New Day: J Street Raises $15,000 for Donna Edwards in 240 Minutes
Check it out. Since I posted what follows, J Street's appeal for Donna Edwards raised $15,000. Plus top Jewish legislators in the House and Senate told the anti-Edwards organizers to back off. It's a new day.
Last week I posted a piece from Politico about how some powerful people opposed to President Obama's Middle East policies have decided to target Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland. She is the African-American woman who stunned the political universe by knocking off long-time representative Al Wynn in a Democratic primary.
The rightwingers are particularly incensed by Rep. Edwards decision not to support a one-sided House resolution endorsing the Gaza war. She voted "present."
So now the Likudniks are threatening to run a primary against her, are organizing against her in the Jewish community both in Maryland and nationally and, all around, trouble-making against a strong, liberal new House Democrat.
In the old days, money might have poured in to defeat her. But this time, the other side has organized first. Led by J Street, progressive Democrats (and some Republicans too) are rushing to her support. This is something new because prior to J Street, those of us on the pro-peace side of things had no vehicle to direct money to candidates we liked. (My own organization, Israel Policy Forum, provides the informational resources to the Hill but we are legally prevented from providing money).
That is what J Street can do and is doing. J Street's appeal is here.
At 51 years of age, "young" Edwards is vastly older and more experienced than the crude drunks in the recent video from the bar in Israel whose sentiments are held by a few voices old enough to know better in Maryland as well. Last year, she got 60% of the Dem. primary vote against the former incumbent, followed by 85% of the vote in the general election. She appears to be clever and likable. Other than a few Israel-is-always-right-no-matter-what obsessed cranks, what is the actual organizational effort against her? Show us some evidence, please, of the "organizing" and "trouble-making." If this is really true and substantial it is an outrageous example of scapegoating that would seem likely to have good potential for backfiring on the scapegoaters. I certainly appreciate J Street's efforts, but with only a handful of members of Congress having even enough of a sliver of a backbone to enable them to vote "present" on a shameful pro-settler and pro-massacre resolution in Congress, might the money not be better spent where the contest between truth and hypocrisy, and between simple fairness and amorality, is more closely contested?
June 9, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ: This is an easy call.
Rep. Edwards just has the courage to give a speech saying that she is being challenged because she won't rubber stamp the policies of the Israel government. If she is afraid to do that, then she's not much of a maverick.
Even better, she should refuse money from AIPAC. And tell her voters that her seat is not up for sale. And challenge her opponent to refuse campaign donations from people outside her district.
June 9, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...tell her voters that her seat is not up for sale. And challenge her opponent to refuse campaign donations from people outside her district."
Given her popularity, this approach would seem preferable to trying to descend to the gutter occupied by her Likudnik detractors. That would still leave an important supporting role for J Street and like-minded national "progressive" Jewish organizations, however. Instead of helping defending a common-sense position of a Congress member that should need no defending, they could use their resources to go on the offensive against the renegade rabbis, etc. who outrageously presume to speak for American Jews generally when they effectively insist that resolutions endorsing baby-killing in Gaza be a litmus test for Congress.
June 9, 2009 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink