Help me get the right wingers on their hypocricy!

[beachmom]

I'm going to start now, but help me with finding quotes from Limbaugh, Corsi, and the rest, making snarky comments about John Kerry's Jewish grandparents. And what's that bible quote about something being in your eye? If these idiots (on the local Va. blogs -- right and left talk a lot there) are religious right at all, the bible quote also may make them pause!

[beachmom]

1. Oh good God, now Kerry is being attacked

http://inactivist.org/reminding_mr_frum_about_matters_pertaining_to_jews_running_for_office

Perhaps, I shouldn't get into this battle.

[sandnsea]

7. I stuck in a toe

Assholes.

[fedupinBushcountry]

2. This on Media Matters on Corsi

and what he said.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060010

[beachmom]

6. Thanks, Fedup. Hey, have you checked out local blogs?

I have never seen anything like it. The Democrats and Republicans comment on each others' blogs. Like every day. And it's more civilized than DU. And the Republicans were upset when a Democrat passed away, and put up the memorial fund on their blog, asking fellow Republicans to donate to it. True, they're idiots, but it's sooo weeiirrdd seeing it. And I think I'm too "DU/Kos", and am really trying to ramp down the rhetoric to fit in with the tone (I called them trolls, and I guess that's below the belt in this weird local world). I'll post what I write momentarily.

[TayTay]

3. Ah Bite ME, who cares

Fun article though. It's true, one of the side effects of running for Pres is getting a real and complete geneology done:


A JEWISH KERRY, AN IRISH FORBESCAN THERE EVER HAVE BEEN SUCH A FUSS ABOUT A FELLOW'S ROOTS AS THE CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING SENATOR JOHN FORBES KERRY? WHEN HE WAS RUNNING FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO, THERE WERE BOSTONIANS WHO OCCASIONALLY GROWLED: ``HE'S MORE FORBES THAN KERRY.'' THE IMPLICATION WAS THAT ALTHOUGH KERRY WAS A ROMAN CATHOLIC, HE HAD MORE IN COMMON WITH HIS PROTESTANT BOSTON BRAHMIN FORBES FAMILY THAN HE DID WITH HIS KERRY SIDE, WHICH MOST PEOPLE ASSUMED WAS IRISH.

Boston Globe, THIRD, Sec. Op-Ed, p A19 (02-14-2003)

By H.D.S. GREENWAY

In political Boston, where class and ethnicity smolder under the surface like a fire in a mine shaft, not being considered Irish enough could be serious, although Kerry never claimed to be Irish. His Kerrys were from Austria.

That the Forbes family originally came from Scotland, and therefore were at least Celtic, was not a mitigating factor as far as many of the Irish tradition were concerned. As Gerry Adams, the Ulster politician and former IRA man, once famously said: "A Scot is an honorary Englishman."

Now that we have learned that the senator is more Kohn than Kerry, Globe genealogists having ferreted out the information that his Kerry grandfather was born Jewish and changed both his name and his religion, controversy swirls anew with nonsense about how Jewish he really is or about what he knew and when he knew it.

John Forbes Kerry, of St. Paul's School, Yale, and Skull & Bones, survived those long-ago ethnic slurs and class antagonisms and went on to greater things. But now that he has announced his intention to oust George Walker Bush - Andover, Yale, and Skull & Bones - from the White House, ethnicity is back in the arena. Within days Kerry was discussing his Jewish roots with members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and saying he now had a personal reason to care about Israel.

But where does this leave the Irish? Are they to be excluded from the Kerry's family tree? Hibernians, do not despair! This just in! The Forbes family traces its ancestry back to the earliest Forbes, who was none other than one O'Connor Foibeiseach, who emigrated to Scotland from Ireland in 864 AD to found the clan. He came from what is now Northern Ireland, but fear not. Martin Luther and John Knox were not around in those days to complicate matters in Ireland. Foibeiseach, which means something close to Brave and Virtuous in the Gaelic tongue, (LOL!) was shortened to Forbes as Gaelic gave ground to English north of the River Tweed.

And that's not all. Irish history records that John Bennet Forbes, the Boston merchant, China-trader, and shipbuilder, sent ships of grain to relieve the Great Hunger that beset Ireland in 1847, the famine that sent its citizens by their thousands to Boston. No better friend did Ireland have in those bitter days.

