"Democrats need to start asking themselves how they came
to treat the outrageous as routine."
SMILING AT ANTI-SEMITISM
NEW YORK POST
Eric Fettmann
June 23, 2005
SEVERAL leading Democrats have spent the past few days furiously back tracking from an outrageous — and thoroughly under-reported — demonstration of blatant anti-Semitism that manifested itself last week at a congressional quasi-hearing.
But all that outrage amounts to too little sputtering much too late.
Indeed, it sends a disturbing message about the state of today's Democratic Party.
The venue in question wasn't a genuine legislative session; the GOP majority refused to cooperate with what the Washington Post's Dana Milbank appropriately described as a "mock impeachment inquiry."
What happened was that a group of the most diehard anti-war Democrats — whose ranks quickly swelled once word got around that C-SPAN was airing the event live — got together and declared the so-called Downing Street Memos to be the unassailable "smoking gun" proving that President Bush lied the nation into war.
Among the hand-picked "witnesses" was Ray McGovern, the former CIA analyst who has embarked on a new career denouncing the administration and, apparently, buying into every conspiracy theory the loony Left has to offer.
Midway through the event, McGovern was asked: "What was the real motivation, in your mind, for why we did go to war in Iraq?"
"I use the acronym OIL," he said, "O for oil, I for Israel and L for the logistical base necessary or deemed necessary by the so-called neocons — and it reeks through all their documents — the logistical base whereby the United States and Israel could dominate that area of the world."
"It's a very strategically important area of the world," he explained, "mostly because it has oil, but also because Israel, which is traditionally described as our ally — and I don't know of any alliance we had with Israel — has been very influential in our policy."
McGovern went on to charge that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "has our president wrapped around his little finger," adding that Bush has been "mesmerized" by Sharon.
He added a complaint: "I have to say that Israel is something that is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation. Last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic."
The reaction of the House Democrats — some 30 in all, by that point — to McGovern's tirade? Silence, the transcript shows.
Not a word of protest. Not a word of disagreement.
Nothing from John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who chaired the session. Nothing from legislators like Jerrold Nadler, of Manhattan's West Side. Or Harlem's Charlie Rangel, or Greg Meeks of Queens, or Barney Frank of Massachusetts or Rush Holt from New Jersey.
Meanwhile, reports Milbank, over at Democratic headquarters, activists handed out documents containing accusations that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks.
Not until Milbank's column appeared did the Dems start to comprehend the potential damage. National Chairman Howard Dean declared "unequivocally that such statements are nothing but vile, anti-Semitic rhetoric."
Nadler? He sent out a press release stating that "there is no place in this debate for maligning Israel and defaming our support of her ongoing struggle for security and peace."
Conyers himself sent a letter to The Washington Post calling McGovern's words both "anti-Semitic" and "disgusting and offensive" — but he was clearly much more upset with Milbank than with anything else, complaining that focusing on the anti-Israel remarks was "a deliberate attempt to discredit the entire hearing."
But if all these statements were as vile and offensive as these distinguished Democrats now say, why is it that no one seemed to notice it at the time?
Was Jerry Nadler afraid of being booed, live on C-SPAN, if he'd raised an objection?
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has largely mortgaged its soul to the various far-left antiwar groups who so dominated last year's primaries. That's why the rhetoric of so many leading Democrats lately has been so over the top.
After all, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin last week compared the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo to Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet gulag. It's not a big step to move from that to declaring that George W. Bush went to war in Iraq on direct orders from Israel.
The problem calls for more than apologies — like the one Durbin made Tuesday, nearly a week after the fact — and belated condemnations. Democrats need to start asking themselves how they came to treat the outrageous as routine.
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