Kesher Talk

Moran still sinking the Democrats: The American Prowler has the nth installment of the Jim Moran saga. My friend Mike Granoff is weighing into the fray - and that can only spell doom for Moran:

The clearest sign that Moran -- and perhaps more broadly Democrats -- are in trouble with Jewish voters was news on Thursday that a former staffer for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and currently a Washington lawyer, Jeremy Bash, was willing to step up and challenge Moran in next year's Democratic primary.

Bash's roots are in the Northern Virginia district which Moran currently represents. His father was a rabbi at a Virginia temple, and the younger Bash has been active in Democratic politics. AIPAC played up the Bash decision, and then pulled out a few big guns: the money men.

Bash has already lined up some of the biggest national Jewish political donors in the game: Michael Granoff, a New York investment banker, who helped fund Democrat Artur Davis's victory over Alabama's Democratic Rep. Earl Hilliard, as well as Rep. Cynthia McKinney's defeat in Georgia. As well, Steve Grossman, former president of the DNC and AIPAC, threw his support behind Bash.

American Jewish groups are apparently enraged that Moran is now claiming that one reason for saying what he said was that his district has one of largest numbers of Muslim and Arab-American voters in the U.S. "I bet there wasn't a single Muslim or Arab American in that room when he spouted off about the Jews," says a current AIPAC staffer.

It isn't just Moran who is taking the heat. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi had asked for a private sitdown with AIPAC leaders at its upcoming Washington meeting, but was rebuffed, in part, because of her handling of the Moran mess. "We're going to make her sweat on this one," says the AIPAC staffer.

For now, Pelosi's only scheduled appearance at the AIPAC event will be on a panel alongside House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

posted by William @ 3/21/2003 12:35:50 PM