I like to think that teams of Globe genealogists are beavering away on the family tree of Joseph Lieberman, also Yale, to level the playing field; perhaps to find a long lost link to Eamon de Valera, the Jewish prime minister of Ireland, or even the former Irish Guards officer, Vivian Herzog, who changed his name to Chaim and went on to become president of Israel.

I like to think of Howard Dean up in Vermont, yet another Yalie, digging into his family past searching for new and revelatory connections in order not to be left behind in the ethnic dust. Candidate John Edwards - North Carolina State, University of North Carolina - can certainly be expected to start negative advertising, pointing out the dangers of an obvious Yale conspiracy to take over the world. Yalie presidents of one stripe or another have sat in the White House ever since Ronald Reagan left town 22 years ago. Can the country afford another? At least Kerry can point to long lines of Harvard men in his family to deflect some of the fallout.

And speaking of Harvard men, Senator Kerry still has another ace up his sleeve. With the Democratic Party primaries less than a year away, we may soon be hearing more about Kerry's distant connection to Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Groton, Harvard, Fly Club - gained when a Forbes married into the Murray family, which in turn merged with Delanos. FDR's famous Aberdeen terrier, Fala, was named after Patrick Murray of Fala Hill, whose kilt the future president was forced to wear when he was but a wee lad. With connections like these who needs degrees of separation?

[TayTay]

5. C'Mon, even the Herald didn't give a shit.

Fuss over Kerry's Irish 'roots' just so much blarney
Boston Herald, All, Sec. News, p 4 (03-10-2003)
By Joe Sciacca

The tipoff should have been when he ordered steak tartar with cabbage. Or when he called the temp service and tried to hire some leprechauns as Senate interns.

John Kerry is guilty, guilty, guilty. The charge: Impersonating an Irishman, although no one is quite sure whether that's a felony or misdemeanor.

Sure we're on the verge of war, facing the constant threat of terrorism and spinning our wheels in a sliding economy. But all that is nothing compared to what's dogging Kerry on the presidential campaign trail. It's the Great Shamrock Sham.

It's not that Kerry actually pretended to be Irish. It's that he may have left people with the impression that he was Irish, and never launched a media blitz to correct any such impression.

Not even one TV ad: "Hello, I'm Senator John Kerry. And in case you were thinking I'm Irish, I'm not. Thank you." It is, of course, a blip on the screen in the race for the White House, but just to be sure, we checked with an actual Irishman.

"It's a blip on the screen," said Bob O'Hearn yesterday. "I don't think (Kerry's Irishness or lack thereof) comes into play in the presidential race at all.

"Some people are way too sensitive about that stuff. Most people believe that we're all Americans first. Everybody should be proud of their ethnic ancestry, but it really is secondary to who that person really is."

O'Hearn, 100 percent Irish and that's no blarney, is a furniture salesman who is married to a New Hampshire state senator, Republican Jane O'Hearn from Nashua. He says the most John Kerry is going to have to put up with as the result of the startling revelation that his grandfather was Jewish and that he has no Irish blood (even though he never said he did) is some ribbing on St. Patrick's Day.

"I'd like to ask him which county he's from," O'Hearn said. "I've never heard of Kohn County."

It is, indeed, laughable on one level. But the scrutiny of Kerry's ethnic background - and the subsequent national headlines - has been, as even CNN's resident conservative Tucker Carlson called it, "creepy." Not only is it required that our presidential candidates be pure of heart, it is now apparently required that they be pure-bred as well. They must submit not only their financial records and criminal background checks, but also DNA samples. No Clinton jokes, please.

If one considers the nature of the scandals that have hounded Kerry in his White House run so far, it seems the bar for what constitutes a relevant campaign issue has been lowered to ant level.

First there was the report that he had spent $150 for a haircut. He denied that, but there was something much worse making the rounds: That he had colored his hair. Kerry aides scrambled to respond. No, they said, he does not color his hair nor does he highlight it. While some of us simply appreciate hair of any color, the senator's hair scare is, thankfully, over - for now.

Then there was the stunner that Kerry had held back news of his prostate cancer for a several weeks because he wanted to share the news with his family before telling the press. The senator really needs to learn the proper protocol: Have a news conference and just ask your family to tune in.

