Free Republic

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who ignited a conservative grassroots brushfire that spread across the country forcing CBS Television executives to shelve the network’s controversial two-part miniseries on former President Ronald Reagan, yesterday praised CBS for its decision. Cantor, who fired off the first letter to CBS President Les Moonves protesting the film on Oct. 22, said Moonves “ought to be congratulated for doing the right thing. He took to heart the protests gathering across the country, so I congratulate [him].” CBS, which is owned by Viacom Inc., announced yesterday that it will air the mini-series on Showtime, its subscriber-based, pay-cable...

WASHINGTON - A political firestorm has ignited over an upcoming TV miniseries depicting the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, as supporters of the Republican icon charge Hollywood producers with smearing the Reagan legacy. Conservatives lashed out after reports that ``The Reagans,'' a four-hour CBS mini-series set to air Nov. 16 and 18, portrays the former president, now 92 and suffering from Alzheimer's disease, as forgetful and homophobic while in office. ``Nobody from CBS has talked to me or any other member of my family, which leads me to believe that whatever the series has to say about the Reagans...

<p>A leading congressman wrote yesterday to CBS Television President Leslie Moonves, expressing "serious concerns" about "The Reagans," and holding him responsible for the upcoming two-part miniseries on the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.</p> <p>"I want to be assured that it is not, as the New York Times reported yesterday, a 'deconstruction of [Reagan´s] presidency shot through a liberal lens, exaggerating his foibles and giving short shrift to his accomplishments,' " writes Chief Deputy Majority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor.</p>

Democratic Party presidential front-runner Howard Dean indicated this week that he would like ex-President Bill Clinton to play a major foreign policy role in his administration, saying that Clinton is "just the person we need" to oversee peace negotiations in the Middle East. "I think Bill Clinton is the president who has come the closest to bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together," Dean told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Wednesday night. The Vermont Democrat said he has called on President Bush to "swallow his pride and call Bill Clinton and ask Bill Clinton to go to the Middle East and begin the...

<p>Rep. Mike Pence says he has seen firsthand how the back-and-forth charges in Washington over U.S. policy in Iraq are affecting troop morale there.</p> <p>Mr. Pence, Indiana Republican, visited with Marines at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda this week. He was struck by one injured sergeant's worry that the United States would succumb to criticism and pull its troops out with the job undone.</p>

<p>Joe Lieberman, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination for 2004, isn't breaking any records for collecting campaign contributions from fellow Jews. Some of them argue this isn't the right time for a Jewish candidate.</p> <p>Potential Jewish donors fear a Jewish president could stir up anti-Semitism in the middle of the war on terrorism and the military occupation of Iraq, Jews in both parties say.</p>

GOP Senator Rallies Jews to Support Bush By FREDERIC J. FROMMER .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota is on the road again. Some 30 years ago, Coleman was a rock group roadie for the band Ten Years After, setting up the stage and steadying the bass amplifier during concerts for the 1960s musicians. Today, Coleman is a roadie of a different sort. The freshman senator, one of only three Jewish GOP members of Congress, is traveling around the country appealing to Jewish groups to support President Bush and hoping to reverse a nearly...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Sen. Norm Coleman is on the road again. Some 30 years ago, Coleman was a rock group roadie for the band Ten Years After, setting up the stage and steadying the bass amplifier during concerts for the 1960s musicians. Today, Coleman is a roadie of a different sort. The freshman senator, one of only three Jewish GOP members of Congress, is traveling around the country appealing to Jewish groups to support President Bush and hoping to reverse a nearly century-long trend of Jewish support for Democrats. The Democrat-turned-Republican talks up Bush's efforts to combat terrorism and...

Jewish cognitive dissonance, By Irwin Savodnik May. 18, 2003 One evening in 1996 my wife and I were sitting in a French bistro with a physician and his wife we had known for years. I told them I was entering the Republican congressional primary, and, since we were both doctors and concerned about health care, they might have some interest in the campaign. We were greeted with a tirade. My friend's face reddened as he screamed that he would do everything he could to see that I was trounced at the polls. My wife and I were stunned. "You're...

Posted on Thu, Apr. 24, 2003 Nickel Makeover to Commemorate 2 Events REBECCA CARROLL Associated Press WASHINGTON -The nickel is getting a makeover. The back side of the new 5-cent coin will commemorate the bicentennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark expedition. The U.S. Mint hopes to issue the nickels late this year or in early 2004. In 2006, nickels will return to a depiction of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's Virginia home, although the image will not necessarily replicate the version on today's coin. Lawmakers from Virginia pushed for and received assurance that the coin design...

