Posted on 06/11/2014 2:30:40 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The dream of a Jewish Republican speaker of the House is no more.
With House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s startling ouster in a primary election this week, the man who was on a track to be the highest-ranking Jewish official in American history now appears consigned to the status of a “Jeopardy” answer. His defeat has left Jewish organizations in both parties reeling, especially the GOP’s long-suffering Jewish coalition groups.
Cantor was – and for now, remains – the No. 2 Republican in a conference of 233 lawmakers. But for Jewish Republicans, Cantor is a singular figure, the only Jewish member of the House majority and the lone Jewish leader in a party that has strenuously courted the community in recent presidential elections, to little avail.
Now, with Cantor’s defeat, there’s no longer a point man to help organize trips to Israel for junior GOP lawmakers, as Cantor routinely did. Jewish nonprofits and advocacy groups have no other natural person in leadership to look to for a sympathetic ear. No other Republican lawmaker can claim to have precisely the same relationship with gaming billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a primary benefactor of both the Republican Party and the Republican Jewish Coalition. And no other member can play quite the same role in promoting Jewish Republican congressional candidates, as Cantor did in one election after another. He is scheduled to headline a Long Island fundraiser this Saturday for Lee Zeldin, one of the few Jewish Republican House recruits this year. The event was announced only a few days before Cantor’s fateful primary. At the time, there was every expectation Zeldin would be appearing with the future House speaker, a man floated more than once for the vice presidency and for numerous statewide offices in his native Virginia.
Matt Brooks, the RJC president, called Cantor’s primary “one of those incredible, evil twists of fate that just changed the potential course of history.”
“There are other leaders who will emerge, but Eric was unique and it will take time and there’s nobody quite like Eric in the House to immediately fill those shoes,” Brooks said. “I was certainly hoping that Eric was going to be our first Jewish speaker.”
Across the aisle, the reactions to Cantor’s defeat ranged from shock and distress to barely-restrained glee. For partisan Jewish Democrats, Cantor has long been a supremely annoying figure, perceived as a front man for a conservative party that’s hostile to the values a strong majority of Jews share on issues from economic inequality to gay marriage to immigration, the central animating issue of Cantor challenger Dave Brat’s campaign.
As Democrats seek to cement a public perception of the GOP as an intolerant and homogenous party, the defeat of the nation’s leading Jewish Republican over his support for more relaxed immigration laws can only help.
And it now appears almost certain that the first Jew to lead one of the two chambers of Congress will come from the ranks of Democrats, where Jewish politicians including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and New York Rep. Steve Israel already hold important roles of legislative and partisan leadership.
Still, several prominent Jewish Democrats expressed ambivalence on election night over the snuffing-out of a prominent Jewish political career and the elimination of a lonely figure in the House who looked – at the very least on the surface – like a receptive audience for Jewish-driven advocacy.
Rabbi Jack Moline, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Committee, called it an especially bitter pill that Cantor went down to a challenger running to his right on immigration – as Moline put it, that Cantor “has been undone by an issue that they didn’t make much progress on, but that is reflective of Jewish values.”
“From the point of view of a Democrat, I’m not disappointed to see him go,” Moline said, acknowledging: “There is always a pride in the Jewish community when one of our own makes good, as I think there is in every community. So from that point of view, we’re disappointed, like we were disappointed when Rahm Emanuel gave up his quest to be the first Jewish speaker of the House.”
Moline added: “At least in that situation, we had pride in the fact that he was chief of staff to the president of the United States and went on to be mayor of Chicago. I don’t see Eric Cantor going on to greater things in government.”
Former NJDC president David Harris, calling Cantor’s loss a “concern to nonpartisan Jewish organizations,” argued that the political takeaway for Jewish voters should be clear. “Jews are so well represented on the Supreme Court. They’re so well represented in Congress. But as a professional political class, Jewish Republicans are just not part of that party,” he said. If Cantor played a critically important symbolic role for Republican Jews, it’s unclear whether his defeat will bring immediate consequences for policy. The GOP is a staunchly pro-Israel party, even if many of its members may have never set foot in a synagogue. Other election returns Tuesday night demonstrated that: While Cantor went down, Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham easily defeated a pack of primary challengers after touting his strongly hawkish foreign policy views.
And as much as Cantor was an atypical Republican when it came to his ethnic identity, some Republican Jews shrugged at suggestions that his primary represented a real shift on substance. One GOP operative said he would be hard-pressed to name an important issue on which Cantor made the difference between success and failure for Jewish foreign policy groups, pointing out that Cantor supported defense cuts under the Budget Control Act that Jewish groups strenuously opposed.
“If I had to pick tonight, do I get to pick Lindsey Graham or Eric Cantor, it’s not a choice at all,” the strategist said. “Cantor was ineffective.”
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who serves on the RJC board, said that from a historical perspective Cantor’s defeat was “very sad – but my politics don’t revolve around my identity as much as they do my ideology.”
“It was a real point of pride to have Eric as a Jewish Republican. There are some other Jewish Republicans running in 2014,” Fleischer said. “Let’s wait and see.”
Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic public relations consultant who works with a range of Jewish groups, said that for non-partisan Jews, Cantor was “definitely a loss.” He cited Cantor’s reliable backing not just for Israel and tough-on-Iran policies, but also his attention to issues such as services for Holocaust survivors and support for the nonprofit sector.
“There are some in the community who are twisting themselves into pretzels tonight to figure out if it’s OK to comment on the race,” Rabinowitz said. “I have no love lost for him. I’m bemused tonight.”
Give the GOPE time and they will make this anti-Semitic. I didn’t know Cantor was Jewish until this article, nor did I care. He was a big government Republican and he got his butt kicked, no bigotry here except on the left.
He was our best asset in relations with Israel, and was a role model for young Jewish conservatives. As Jewbacca said, maybe he had to go. But we’re also losing some serious political value that will be hard to replace.
LOL - it's not just you... it's funny weird - and real.
Hey, love the screen name! You are a funny guy.
As for Brat, a lot of people are hoping he is genuine and if he is that he will not be corrupted by DC.
We’ll see...
I think people are going to find out he is a libertarian-leaning seriously small government conservative. Most economists are.
Which is fine in the House, where they control the budget.
Not so keen on them in the executive branch.
It will be interesting to see what he does if he wins in the general election.
He seems to be quite clear now in his six principles.
Stupid freepers, what can I say. Will Debbie spin that to say conservatives just found out he was a Jew and dumped him, of course she will. Some morons will believe it.
Neither party will cut off aid to the PLO, sorry PA. Neither party will move the Embassy to Jerusalem. Neither party will defend the right of Jews to live in Judea and Sameria. IMO, the GOP is less tolerant of Jewhaters, and I think they’re more pro Israel, but when it comes to actions, it really is marginal. If GWB believed the campaign promise he made, and which the GOP put in the platform, the land being ours already, the project shovel ready, the American Embassy would have been in Jerusalem in 2002 or 2003. Losing issue politically.
This Jewish Republican is thrilled to see Eric Cantor gone.
What do you expect from Politico? They are known to be a pro-'Rat operation.
The fact is that Cantor lost not because of his Jewishness, as some wretched sicko Jewish 'Rats (e.g., Wasserman-Schultz and Schumer) may claim, but because of his smugness and what were perceived as his pro-amnesty ideas. He became more of a Washingtonian than a Virginia congressman representing a conservative district, and he paid the price.
BTW, a similar article appeared in the WaPo on the day following the primary last week, giving the religious breakdown of Congress by party with the aim of showing that the 'Rat have more diversity. So this piece is part of a "feeding frenzy."
Funny how it’s the liberals playing up the Jewish angle. Never about the content of someone’s character to them; only about ethnicity and/or religious profession.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/dave_brat_hires_communications_aide_in_virginia-233913-1.html?pos=opolh
‘Dave Brat, the economics professor who defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a stunning upset last week, has hired a communications director.
Brian Gottstein will now handle all media inquires for Brat’s campaign in the 7th District, which is not expected to be competitive in November.
Gottstein served as communications director for Ken Cuccinelli when the Republican was attorney general of Virginia.
Gottstein also co-authored Cuccinelli’s book, “The Last Line Of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty.” ‘
The media will do anything to attack Brat, however small or dishonest.
LOL!!!
You are painting with much too broad of a brush. Most Jewish Americans here on FR are certainly NOT "rabidly 'open borders' immigration radicals."
Never mind how open borders would work in Israel. (BTW, it would be a disaster, as you implied).
The big question is how "open borders" is working in the United States. If I may say so as a Jewish American FReeper, it is a disaster here as well, and the situation is rapidly getting worse. These open borders illegal immigrants tend to be much more anti-Semitic and anti-Israel than the current American population, yet contribute disproportionally to crime and poverty, thus running up already insane government budget deficits and debt at federal, state, and local levels. They also compete for jobs with American citizens and lower wages.
No, we cannot tolerate open borders much longer. We can admit a limited number of immigrants, but they should be vetted carefully on a case-by-case basis so that they are likely to have the skills to support themselves. Illegal aliens have violated are laws, and should be politely escorted back to their country of origin.
BTW, I don't know if Eric Cantor is an "open borders" type but his fuzziness on the immigration issue was NOT what voters in the district wanted to hear, and justifiably so.
Rand Paul's immigration speech...The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration.[Posted on 03/19/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by Perdogg]
Unfortunately, like many of the major debates in Washington, immigration has become a stalemate-where both sides are imprisoned by their own rhetoric or attachment to sacred cows that prevent the possibility of a balanced solution.
Immigration Reform will not occur until Conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation.
Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.
If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you...
This is where prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society.
Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors.
Rand Paul calls on conservatives to embrace immigration reformLatinos, should be a natural constituency for the party, Paul argued, but "Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration." ...he would create a bipartisan panel to determine how many visas should be granted for workers already in the United States and those who might follow... [and the buried lead] "Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers...[Posted on 04/21/2013 1:52:42 PM PDT by SoConPubbie]
[but he's not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]
I wonder what Cantor has to say about this?
“You are painting with much too broad of a brush. Most Jewish Americans here on FR are certainly NOT “rabidly ‘open borders’ immigration radicals.”
And they are in the minority of Americans of the Jewish faith.
Look at the percentages that support the Demonrats, the numbers don’t lie. They vote for Demonrats in percentages only surpassed by blacks as a group!
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html
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