Jennifer Rubin: Republicans manage to get Democrats out of a jam -- by showing the GOP's true colors
Source: Washington Post
Republicans manage to get Democrats out of a jam — by showing the GOP’s true colors
By Jennifer Rubin
Opinion writer
March 7 at 6:23 PM
After a remarkably successful start for the new Congress, House Democrats got themselves tied up in knots this week. In responding to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who accused Israel supporters of loyalty to a foreign country, Democratic leaders encountered the tribalism and extremism that afflict its far left-wing. A resolution condemning anti-Semitism somehow stirred outrage on the far left; the resolution against anti-Semitism became a resolution condemning all kinds of bigotry. (Dual loyalty did get a mention.) Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) weakly offered that Omar just didn’t understand the weight of her remarks.
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) expressed the exasperation of many:
To its credit, a new group of pro-Israel progressive Democrats, Democratic Majority for Israel, issued a strong statement: “We know that the vast majority of Democrats in Congress, and elsewhere, support a strong US-Israel relationship and abhor anti-Semitism in any form. . . . Let’s be very clear: the issue at stake here is anti-Semitism, not support for, or opposition to, any policy of the Israeli government. Congresswoman Omar’s remarks did not mention a single policy pursued by the Government of Israel.” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wrote persuasively as well that the party needed to call out anti-Semitism, and this was just such a time.
Then things got really weird. The voting began, and Republicans started voting “no” — on a declaration condemning hate. No, really. Republican dissenters included a member of the House leadership (Rep. Liz Cheney) and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who fancies himself a friend of Israel, as well as veteran crackpots such as Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.). Once more, Republicans snatched back the mantle of racial and religious insensitivity, announcing to the world that they couldn’t possibly be against both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Twenty-three Republicans voted no.
Republicans have become intellectually corrupted and morally perverse under a president they have never voted to condemn. There remains a significant batch of Republicans — not one or two — who feel queasy about condemning hate groups, or in this case condemning President Trump’s Charlottesville remarks (which were also referenced).
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/07/republicans-manage-get-dems-out-jam-by-showing-gops-true-colors/
= new reply since forum marked as read
