, the situation right now is obviously very different than what Rove faced in 2000. They're on the defense. But all the same logics and principles apply. For the Republicans, the difference between a bad night on election night and a catastrophe could well turn on whether or not the party's ground troops really believe all the polls they're seeing. If they do, the demoralization will likely be crippling. And a bunch of them won't even show up. Rove has to create the impression that he knows something the polls don't to keep the Republican GOTV operation from breaking down entirely.

It's that simple.

Now, that doesn't mean I'm certain the Dems are going to walk away with it on election night. Far from it. Look at the numbers and I think the potential for a blow-out is definitely there. I'd call myself cautiously optimistic. But I'll go to sleep happy on election night if the Dems win the House even with a razor-thin margin. So my point is not to make anyone think this is all in the bag. It's not. It is only to get people to finally drop out of the Rove (anti-)cult and realize he's seeing the same thing everyone else is seeing. He's just putting on a game face because that's what he needs to do to do his job.

Michigan: Dick DeVos' Multi-Million-Dollar Investment

Brian Dickerson of the Detroit Free Press has an illuminating column today. In it, he notes that Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos has put about $35 million of his own money into the race, making it one of the most expensive political races in the country. Why, Dickerson asks?

If you look at DeVos' web site, he's running primarily on economic issues. Dickerson isn't convinced, however, that this explains why DeVos has thrown so much money at this race.

But plenty of elected officials in Michigan subscribe to DeVos' conventionally Republican vision of lower taxes and decreased government regulation[...] I doubt that he considers himself uniquely qualified to set Michigan on a different economic course.

Dickerson wisely suggests that if you want to know what DeVos really cares about, just follow the money: besides his candidacy, where has he committed his substantial fortune?

What is unique (or at least unusual) about DeVos is his combination of business acumen and religious zeal[...]For more than a decade, DeVos and his wife and the tax-exempt foundation they control have funneled millions of dollars to conservative Christian groups that seek to promote school prayer, public assistance for religious education, the criminalization of abortion and the prohibition of embryonic stem cell research, among other causes.

A careful examination of DeVos' past giving shows this to be true. His foundation is a major donor to a wide range of right-wing organizations, including Focus on the Family, the politically influential group headed by Dr. James Dobson. Focus on the Family's mission statement declares that government is an institution "ordained by God" and that it "exists to maintain cultural equilibrium and to provide a framework for social order." What this means, in practice, is fervent opposition to gay rights, reproductive freedom and church-state separation.

Other DeVos-linked political organizations include the Free Congress Foundation whose "main focus is on the Culture War," and the Traditional Values Coalition, who insist that "the anti-God Left has been using America’s courts to impose an anti-religion, anti-family agenda on America."

DeVos may be masking himself as primarily concerned about economic issues, but when you follow the money, you find he's always supporting the religious right's agenda of blurring the line between church and state.

You can find more information about DeVos' radical religious-right agenda here. You can also see NJDC's Voter Guide on Michigan's statewide races here.

A Desparate Peter King Smears His Opponent

Ala Alan Fine against Keith Ellison. . .  a scared Peter King goes McCarthyite:

Last week, King went on network television with a purported $450,000 media buy -- a bold and normally cost-prohibitive move in New York, the nation's most expensive and saturated media market. Such as ad blitz is generally reserved for the most competitive races, and the clearest sign that Mejias' challenge is gaining steam, said political professionals from both parties.

Beyond saturating the airwaves with at least three different spots, King said he intended to swamp voters with 10 or 11 pieces of mail, which would mean one piece every other day. [. . .]

In a sign national Democrats see New York's 3rd Congressional District as a potential pickup, Mejias was added Thursday to the party's "Red to Blue" list of top Democratic campaigns. That gives him access to party donors who otherwise would have been out of his reach. Mejias also can expect a flood of extra campaign workers from Washington.

[. . .]

Critics and several political observers say the increasingly strong invective of King's mailings, many aimed at attracting Jewish voters, accuse Mejias of being supported by "radical" Muslims and single out the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury as a hotbed of fanaticism. The mailings are signs of a candidate worried about his prospects, they say.

