TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH

Why pay someone who already believes as you do?
Are you kidding?
There's no need for remuneration when they already
Do your bidding.

Buying the influence of known right wingers --- you
Know what?
That makes as much sense as bribing a cop to eat a
Donut.

In addition to Verse-Case Scenario, Tony Peyser writes about California politics with PeyserPoem, a daily feature at KPCC's news-driven page on Facebook called The Freeway.

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BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH

Over at least the past thirty years, conservatives have been trying to convince Jewish voters that they would be wise to cast the Democratic Party aside and move on over to the GOP.  During the past few weeks, the Republican Jewish Coalition "launched campaigns targeting Jewish communities in eight states," the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. The campaign, which  includes television advertisements, outreach in Jewish newspapers, and direct mail, will "cost more than $1 million and will feature in competitive races in Florida, Nevada, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois and Washington." At about the same time, the Emergency Committee for Israel, a newly launched group founded by neoconservative William Kristol and Religious Right leader Gary Bauer also unleashed a campaign aimed at "Democratic candidates it perceives as weak on Israel," the Jerusalem Post reported.

While conservative outreach projects to Jewish voters may be a case of, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan's renowned presidential debate quote, "there they go again," this time around, however, they appear to have a lot more money to work with, and they believe they're playing to a more receptive audience.

Are Jewish voters so dissatisfied with the Obama Administration that they will finally turn their back on the Democrats on November 2?

While a new American Jewish Congress survey suggests that although Jews appear to be not that into President Obama these days - his numbers slipped from 78 percent in 2008 to its current 51 percent -- they might not yet be quite ready to vote Republican on November 2.

One factor that might play in favor of the Democrats is that a Public Religion Research Institute poll found that 47 percent of the Tea Party movement - which is this year's version of the Republican Party - identify as Christian conservatives.  According to the Jerusalem Post, "Tea Partiers surveyed largely agreed with Republicans and Christian conservatives on abortion, gay rights and immigration, and - at 55% - actually thought that American was a Christian nation in higher numbers than the two other groups. "

As I've written previously, although it is difficult to quantify, very few Jews seem to be involved with the Tea Party movement. In a recent panel discussion at the Brookings Institution, Rabbi David Saperstein, who heads the Washington office of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said that "The primary concern that many in the Jewish community had was [the Tea Party's] overt opposition to government playing a central role in addressing the urgent problems in our society," he said of a demographic that traditionally votes overwhelmingly Democrat.

"The traditional antipathy that the Jewish community has had toward the religious Right will add to its distrust of the Tea Party movement," he concluded.

Meanwhile, in an article in The New York Jewish Week titled "'Gloom' Factor Sinks Obama's Standing With Jewish Voters," James D. Besser, the publication's Washington correspondent, citing a just-released American Jewish Congress survey, reported that "President Barack Obama's approval rating among Jewish voters has fallen six points in just seven months, and a surprisingly strong 33 percent of those surveyed say the nation would be better off with a Republican-led Congress."

"A 51 percent positive rating for a Democratic president among Jews is, frankly, terrible," University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato told Besser. "This is Obama's low point so far, no question," Sabato added. "It is coming at just the wrong moment, given the Nov. 2 midterm elections."

Commenting on the congressional elections, Sabato said that "If 33 percent of Jewish voters say they prefer a GOP Congress, that tells me that the argument for 'checks and balances' has taken hold broadly, and that we are likely headed for divided government in some form."

According to the AJC's executive director, David Harris, the poll's findings show "that the apprehension index is rising among American Jews. The gloom that has descended on the American public in general is also now revealed among American Jews. We didn't do well in Iraq and are doing worse in Afghanistan, we've lost Turkey as an ally, our current strategy is not likely to convince Iran to change its course, on health care and the economy there are growing concerns - the anxiety pops out on almost every question."

Harris pointed out however, that "The administration's misfortune does not necessarily become the good fortune of the opposition. The number suggesting they might vote Republican is creeping up, but we are not seeing a discouraged Jewish community ready to embrace of the opposition."

A historical note: In all but one presidential election since 1916, majorities - usually overwhelming -- of Jews have cast their ballots for Democrats. The ninety percent mark -- the high point of Jews voting for Democratic presidential candidates - was reached in: 1940, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat Wendell Wilke; 1944, when Roosevelt beat Thomas Dewey; and, 1964 when Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater. The one election when the majority of Jews voted for the Republican Party candidate was in 1920, when Warren G. Harding received 43 % of the Jewish vote while the Democratic Party candidate, Ohio Governor James M. Cox received 19% and Eugene V. Debs, running as a Socialist, received 38%. While the Jewish vote in presidential campaigns has ebbed and flowed over the years, the last five presidential elections has seen the Democratic candidate receive at least 76% (John Kerry over George W. Bush) and as high as 80% (Bill Clinton over George H. W. Bush).

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TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH

It's easy to understand his declaring this
Because the current Republican regents
Have made this catchy, inaccurate phrase
Practically their pledge of allegiance.

He heard Alzheimer's in Scandinavia
Was less likely for people long married;
Kilmeade's response to this information
Was especially thoughtful and varied.

He said we marry "other species & ethnics"
Like Italians and Irish, so sure
This is the main reason that here in America
Our society isn't as "pure."

