Today Ira is the featured blogger in the political section of the Huffington Post where he talks about Senator John McCain, Iran and the Jewish vote. To check it out click here.
McCain, Iran, and the Jewish Vote
By Ira Forman
Posted July 1, 2008
Senator John McCain's favorite former president is Teddy Roosevelt. However, when it comes to policy towards Iran, McCain is no Teddy Roosevelt -- he speaks loudly and carries a small stick. A few days ago, my organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), joined Senator Frank Lautenberg, Senator Ben Cardin, and five members of the House, in a press conference to point out McCain's hypocrisy when he talks tough on Iran, but votes against Iranian sanctions in order to protect corporations like Halliburton.
McCain has run a campaign in the Jewish community in which he claims to be Iran's worst nightmare while proclaiming Senator Barack Obama as dangerously naive. In McCain's interview with Jeffery Goldberg of the Atlantic, Goldberg reported that "McCain took a vociferously hard line on Iran" and he was applauded by many of his supporters for a speech he gave to a largely Jewish audience last month. However, a few years ago, McCain voted against an amendment (S.Amdt. 1351 to S. 1042) introduced by Lautenberg that would have made "U.S. businesses and their subsidiaries liable to prosecution for dealing with foreign businesses which have links to terrorism or whose parent country supports terrorism." Instead of voting to strengthen sanctions against Iran, McCain sided with most of his Republican colleagues to vote against the amendment and protect the Republican Party's favorite company, Halliburton (Obama voted for the amendment). McCain's campaign defends this vote by claiming that his meaningless support of the Collins amendment, which had no material impact on Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton, was equivalent to voting for the Lautenberg Amendment (the neoconservative columnist, Frank Gaffney, and the Center for Security Policy disagree).
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