Rabbi Jerome Davidson of Temple Beth-El in Great Neck criticized King for labeling the Islamic Center a hotbed of "radical Islam."

"He's trying to scare people," Davidson said. "I really hate to say it, but it is a demagogue tactic similar to McCarthy."

Like Joe McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who exploited fears of communism in the 1950s, King is trying to exploit people's anxiety over terrorism by scaring the electorate -- particularly Jews -- into voting for him, Davidson said.

NJDC's NY-3 Voter Guide can be found here.

That King's attacks are hypocritical can be seen in this Newsday report.

Santorum E-mail "over the line, almost any way you look at it."

In Pennsylvania, The Forward is reporting this week that a Senate staffer of Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was caught forwarding an e-mail to her "Jewish contacts" from a Chabad rabbi in New York that, according to General Counsel for the American Jewish Congress, was "over the line, almost any way you look at it."

Santorum's staffer provided no caveat that she does not represent the Jewish organization.  Even more, the rabbi signed the e-mail in his official capacity as the head of a Jewish not-for-profit organization which, by law, is prohibited from participating in political activities.

It wasn't until the Santorum staffer got caught that she decided to send a follow-up e-mail to the group trying to clarify that she does not work for the American Friends of the Lubovitch.  She wrote:

Please be advised that this note should not have been sent to you.  It is not an official communication from the Chabad of Pennsylvania and has not come from them.  Our office has maintained and continues to maintain a correct and official relationship with the American Friends of Lubavitch. I apologize for any confusion.

Apologizing was the least that the Santorum staffer could do.  After all, she and the rabbi had just placed the not-for-profit status of this Jewish organization at risk.  Let's just hope that the IRS doesn't come calling because of their negligent action.

To view NJDC's voter guide on the Pennsylvania Senate race, click here.

To view NJDC's ads on the Pennsylvania Senate race in this week's Philadelphia Jewish Exponent and Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, click here.

Maryland Senate Race and Stem Cell Research

While response to NJDC's Voter Guides in Maryland has been overwhelmingly positive, a couple of people have e-mailed in and written errant complaints that reflect GOP efforts to elide the distinctions between the parties on the critical issue of stem cell research.

1. Representative Cardin is 100% accurate in how he explains the difference here on Meet the Press this morning.

2. Embryonic stem cell research is both the most promising form of stem cell research AND the area where the parties collide.  The Orthodox Union, American Jewish Congress, and many other Jewish organizations have staked out STRONG positions in support of this research,and the divide is  one of many examples of the GOP choosing its massive Radical Right political base over OVERWHELMING scientific consensus.

3. The positions of the candidates in the most competitive races on this and other critical issues can be found here -- please share these voter guides with as many people as possible.  They are the most comprehensive resource available online to how the key races shake out on issues such as Israel, stem cell research, the separation of church and state, abortion, and more.

4. Many of NJDC's direct mail pieces and newspaper ads can be found here.

Voter Guides: Key Info for Jewish Voters

With less than two weeks until Election Day, NJDC wants to empower you to help get out the vote in your state. Use this email as a guide to help educate your community, and then pass it along to others!

DO YOU KNOW...

• ...NJDC has produced voter guides for more than 45 national races?

• ...NJDC has published advertisements in Jewish newspapers around the country?

• ...where the Democratic Party stands on Israel?

Both political parties express overwhelming support for Israel, and NJDC maintains that such bipartisan support is the only path to ensure safe and secure longevity for the U.S.-Israel relationship. While the Republican Party is dangerously using Israel as a divisive wedge issue, NJDC produced an ad highlighting Israel as a non-partisan issue.

• ...how you can help educate the Jewish community?
  • Send this blog post to five other people.
  • Get three of your family and/or friends to join NJDC.
  • Contribute to NJDC's efforts to educate Jewish voters across the country before Election Day.
  • Send us any information you have about the candidates running for office in your district.
  • Discuss politics at dinner - it's important!
  • Write a letter to the editor of your local Jewish press condemning the misleading Republican Jewish Coalition ads that have appeared in your paper.
  • Check NJDC Blog daily for constant political updates!

