Kesher Talk

When the six senior -- and Jewish -- House Democrats Wednesday signed a letter expressing their revulsion at the recent comments of Rep. James Moran, D-Va., and stating they will not support his re-election, they were motivated by their deeply personal concerns about the history of hostility toward Jews in the United States and elsewhere and by the current unusually tense political climate. "There are consequences to what [public officials] say," said Rep. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, one of the six signers. "What Jim Moran said is very dangerous. It gives cover to people who are anti-Semitic. When that happens, it's important for colleagues to speak up." Rep. Martin Frost of Texas said: "We wanted to make it very clear that his kind of comment is unacceptable in contemporary American politics. It was basically a libel against the Jewish people."

Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the senior Jewish member in the House, took the lead in writing the letter because of what Moran said about Jewish support for the war in Iraq plus the broader context of international terrorism, according to a spokesman. "He has strong views, and he wanted to make them public," the aide said. Although many other Jewish members would have been eager to sign the letter, Waxman deliberately limited the number of signatures to enhance its impact. Each of the signers has been elected to at least eight terms, and three are ranking members of House committees -- Waxman at Government Reform, Frost at Rules and Rep. Tom Lantos of California at International Relations. Of the other three, Cardin and Rep. Sander Levin are ranking members on Ways and Means subcommittees and Rep. Nita Lowey of New York is the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee's ranking member. Additionally, House Minority Leader Pelosi today announced that Moran had stepped down as a regional whip at her request. "I have taken this action because Congressman Moran's irresponsible remarks were a serious mistake," Pelosi said. "As I said earlier this week, his comments were not only inappropriate, they were offensive and have no place in the Democratic Party."

With Frost and Lowey as past chairmen of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the letter was extraordinary in stating that the signers opposed the re-election of a colleague in the Democratic Caucus. Although they were not seeking to influence the emerging discussion of possible Democratic primary challengers to Moran in his district, they wanted to make clear that he cannot count on support from them -- or, presumably, from other colleagues -- if he seeks re-election.

The Democrats said they saw no parallel in the Moran case to the successful primary challenges in 2002 to then-Reps. Earl Hilliard of Alabama and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia because of their hostile remarks and votes on Israel; in each of those cases, opposition to the incumbents came from outside Jewish groups, not from fellow House members. ...

posted by William @ 3/14/2003 03:43:46 PM