E.J. Kessler
By E.J. Kessler
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Israel News Putting National Security on the Democratic Agenda
During the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, Rachel Kleinfeld grew furious with the candidates’ rhetoric on national security. Kleinfeld, a scholar of international relations and a Democratic activist, heard some contenders “talking strong security,” she told the Forward, but they “weren’t connecting [those policies] to Democratic values” such as human rights or “equality of opportunity.” Disturbed…
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News CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL
Speech, Speech: Republican and Democratic officials strutted their rhetorical stuff on the podium of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s policy conference this week, providing a snapshot of the oratory of their respective parties — and of the officials’ varying skills. Speaking at an event Sunday night called “Party Playbooks: The Republicans, The Democrats and…
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News Race Tension Vexes Contest For Senate In Maryland
Racial tensions are simmering in Maryland’s Democratic senatorial primary race, in which a nationally known black leader, former congressman Kweisi Mfume, is squaring off against a white congressman, Ben Cardin, who is Jewish. While the contest is still in its early stages, and other candidates — both black and white — may enter the race,…
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News O.U. To Support Stem-cell Bill
The Orthodox Union is lending its support to a contentious House bill that would expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. The bill, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, sponsored by Rep. Michael Castle, a Delaware Republican, and by Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, seeks to extend federal funding to research on…
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News For Liberals, Anger Trumps Abortion Issue In Senate Race
As Pennsylvania gears up for a bruising Senate race in 2006, Democratic activists are finding that the usual politics of abortion rights have been upended. Both the incumbent senator, Rick Santorum, a Republican, and his likely Democratic challenger, State Treasurer Robert Casey Jr., are devout Catholics who oppose abortion. Many liberal activists and political donors…
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News Dems Turn Up Heat on GOP Frontrunner
Even as a noted political tip sheet identified Senator George Allen as the GOP presidential frontrunner for 2008, a Jewish group was taking a swipe at the Virginia Republican for agreeing to speak this weekend at the Rev. Pat Robertson’s Regent University in Virginia Beach. The National Jewish Democratic Council called on Allen, who emerged…
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News CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL
Donation Demand: The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, demanded last week that President Bush return the $2,000 campaign donation he received in 2004 from Jack Abramoff, the disgraced GOP lobbyist. Abramoff is being investigated by the FBI, a federal grand jury and a Senate committee over allegations that he defrauded and overcharged…
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News Lobbyist’s Tie to Mahathir Raising Jewish Eyebrows
Reports of business dealings between embattled Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the government of a Malaysian leader known for antisemitic speeches are drawing flak from Democrats and raising eyebrows among Jewish communal officials. According to press reports, Abramoff once worked for the government of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, after the Southeast Asian leader…
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