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Senator Mensch and Congressman Kochleffel

By Seth Mandel

September 12, 2008

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the senior Jewish lawmaker, was put on notice.

"The Democratic caucus will likely revisit Lieberman's situation after the November elections," was the response from the office of Senate majority leader Harry Reid, after Lieberman spoke at the Republican convention. Reid's spokesman was sounding a warning that Lieberman's status as the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was tenuous, to say the least.

Lieberman's speech at the convention was politically courageous. As a Democrat, he knew he'd risk his power and stature for doing it. "I'm here because John McCain's whole life testifies to a great truth: being a Democrat or a Republican is important -- but it is not more important than being an American," he told the audience.

Lieberman's long career has been one of honorable statesmanship, proud patriotism, and refreshing honesty. And, of course, he's a high-profile Jew, which should reinforce a sense of pride and comfort among American Jews.

In a word, Lieberman is a mensch.

During the first leg of the primary season, when each party's field of candidates was crowded, one name on the Democratic side stood out: Barack Obama. The senator's name was exotic, as was his personal story. What did it all mean? Conjecture began, and vicious emails started circulating, playing on people's fears.

Many of us received those emails. Was Barack Obama a secret Muslim, whatever that means? I received such emails, as well as the just-as-nasty anti-McCain email blasts from MoveOn.org, the vehemently anti-Israel money group targeting the Republican nominee. It was a particularly contentious and disturbing time, and I'm glad it's behind us.

Or so I thought. One of the side effects of the prevailing wisdom that this year the Jewish vote will be somewhat consequential is the inevitable Jew-baiting and fear mongering. But it was done via anonymous email, and responsible people weren't behind the anti-Obama and anti-McCain smears.

Until last week. An elected official -- a Jewish congressman -- dredged up the still-lingering memory of the shameful episodes and one-upped them.

Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, who heads that state's branch of Obama's presidential campaign, accused Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin of supporting "Nazi sympathizer" Pat Buchanan, calling her nomination an "affront to all Jewish Americans." He repeated the accusation in a breathless statement that said basically the same thing as the first, and the Obama campaign repeated it.

Unfortunately for Wexler's reputation, the accusation was untrue. At the time Wexler claims Palin was supposedly "aligned with" Buchanan, she was actually an official of the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes, Buchanan's opponent.

An easy thing to fact-check, right? Not easy enough, apparently, for the un-Lieberman.

When the unsettling emails about Obama circulated, it put Florida in the spotlight. Because of the state's large number of Jews, and because of that state's important role in the presidential elections, Floridian Jews were descended upon by pundits and campaign officials. Even the N.Y. Times got in the game, printing a snide story about how racist and backward Florida's older Jews are, and how susceptible those feeble-minded octogenarian Hebrews were to the smear campaign.

The anti-Obama emails were rightly denounced. And no one was more outraged than Wexler.

"Despite his historic speech before AIPAC and his unwavering support for Israel and issues of concern to the American Jewish community, Sen. Obama continues to be the target of smears and innuendo, often circulated anonymously in emails or in newspaper ads," Wexler wrote in a June 29 op-ed in the Palm Beach Post. He added: "Rather than deal in facts, including Sen. Obama's strong record on Israel, these emails and ads focus on guilt by association and are characterized by double standards."

Hypocrisy, thy name is Wexler. The only substantive difference, of course, between the dishonest anti-Obama smears and his own anti-Palin smears is that the anti-Obama emails were anonymous. Wexler's shameful behavior was damaging to us all. 

In Judaism, we have various laws designed to preserve the Jewish people as a "light unto the nations." We must set an example for our fellow Jews and for the other nations of the world. It is a weighty, but meaningful, responsibility. And we must take it seriously, because the Jewish people and the state of Israel are held up to unseemly double standards.

Unfair? Maybe, but that's irrelevant. It does no good to complain, and we must shine when compared to our friends among the nations.

Joe Lieberman shines when compared to his colleagues in Congress. It reflects well on our nation and our country.

Whatever happens to Lieberman after the November elections, he will remain a Democrat at heart and in practice, even if he is forced to continue to wear the appropriate badge of Independent.

This past year at the Commentary Fund dinner in Manhattan, Lieberman made an eloquent plea for post-partisan unity, at least when confronting our nation's enemies.

"Of course we should criticize the Bush administration when we believed it failed to live up to its own new national security goals, or when it mishandled the execution of its policies," Lieberman said. "But I felt strongly that we must not minimize the seriousness of the threat from Islamist extremism, nor weaken our country's response to it by dividing reflexively along partisan lines."

Later on at the convention, Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham told the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank God for Joe Lieberman." I know how he feels. And I hope Wexler is taking notes.

Seth Mandel is the managing editor of The Jewish State.