<p>There has been a significant shift of support for President Bush among Jews in the United States as a result of the war against terrorism and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, pollsters and Jewish leaders say.</p> <p>Jews have long been one of the Democratic Party's most loyal political constituencies. But the growing likelihood that the war in Iraq will eliminate one of Israel's regional enemies, perhaps leading to positive changes in the Middle East, has helped Republicans make inroads into the Jewish vote, a leading Jewish clergyman says.</p>

<p>All Gary Burton wanted to do was pump up the patriotism in City Hall.</p> <p>So, with the war beginning in Iraq, he and a friend hung his 5-foot by 8-foot American flag in their office this morning. They thought it was perfect timing.</p>

Jewish Members of the U.S. Senate Senator Party/State Years of Service Carl Levin D-MI 1979- Arlen Specter R-PA 1981 Frank Lautenberg D-NJ 1982-2001, 2003- Herb Kohl D-WI 1989- Joseph Lieberman D-CT 1989- Dianne Feinstein D-CA 1992- Barbara Boxer D-CA 1992- Russ Feingold D-WI 1993- Ron Wyden D-OR 1996- Charles Schumer D-NY 1999- Norm Coleman R-MN 2003- Sources: L. Sandy Maisel and Ira Forman, Eds. Jews in American Politics. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), and various news sources

Jewish Telegraphic Agency In second term, Cantor rises rapidly in Republican leadership Monday, December 16, 2002    By: Matthew E. Berger Two years ago, Eric Cantor was one of 435, a freshman lawmaker on Capitol Hill. Now, with only one term under his belt, Cantor (R-Va.) is a leader, the chief deputy whip of the Republican caucus and the only Jewish Republican in the House. Cantor, 39, was appointed to the prestigious post of chief deputy whip earlier this month, a position previously held by Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), now the majority whip, and by the current speaker of the House,...

Republicans have seized on the assertion of Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va) that Jews are determining American policy toward Iraq as a new weapon in the GOP's long-term effort to attract traditionally Democratic Jewish voters and doners. House Majority Leader Tome DeLay (R-Tx) told a group of more than 150 Orthodox Jewish leaders from around the country yesterday that the Democratic Party "appears to countenance remarks like those made by Representative Moran in the past few weeks"

The White House on Tuesday condemned remarks by a Democratic congressman suggesting that American Jews were responsible for pushing the United States toward a war with Iraq. Rep. James Moran of Virginia told a March 3 church forum that "if it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this." He went on to suggest that Jewish leaders could prevent war if they wanted to. Jewish groups criticized the remarks, first reported by the Reston Connection and The Washington Post, as anti-Semitic. "Congressman Moran suggested that the reason...

Jewish groups are chastising a Virginia legislator for saying the Jewish community is behind the Bush administration’s push for war against Iraq. Speaking to constituents earlier this week, Rep. James Moran (D) said, “If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this,” according to the local Connection newspaper. He said Jewish leaders were spurred by discussions they have had with Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish former prime minister. The Anti-Defamation League has sent a letter to Moran, asking him to clarify and disassociate himself...

<p>Philip Morris USA's decision to desert the Big Apple for a new home down south will bring some real economic benefits to the Richmond area.</p> <p>But it may also revive Richmond's slowly fading image as a big tobacco town, which is just fine with some folks, not so fine with others.</p>

The "Eric Cantor" sandwich was unveiled January 23 at Stacks, Washington's new kosher deli, at a fundraiser for the newly appointed deputy House majority whip. The sandwich chosen to carry the name of the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives was a tuna-based stacker — not quite a power lunch befitting the person who GOP leaders hope will reinforce the growing trend of Jews switching their partisan loyalty from Democratic to Republican. That may explain why Cantor asked Stacks to switch his eponymous sandwich from tuna to roast beef on challah, a deli special that exudes Jewish power....

AT FIRST GLANCE, Eric Cantor's life story resembles the biographies of scores of other suburban Republicans in Congress. Born and raised in the South, he attended a private Christian high school, and earned his law degree before returning home to work in the family business. He began his political career in the state legislature fighting to protect tobacco companies and return budget surpluses to taxpayers. An unflinching fiscal conservative, the Virginia Republican is pro-life, supports the Second Amendment, and backs voluntary prayer in school. He's even a Rotarian. But there's a critical difference: Cantor, 39, is the only Jewish Republican...