Now that you're informed, go get out the vote!

NJDC Reacts to the Swift Boating of MoveOn By the RJC

A letter to the Editor from Ira Forman, NJDC's Executive Director, responding to the Swift Boating of MoveOn.org by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

October 24, 2006

To the Editor:

Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks' October 19 op-ed selflessly proclaims "Don't shoot the messenger."  But what do you do when the messenger is lying?

Republican claims that progressive websites, such as MoveOn.org, are filled with anti-Semitism just isn't true.  Indeed, of the tens of thousands of postings on MoveOn.org each week, there have been a very small number of anonymous anti-Semitic postings on the site.  Critically, those postings were made in an open forum where non-members and members alike can post comments anonymously.

Counter to the editorial's assertion, the postings were taken down immediately by MoveOn officials and refuted immediately by members of the organization.  In fact, the Anti-Defamation League letter of which Brooks speaks was written 17 days AFTER MoveOn had already removed the anonymous postings.

Even more, Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn's Political Action Committee, called the postings "abhorrent" and expressed his pleasure that "so many MoveOn members rose to sharply criticize the hate speech that was posted – even before it was brought to our attention."  The ADL praised MoveOn for its "responsiveness," noting that "the matter has been resolved satisfactorily.

Online communities, such as MoveOn.org, are open forums which not only preach free speech, but actually practice it.  Jewish voters should take comfort in knowing that MoveOn.org is not a haven for anti-Semitism and the organization will renounce and remove any postings of the sort.

Leave it to Republicans to not allow the truth to get in the way of campaigning.

Sincerely,

Ira Forman

Executive Director

National Jewish Democratic Council

Mr. Shays Goes to Qatar

More and more this election season, we're learning about the malfeasance of Republicans in Congress - from the career-ending mega-scandals of Delay and Foley to late-night joke fodder like photos of Rep. John Sweeney at a frat party.

About the only member of the caucus left out of the shadow of the cloud of scandal, it seems, is the GOP's resident ethics scold, Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut's 4th District.

Until now.

Garance Frank-Ruta has put together an impressive investigative piece on Shays' 2003 trip to Qatar for the New Republic. (Note: free registration to TNR required for the article.) Among the details she's discovered:

Shays's visit was paid for by The Islamic Free Market Institute, a nonprofit group founded by GOP ally Grover Norquist and run by a protégé of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to help bring Muslims into the Republican fold.

Furthermore, Franke-Ruta notes that, "the Islamic Institute's outlays for the representative's travels were rapidly reimbursed by the trip's real sponsor: Qatar."

No wonder Shays chose to flatter his hosts by telling the three-decade entrenched monarchy that they have "always played a large role in advancing participatory democracy."

(Perhaps being a member of the House GOP caucus gives you a slightly unusual perspective on what "participatory democracy" means.)

What's especially galling is that Shays' public image is, consistently, that of a principled moderate and a stickler for ethics rules. Franke-Ruta calls him on it:

despite the fact that Shays boasted to The Stamford Advocate in 2003, "Every expense of my office is a matter of public record," Shays never listed the Qatar trip on his personal financial disclosure form.

And she also reminds us why these rules exist in the first place: so that the American people can get a sense of who's attempting to influence our elected officials. Franke-Ruta aptly points out:

In Shays's case, knowing who sponsors his travel is especially pertinent; Shays chairs a congressional subcommittee overseeing U.S. national security matters.

So, all the pieces are in place for a classic Republican scandal. A fancy hotel room? Check. Oil money? Check. Effective concealment of financial transactions? Check. A Jack Abramoff connection? Check!

Shays has allowed a serious lapse here. It makes his protestations of ethical purity ring as hollow, just as his claims of moderation do when he votes for Dennis Hastert as Speaker of the House.

You can view NJDC's Voter Guide on Connecticut's 4th District here.