What's next? In the latest Vogue magazine, Kerry confesses to being a fan of the poet Pablo Neruda. Oh really, senator. Is your favorite line, "Naked, you are blue as a night in Cuba." Is it? Yes or no? Confess now!

And finally, the Irish ancestry scandal. The misimpression that Kerry is Irish has been openly mocked for years, his aides point out. From the Pols and Politics column in this newspaper, February 1995: "Kerry is not really Irish, although his campaign strategists like to keep alive that myth."

And Bill Bulger's oft-quoted St. Patrick's Day line that Kerry "becomes Irish every sixth year." Yet Kerry now finds himself trying to respond to the nonsensical stretch that, because of the Irish ancestry confusion and the news that he has some Jewish roots, he is suffering an "identity crisis." If he doesn't know his own family tree, what else doesn't he know about himself - or something like that.

Kerry should be held accountable for much on the campaign trail: Who gives him money and what they want, where he stands on failed Democratic policies, how he sees the future and yes, who he is.

But that has nothing to do with what he has said - or hasn't said - about his ethnicity.

***************

It was funny however.

[karynnj]

25. This is funny - and actually nice except for "failed" Democratic

policies. I love the list of Kerry scandals.

[karynnj]

24. Kerry is distantly related to FDR?

Why didn't we hear that?

[beachmom]

4. Hey I was wrong -- David Frum at NRO sorta kinda defends Kerry

and pretty much labels the Allen team a bunch of babies.

http://frum.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWIzYWRkZTg3MzYzNzEzMjFjZmRiNDNjZDE4MzU4NjY=

Sep. 20, 2006: Allen & Media Bias


It really is outrageous that people would suggest that George Allen has been the victim of media bias. Of course they would behave in an exactly similar way to a similarly situated Democrat. Remember how the press fiercely grilled Sen. John Forbes Kerry about his ancestry and background - how they demanded to know why he had presented himself as Irish all these years when in fact his paternal grandparents were Jews from Vienna who had changed their name from the original Kohn - and how the reporters insinuated that Kerry was either ashamed of himself or else secretly antisemitic when he implausibly denied that he had ever had any idea of his background until jourrnalists discovered it for him. Remember? Anybody?

[Mass]

8. Not really defending Kerry, but attacking Allen, definitively.

Though it may also be a way to say: why such a big deal, Kerry did the same thing and to relativize what Allen said.

One blogger said it well in the blog you posted. The difference is that Kerry fully embraced his Jewish heritage (remember how he went to the St Pat breakfast a few days later and joke about it) while Allen ran away from it.

[beachmom]

10. Allen is an idiot, but I actually have been talking to real voters

And this entire episode is NOT a winner for Webb. I'm urging everyone to drop it. Too bad Allen won't.

[Mass]

11. I agree. The point has been made. Going further makes him look

like a victim.

[beachmom]

12. Then I read THIS -- Allen IS a liar -- but once again, just for us

This should NOT be part of the Webb campaign. Still, the BG had nothing on Kerry, whereas Virginian papers DO:


http://dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190728997&path=!news!opinion

But in this case, there is an answer to Mr. Allen’s question. In this case, there is relevance.

And it’s this: Three years ago The Daily Progress reported that the senator’s mother was of Jewish heritage.

Two days later, Mr. Allen’s press secretary called to demand a correction.

What’s relevant? It’s that Mr. Allen - or at least his handlers - prevaricated about his mother’s, and therefore his own, heritage three years ago.

Why?

And what precipitated the turnaround when finally, this week, Mr. Allen acknowledged his mother’s background?

On Oct. 26, 2003, veteran writer Bob Gibson wrote in his Political Notebook column: “Many people are not aware that Allen’s mother came from a Jewish family in Tunisia.”

The sentence was relevant because it provided context to the senator’s decision to hold subcommittee hearings on the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.

His press secretary then called to rebut the statement. That led to the following, which ran under a “Correction” heading: “Etty Allen, the mother of U.S. Sen. George Allen, was raised a Christian, according to the senator’s staff. Her religious background was mischaracterized in a Sunday column.”

Now we learn that her - and his - religious background was not “mischaracterized” in the column. But it was tacitly denied when his office sought a correction.

[sandnsea]

14. I think so too

It's moved to the beating a dead horse phase. Webb needs to turn the page and fast.

I still can't understand a Virginian who goes to the polls and votes for Kerry and then says - ain't that George Allen grand!! That seems to me to be the thing you guys need to figure out in a hurry.

[beachmom]

15. Sorry -- who voted for Kerry and now likes Allen? n/t

[sandnsea]

16. That's the question

Kerry got 45% of the vote - yet before the macaca incident, Webb was only running around 35%. I just cannot wrap my head around those numbers. It literally says there were Virginians who voted for the "Taxachusetts liberal pacifist" John Kerry - and then turned around and planned to vote for George Allen. How??? I could understand better if they were voting for a southern Dem and then supported George Allen - but Kerry?? I don't get it and it seems to me this goes to the heart of our election problems.

BTW, I'm equally mystified by the people in my own district who vote for our very liberal Congressman and George Bush. (We just keep his liberal votes under wraps.)

[beachmom]

17. Good point. It makes no sense.

But seriously, guys, I talked to voters, and they're really against "mudslinging". It makes me wonder how effective the SBVT was. Perhaps saying Kerry "didn't fight back" is just Dems jockeying for '08 position, and has little to do with hard numbers. A lot of the swing voters don't like "unpleasantness" of any kind. "just the issues" they say -- and I though Kerry was quite honorable in August of 2004, trying not to let their lies distract him. He addressed it at that firefighters speech, and let his surrogates do the rest. I'm beginning to question many of the assumptions people have made about the Swifties and IF they really affected the outcome of the election one bit.

BTW, when I looked at that article about Corsi, there was a rebuttal by the Kerry campaign. They were fighting back every day:

The Kerry campaign called Corsi's Web chat postings disgusting.

"President Bush should immediately condemn this sleazy book written by a virulent anti-Catholic bigot. It says something about the smear campaign against John Kerry that it has stooped to enlist a hatemonger," said campaign spokesman Chad Clanton.

Terry Holt, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said neither the president nor his campaign has ever questioned Kerry's military service. "It's shameful for the Kerry campaign to suggest so by falsely associating us with this effort," Holt said.

"Unfit for Command," which goes on sale Wednesday, accuses the Democratic presidential nominee of lying about his decorated wartime record and betraying comrades by returning from Vietnam and alleging widespread atrocities by U.S. troops.

The book claims that Kerry earned his Silver Star not in a barrage of enemy fire, but rather by killing a fleeing Viet Cong teenager. It also questions the three Purple Hearts that Kerry earned, saying that none was for serious injuries and two wounds were self-inflicted.

According to medical records from his naval service, Kerry still has shrapnel in his thigh from a war injury.



This article was dated August 10th.

[sandnsea]

19. I would have agreed before macaca

I'm actually becoming a bit miffed that a Senate election can actually turn on one incident like this. Is it really so bad that people only respond to stuff like macaca and Bush being called the devil?? If so, sad sad state of affairs. It seems to be running across the country - the Burns election isn't much different, although at least his downfall started with ties to Abramoff and corruption. The entire world seems to be one big sandbox and the teachers are all on coffee break. :crazy:

[blm]

18. This is Frum's way to make sure same charges AGAINST Kerry were HEARD

in order to DIFFUSE the Allen story. Pretty transparent. Gee, gang, remember when Kerry......

[beachmom]

20. I don't think so -- from my perspective that article was good for Virginia

I can cite a conservative who thinks Allen is a big crybaby for whining about this, when it happened to Kerry. PLUS, in order for them to condemn Kerry, then they HAVE to condemn Allen. And it will be a nonissue for '08 for Kerry (Allen, meanwhile, will be dogged with racism forever).

Of course, Allen has more problems because he was caught in a blatant lie 3 years ago, when they made a newspaper retract a story that was true. Also, he and his family are a bunch of bigots, whereas Kerry is from a tolerant, liberal family.

[blm]

21. Big difference when a bigot gets caught -

I highly doubt anyone could find any statement Kerry ever uttered that was antiSemitic.

[beachmom]

22. That's true. But the campaign manager for Allen has called

the Webb campaign and bloggers who are paid at the Webb campaign "anti-semitic". So David's column completely debunks that by showing that the Boston press grilled Kerry just as bad, and they had LESS to work with than with Allen. He said there is no bias in the media, and that this happened to a Democrat before. Meanwhile, there is MUCH more to go after with Allen.

Plus, if Webb wins the election, then that will be another win for Kerry who endorsed Webb before the primary and has raised money for Webb.

[beachmom]

9. Here is my post:

http://vbdems.blogspot.com/2006/09/dem-rockstars-on-video.html#links

Right winger:

Webb’s fantastic interview?!?!? Wow, we really do see what we want. Yes, watch the video! Watch Webb avoid the questions on paid bloggers. Watch Webb skirt the issue that it is his surrogates who are on a witch hunt to “Out the Jew”. What as Webb has to justify his staff’s actions in this attitude towards Jewish people as if being Jewish is this horrible thing. Trust me, the video will be available in short order for all to see. You all know where to look.

Sure spin it as if Allen was ‘hiding’ his heritage. Webb was asked if that was the case and he would not answer it. The issue is Progressives contempt for Jews, Israel and their underlying resentment of a people they blame for so much. Trust me, I will blog about this subtle attitude towards the Jewish people. Allen is now feeling the what Miller felt. Should we expect hook-nose cartoons of Allen as we saw with the Miller attacks?


And, me:

The bloggers you refer to at RK (I think that's who you mean) are, in fact, all Jewish. I just don't see how a Jew can be anti-semitic, but perhaps y'all can explain that to me. I read a comment from "Teacherken" as well as other Jewish bloggers that they were very insulted that Allen had referred to the reporter's question as an "aspersion". Now perhaps Mr. Allen simply did not know what the word meant (I believe he has used this defense in the past), but it means to malign or speak evil of. The statement he gave the next day was much better, and I am truly puzzled he didn't speak that way on the day of the debate.

Overall, I agree with my friends across the aisle that this issue should be dropped. It's simply irrelevant to Virginians, and all the brouhaha about it is getting quite silly . . .

Just like in 2003, when the Boston Globe sprung info on John Kerry of Jewish grandparents, and then attacked him for saying he was Irish, which in fact, he never had. They had all just ASSUMED he was Irish, and he just didn't bother to correct them, the nerve of him. Oddly enough, David Frum at the National Review feels very similarly:

http://frum.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWIzYWRkZTg3MzYzNzEzMjFjZmRiNDNjZDE4MzU4NjY=

Sep. 20, 2006: Allen & Media Bias


It really is outrageous that people would suggest that George Allen has been the victim of media bias. Of course they would behave in an exactly similar way to a similarly situated Democrat. Remember how the press fiercely grilled Sen. John Forbes Kerry about his ancestry and background - how they demanded to know why he had presented himself as Irish all these years when in fact his paternal grandparents were Jews from Vienna who had changed their name from the original Kohn - and how the reporters insinuated that Kerry was either ashamed of himself or else secretly antisemitic when he implausibly denied that he had ever had any idea of his background until jourrnalists discovered it for him. Remember? Anybody?


Finally, guys, antisemitism abounds everywhere including in your own brethen. Perhaps you should work on cleaning your own house before moving onto ours:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/2004-08-10-book-author-sorry_x.htm

Anti-Kerry book author sorry for slurs

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the authors of a new anti-John Kerry book frequently posted comments on a conservative Web site describing Muslims and Catholics as pedophiles and Pope John Paul II as senile.

But as he prepared to launch the book, "Unfit for Command," Jerry Corsi apologized for the remarks in an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday, saying they were meant as a joke and he never intended to offend anyone.

snip

In a March posting, Corsi discussed Kerry's faith, writing: "After he married TerRAHsa, didn't John Kerry begin practicing Judaism? He also has paternal grandparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?"

Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, are Catholic.

By beachmom1, at 2:50 PM

[beachmom]

23. Heh -- they responded, lamely, I may say

Anonymous said...
You sound like you are justifying two wrongs to make a right.



Hmmm . . . kinda means they think Kerry was wronged. Those were their choices. They chose door #1. Most excellent.

[beachmom]

13. Virignia blogosphere blowing up and at war

Not Larry Sabato is a free for all Va. blog. Anyone can post, and the ugliness of this campaign is shown by right and left just cutting each other up (and some lefty bashes Kerry -- thanks a lot, asshole). Everyone is screaming at everyone else that the other is an anti-semite. Can you imagine if there were a blog like this in '04. Damn. Do people from other states have blogs like this?

http://notlarrysabato.typepad.com/doh/2006/09/jewbaiting.html#comments