The Lobby is a racket.
xymphora.blogspot.com
>>One of the most important things to know about the Lobby is that it is so powerful, and so ruthless, that those who have felt its influence are terrified to talk about it. Thus, the relative shortage of anecdotal evidence about how it operates. That’s why this posting by wmtriallawyer at Daily Kos is so useful (reprinted here in case it disappears; considering it is at the notoriously censored Daily Kos, it is nothing short of a miracle that it is still there!; needless to say, wmtriallawyer was immediately slurred; my emphasis throughout in red):
“A little over 10 years ago, I got my ‘formal’ start in politics. I worked as the field coordinator for Julia Carson during her first run for the House. It was heady stuff for a wide-eyed kid who loved politics. Fresh of my experience from working for Jim Hightower, I wanted to get out there and take the House back from two years of Newt Gingrich maddness.
Our race was one of those ‘top 25’ targets Charlie Cook and gang liked to talk about. And because of it, we got quite a few Washington consultants coming out the campaign to give their advice and support. It was then I began to notice an alarming trend.
Over and over, we began to hear about how we needed to tap into the ‘Jewish vote.’ Odd, I thought, because in my naivete I never considered the ‘Jewish vote’ to be some sort of voting bloc. Then, however, the talk of the ‘Jewish vote’ began to morph into the chase for ‘Jewish money.’
This was a real wake-up call to me, because it sounded so insidious and seemed to reinforce a stereotype. We talked about reaching out to other interest groups for votes: African-Americans, Hispanics, gays and lesbians. But we never talked about getting ‘African-American money’ or ‘gay and lesbian money.’
Anyway, we were quickly told that the way to tap into the Jewish vote and money was to demonstrate unfettered support for Israel. So, some of our folks wrote up a few quick talking points, put out a one-pager, and voila! – we support Israel. That should do it.
I wish it had ended there.”
and:
“I began to see how the ‘game’ was played, that the concern for reelection and keeping power was more important than using power to effectuate change. And that became starkly clear when AIPAC contacted my boss.
My boss went on an all-expense paid trip to Israel on AIPAC's dime. It was one of those educational junkets that interest groups paid for. I was a little concerned about it, but I paid it little mind. She had a wonderful time and learned a lot.
But as the saying goes, nothing in life comes for free. A few months later, Congress was voting on that year's foreign aid bill. As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Carson opposed the bill, because it contained far few dollars for Africa than needed to be in the bill. However, there was a substantial amount of money going to Israel.
After her opposition became public, and she voted against it, the calls started coming in from all corners of the U.S. Members of AIPAC called to say that Rep. Carson was wrong for opposing the bill because it helped Israel. She tried to explain, but in all honesty, some of the callers were really angry. Mind you, hardly any of the folks that called were her constituents...they were donors. And they thought they had a solid vote because of the Israel trip. And some of them were plenty rude on the phone.
Rep. Carson became frustrated and one day said, ‘I just don't know what they want from me.’
I was silent when I heard this, but I knew what they wanted. They wanted her vote. And in the back of my head, I was thinking that she shouldn't have taken that trip to Israel.”
The points to note:
- When anyone talks about getting the ‘Jewish vote’ – odd when there are usually no Jews to vote – they really mean ‘Jewish money’.
- It is the donors, i.e., the Jewish Billionaires, who call the shots, not the Jewish voters.
- As we know, the Jewish Billionaires are ‘one-issue guys’, and everything turns around fealty to Israel, or at least Likud party policies.
The best way to describe the actions of the Jewish Billionaires is to think of an organized crime gang. Organized crime will usually leave you alone, unless, for some reason, you incur some kind of obligation to them. Then, on the twisted logic of the thugs, they feel they can put any and all pressure on you, and exact whatever tribute they desire, even if it is greatly out of proportion to the original obligation. They feel that they literally own you. Note the relatively small obligation – the free trip to Israel – followed by the assumption, rudely insisted upon by people who don’t even have the right to insist, that you must comply with all their demands. Of course, if the extreme pressure tactics fail, they will turn the matter over to the money men, the leg-breakers, who will use their money to ensure you are not reelected. Since every Washington politician knows the drill, it rarely comes to that, and the pressure almost always works. Thus, for example, we see a constant stream of the most outrageously pro-Israel/pro-Likudnik resolutions in the U. S. Senate, passed by numbers like 99–1 or 98–2.
You just have to laugh when the Lobby employees claim that the Lobby has no power.<< |
