Indicted AIPACer Gets Job With Hatemonger Daniel Pipes
JTA reports that Steve Rosen, former Director of Policy at AIPAC, has landed a job with Daniel Pipes, whose careeer has gone from various teaching gigs to fulltime anti-Obama and anti-Muslim hate-mongering. Rosen is under federal indictment for espionage.
I'll spare comment on Rosen with whom I worked during my AIPAC days (1982-1986) and who has always struck me as Washington's spookiest character. I will say that in 1984, when he was supporting Reagan and I was gung-ho for Mondale,he told me, "You and I are not that far apart. You'll be surprised to know that my parents were Stalinists."
No, I wasn't surprised. I'm even less surprised that he and Pipes have teamed up.
Mondale, however, might be taken aback by the comparison.
PS This is the same Rosen who, on my first day at AIPAC, sent me a memo. It read: "A lobby is a nightflower. It thrives in the dark and withers in the sun." I've pretty much been playing flashlight ever since.
Birds of a feather....
November 4, 2008 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just voted in Western Ky. Biggest turnout I've ever seen. Had to wait in line for 20 min. Line was longer when I left.
November 4, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
...And, ultimately, is quite toxic... Like a toadstool.
November 4, 2008 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
The first time I saw Daniel Pipes was on C-SPAN,
I think I said to myself;
"Where the f**k did they get this guy?"
November 4, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
The irony of Pipes' career is that he focuses exclusively on the negative trends in Islam. Don't we call a person with such a selective focus a bigot?
November 4, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
When is this guy going to be tried? Does this delay work in Aipac's favor? I would think that the faster they get this behind them the better for them.
November 4, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
When is this guy going to be tried? Does this delay work in Aipac's favor? I would think that the faster they get this behind them the better for them.
November 4, 2008 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know. The government has a pretty bad case. Much as I dislike Rosen, I thought that everyone is entitled to a timely trial.
But again, I don't think there's anything there.
As for his co-defedant, Keith Weissman, he is the Ethel Rosenberg of the case. "Why not just indict him too?"
November 4, 2008 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
And hasn't he undergone a profound change since the indictment?
BTW, the worst part of the Ethel Rosenberg comparison, is that just before Julius Rosenberg's execution, the government asked him for proof of his wife's guilt. Not a great moment for American Justice.
November 4, 2008 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Weissman was never a real AIPAC kind of guy. He's a scholar on Iran who took a job at Aipac. He is not a Likud danatic by any means.
November 4, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
The amazing thing about the Rosenberg case (no relation) is that the US killed Ethel KNOWING she didn't do anything, purely as leverage.
Once one assimilates that fact, it is easier to understand that ANYTHING is possible in this country and that even the JFK conspiracy folks may be on to something. They executed a young mother to put pressure on her husband. What wouldn't they do?
November 4, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hence, the nightmare of the Unitary Theory of the Executive. Everyone who wields power needs checks and balance.
November 4, 2008 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Meanwhile, on a related note...
November 4, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just to interrupt the echo chamber of think-alikes here, Daniel Pipes is not a "hatemonger" or a bigot. I visit his website regularly. So should you. He is a recognized scholar and does not hate Islam or Muslims. His focus is on making people aware of the growth and ambition of radical Islam or "Islamism," which is a genuine threat.
Bigotry and name-calling from the left is as destructive as bigotry and name-calling from the right. Stop calling people like Pipes "hatemonger"or worse, and I'll refrain from calling you an "enemy of Israel" or "self-hating Jew" or whatever is current on the other side.
One thing that has greatly impressed me about Obama is his avoidance of the polarizing rhetoric that has greatly depressed me about McCain/Palin. When you begin by calling Pipes a "hatemonger" I assume I am reading liberal drivel. It's the equivalent of a right-winger referring to "Arab terrorist Rashid Khalidi." If I see that, I, like you, know he doesn't know what he's talking about, but merely hates Obama and is throwing mud.
Stop playing to the crowd that already agrees with you, show that you've opened your mind to something coming from the right of the New York Times, and people like me might actually listen to you. Shalom.
November 4, 2008 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink