To Every Thing There Is a Season
During his failed race for re-election, Virginia Senator George Allen was on the defensive after adamantly denying and then subsequently acknowledging that his mother was a descendant of a prominent Sephardic family and had been raised Jewish. In defeat, however, Allen seems much more comfortable discussing the matter publicly — so much so that he recently told The Associated Press that since his term has come to a close, he plans to explore the Jewish heritage of his mother’s family.
The Shmooze would not deign to tell Allen how to proceed on such a personal journey; all we suggest is that if the Gentleman From Virginia gets around to brushing up on the Hebrew Bible, he find a way to bring along departing Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who appears to be in need of a refresher course. Upon announcing last month that he would not seek the GOP’s 2008 presidential nomination, Frist declared that “in the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close.” Only problem: The line actually belongs to Ecclesiastes, the self-described son of King David.
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