Kilmeade's ignorant and racist comments
Pour out of his mouth in buckets and quarts;
This is what happens on news-related shows
When they hire guys who come out of sports.

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In an article in The New York Times on December 2, 2007 (Herzenhorn, D., "How the Filibuster Became the Rule") the GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told us how it would be whenever the GOP had that solid minority of 40 votes in the Senate: "I think that we can stipulate once again for the umpteenth time that matters that have any level of controversy about it [sic] in the Senate will require 60 votes."  In December, 2008, the titular leader of the GOP, Rush Limbaugh, announced his wish for the incoming Obama Administration.  It was four words long: "I hope he fails."  Working together, Limbaugh and McConnell have converted Limbaugh's "hope" to pretty much of a certainty in terms of legislation and appointments. Very skillfully using the filibuster and the internal pressure he can exert on his members, McConnell has made the myth that "Obama caused the mess," which you hear every day on Beckoning Savagely Le-vinitating O'RHannibaugh come absolutely true, preventing Obama from doing the really big things that need to be done if the mess is ever to be cleaned up.  And all the while Obama just about never makes that point.  The GOP's Perfect Storm.

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TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH

You would think they'd camouflage these attacks

Or make them a little vague

Considering that they are the party of Mark Foley,

Jeff Gannon and Larry Craig.

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TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH

Casual followers of current events &
Political junkies in the know
Had this same response to this story:
Don Imus still has a show?

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MARC PERKEL FOR BUZZFLASH

Attorney General Eric Holder has his priorities wrong what he says that he is going to "vigorously enforce" federal marijuana laws calling it a "core priority". Statement like that makes me wonder, "What's this guy smoking?" Maybe the justice department should make catching the criminals that ripped off the banking system a core priority? Or make prosecuting the criminals in the Bush administration who got us into a war in Iraq through falsifying evidence a core priority? Maybe the should make going after Meth labs, drugs that really are dangerous, a core priority?

If Eric Holder thinks that going after pot smokers in California is a core priority then he has the wrong core priorities. I say that if the attorney general doesn't have a clue about priorities then he should be looking for a new job. Tell the Feds they have better things to do than wasting tax dollars on prosecuting marijuana smokers.

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BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG BY MARK KARLIN

There they go again!

It's another election and another outbreak of the GOP claiming impending massive voter fraud in minority areas, when there has been no adjudication of any large-scale fraud occurring over the past several elections.

Predictably, BuzzFlash received an implausible "Conservative Action Alert" with this dire warning: "With about three weeks to go to the November 2 election, ONCE AGAIN, we are thinking about the damage that ACORN can do to the election process!"

ACORN? In 2009, with a phony video by a Breitbart protege (AKA, "Pimp Daddy") that played the race card in a strategically edited stunt, FOX and Breitbart spread innuendo about ACORN that resulted in Congressional action - and ACORN eventually disbanding. It was all a right-wing/GOP attempt to disenfranchise minority voters by keeping them from access to a national voter outreach registration organization.

Now, the "Stand America PAC" is raising money with alarmist e-mails resurrecting ACORN, as if we were witnessing a political version of "Night of the Living Dead."

The right wing is concerned that a large minority turnout could keep the GOP from regaining control of either chamber of Congress, so it's time to bring out the scarecrow by warning that ACORN is rising from the grave across America.

That's quite a trick, killing a national minority voter enfranchisement organization and then stealing its body to raise funds. ("We need your financial assistance, RIGHT NOW, to make a real difference in the next 3 weeks," the e-mail exhorts.) Quite a trick, indeed.

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SUE PASTIN FOR BUZZFLASH

We Americans have too great a county, and too much to do, to let our country go backwards.

We have to repair crumbling roads, bridges and schools - and we've only just gotten started!

We must rebuild our economy and our manufacturing base, using solar and wind power more than oil and gas.

We must push small business investment and growth - good for Obama and Congress for passing a bill to do just that. And, as Obama is doing, we must stress research and development so we build a competitive edge.

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BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG BY MARK KARLIN

It is an ironic detail lost in much of the coverage of the recent federal court ruling that found "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) to be an unconstitutional policy. The case was filed against the US Department of Defense in 2004 by the Log Cabin (LGBT) Republicans. Yes, a gay Republican organization was the lead plaintiff.

Now the Obama administration is trying to have it both ways by appealing the ban on DADT by Federal Judge Virginia A. Phillips of California while asserting that it actually opposes the discriminatory policy.

In one of many emails that BuzzFlash has recently received from the 30-year-old group, the gay Republican organization denounces the White House: "We are not surprised by the government's action, as it repeats the broken promises and empty words from President Obama avowing to end 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' while at the same directing his Justice Department to defend this unconstitutional policy," said Dan Woods, the White & Case partner who is representing the Log Cabin Republicans. "Now that the government has filed a request for a stay, we will oppose it vigorously because brave, patriotic gays and lesbians are serving in our armed forces to fight for all of our constitutional rights while the government is denying them theirs."

What a revealing example of how the Obama administration often engages in a coin toss to determine a political position and shouts, "Heads and tails!" Some fences cannot be straddled, and DADT is one of them.

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