Posted on 06/28/2002 7:35:16 PM PDT by LarryLied
National Jewish Democratic Council press release:
Washington, DC: According to the Associated Press and CNN.com’s Internet site, Representative Benjamin Gilman – a former chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and one of only two Jewish Republicans in the House of Representatives – is considering a switch to the Democratic Party.USA Today, 5625/02:Under the leading New York redistricting plan currently under consideration by the GOP leadership in Albany, Rep. Gilman may be thrown into the same congressional district as Republican Rep. Sue Kelly. To pass, such a plan would ultimately require the support of the Republican State Senate and Republican Governor George Pataki.
And according to the New York Times Internet site, “Republican lawmakers have long made clear that their first choice for departure is Mr. Gilman, because of his age and his relatively liberal politics.”
In a swipe at President Bush, CNN.com reports that Rep. Gilman noted, “Hopefully the White House will take some interest in our problem.”
“While of course we would very happily welcome Representative Gilman into the Democratic family with open arms, it is simply a shanda – a disgrace – that Republican leaders in New York and Washington would not be more supportive of one of only two Jewish House Republicans,” said Ira N. Forman, Executive Director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
“Where are the supportive voices of President Bush, RNC Chairman Racicot, and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Davis? For that matter, where are the supportive voices of New York’s Governor Pataki and New York Republican Senate President Bruno?
“Rep. Gilman is one of the all-too-few Republican moderates, being pro-choice and supportive of the separation of church and state.
But aside from that, he is a vaunted leader, having served in the House for 30 years and having chaired the House International Relations Committee – where he worked in a bipartisan spirit on behalf of Israel. And then, to add insult to injury, he is one of only two Jewish House Republicans.
Is it that the Republicans do not value the diversity of having two Jews among their ranks of 222 Republicans in the House?
Or is it that they do not need his political moderation, or his decades of experience?
Why is it that out of only a handful of incumbent House Republicans across the country who have been abandoned in the redistricting process by the Republican leadership, it appears that one is the pro-Israel former Chairman of the House International Relations Committee and the senior Jewish Republican in Congress?”
New York redistricting plan gets tentative OK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has tentatively cleared the New York legislature's redistricting plan, which would eliminate two of the state's 31 seats and could throw several longtime House members into election fights with each other .
The plan threatens the career of veteran GOP Rep. Benjamin Gilman, the 79-year-old former chairman of the House International Relations Committee. . .(snip)
Gilman has said he might switch parties so that he would have a better chance in the upcoming election.
Most Republican insiders do not think he will actually jump ship. State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, has said Gilman chuckled about such a move with him.
FULL USA TODAY ARTICLE
*yawn*
Let me see if I can sum up my feelings on this RINO being farmed out to pasture.
Bye-bye Bernie.
Please.
Well it is from a National Democratic Party organization. Think this is bad? Check out the McCarthyite tactics the NJDC uses on one of the best friends Israel has in the Republican party:
PR Firm to G.O.P. Stars – Including Tom DeLay – Also Baits Israel
Why should they be concerned about the five Jewish votes that Bush got?
I find this argument to be almost humorous. Since when has "religion" had anything to do with the Jewish vote? The majority of Jews in the U.S. are not religious, and religion plays no part in the way they vote.
They see their Judaism as a social artifact; they consider themselves one more oppressed minority. Witness the almost rabid fear that the ADL whips up among its consitutency about "fundamentalist Christians" (the only consistently solid support, I might add, that Israel really has in the U.S.)
Jews tend to be liberal, period. I would venture to say that there are as many notable Jewish conservatives--not RINOs or neo-Cons but true conservatives like Michael Medved or Laura Schlessinger--as there are African-American conservatives.
And the GOP is just as likely in the near future to capture either of those demographics as the other.
It has to do with REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS. You're just as likely to get a significant Jewish vote for the GOP--unless you're talking a RINO like this guy--as you are a significant black vote.
Both demographics are DEEPLY ENTRENCHED in their support for the Dems. I even had one guy here on FR, from New York, crowing about how "the Jewish under-30 vote went ALMOST 45% for Bush" (and I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that this is true).
I've used examples in my own experience, people I went to school with and have known for years, businesspeople, with families and mortgages, etc. But their parents voted for Dems and THEY will vote for Dems and their tongues will blacken and fall out before that's going to change.
And MORE than half of African-Americans, and about 80% of hispanics, are conservative on social issues. What of it? That has absolutely NOTHING TO DO with the fact that when election-time comes around, they all march in lock-step to the polls and pull the Donkey's tail.
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