Senior Democrats: The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!
[guest post by Dana]
It’s amazing how much power Benjamin Netanyahu has over Democrats: Crying the sky is falling, the sky is falling, Senior Democrats are fretting about whether they should attend his speech before Congress next month. It’s an amusing but not surprising conundrum. After the outrage over Boehner extending the invitation and Netanyahu’s subsequent acceptance, it was inevitable that Democrats would find themselves in a pickle. You can fairly hear the frantic wheels collectively churning: If we don’t attend the speech, it will look like we have turned our backs on Israel and certainly look like we’re still pouting along with you-know-who… But if we do attend, then it will look like we aren’t standing with the president, and then we will all be in trouble. Of course, the president, who is still nursing a grudge against Boehner for having the audacity to find his backbone, will not be meeting with Netanyahu. And Joe Biden is aimlessly wandering around the Observatory waiting for a decision regarding his attendance. Yes, the Democrats are in a pickle because of what one man’s presence and what he might say:
High-ranking Democrats are weighing a boycott of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress next month, complaining that it’s a politicized event meant to embarrass President Obama and boost Netanyahu back home before a March 17 election.
Senators are railing against both Boehner and Netanyahu’s upcoming visit even as they try to plan their next move with regard to his scheduled speech:
The group, including long-standing backers of Israel such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), is outraged that House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) maneuvered to invite Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress without consulting Obama, White House officials or Secretary of State John F. Kerry.
“My concern is that it’s obviously political, and it uses the backdrop of the United States House of Representatives, and the Senate and the House, two weeks before a political campaign, and violates all the protocol that’s always existed in terms of working this out with the president,” Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in Senate leadership, said that many rank-and-file Democrats want to skip the address to show their support for Obama and to oppose what they consider a blatantly political move by Republicans and Netanyahu. Durbin said Democrats are discussing how they would behave during the address so that they would not be viewed by an international audience as overtly supporting Netanyahu’s election or undercutting talks with Iran.
“They’ve been talking to me about what is the right way to react to what could turn out to be a divisive event,” Durbin said, indicating that even as a member of leadership he has not decided whether to attend. “I haven’t made up my mind.”
Of course, Durbin doesn’t see a boycott of the event as a divisive action….
Further, Feinstein may be outraged that Netanyahu is coming a month before Israel’s election, but why didn’t it bother her when President Obama went to India to meet with political leaders there during a heated 10 days prior to the Delhi election? And, what about President Clinton hosting Shimon Peres at the White House just one month before the election he faced with… Benjamin Netanyahu? Where was the outrage from Democrats then? The company line from the White House steering clear of elections in other countries, especially Israel, is weak soup at best.
Of course, with the sensitive negotiations about Iran’s nuclear program currently taking place and Obama desperate for a deal – any deal – and Republicans wanting stronger sanctions, the last thing Democrats need is for Netanyahu to upset the fragile balancing act. Heaven forbid he describe the country that wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth as something less than honorable in the negotiations or calls them flat-out liars. Further, given the massacre in France, the recent beheadings and the fate of the Jordanian pilot, there is also the risk that Netanyahu will discuss the need to directly address the issue of terrorism and the need to Kill The Enemy. And worst of all, what if he uses the “I” word to describe said terrorists! And you think the Democrats are stressed now…
–Dana
Good morning.
Dana (8e74ce) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:05 amHello?
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:06 amwhether you’re a Democrat or a Republican you should take the time to enjoy Israelis as much as you can before Obama’s Iranian proxies drop nuclear bombs top their heads
you don’t wanna be looking back with regrets
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:07 amModern Democrats behave like kids who’ve made bad choices, and we all know those kids will lie and blame others to avoid the consequences of their actions.
DRJ (e80d46) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:15 amcowardly feckless immoral swine are swine…
Film @ 11, where Brian Williams will praise their brave, resolute, principled behavior.
redc1c4 (4db2c8) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:21 amBeing from Chicago, I take outraged politicians with a large grain of salt when they publicize a feud with somebody. It turns out to be theater for public consumption and they’re really cronies, working towards the same ends. This has a very high probability of being just that.
nk (dbc370) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:28 amDemocrats are also afraid Netanyahu will accuse the Obama Administration of a coordinated attempt to shape the outcome of Israeli elections. Boehner would then be in a position to confirm that the reason he invited Netanyahu here was to expose the depths of Obama’s illegitimate tampering, both to Americans and Israelis alike, and to help return the selection of Israel’s political leaders to the Israeli people.
ropelight (eec39c) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:51 ami can’t see Boner doing that to his Precious.
redc1c4 (b340a6) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:53 amObama must keep up appearances and save face to keep his Capos in line. An appearance of power and control in the absence of either is of the utmost importance to him.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:00 amand to help return the selection of Israel’s political leaders to the Israeli people.
You’re hilarious, ropelight. There’s not much I agree with Pat Buchanan on, but it’s not the Knesset which is American-occupied territory.
nk (dbc370) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:02 amWe’re stuck with this moron for two more years…
“At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama reminded attendees that violence rooted in religion isn’t exclusive to Islam, but has been carried out by Christians as well.
Obama said that even though religion is a source for good around the world, there will always be people willing to “hijack religion for their own murderous ends.”
“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:03 amJeremiah Wright is proud of Barack today.
DRJ (e80d46) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:04 am#10, nk, a little too much Ouzo last night?
ropelight (eec39c) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:13 amNo, just a dose of reality.
nk (dbc370) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:18 am“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.””
– Barack Obama
Dumb. The torturers of the Crusades and the Jim Crow South should’ve been bombed, too.
Leviticus (f9a067) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:38 amThe American Jews who are both wealthy and follow Israeli politics are overwhelmingly anti-Netenyahu . They are also big time Democratic fund providers and HUGE supporters of Pres Barak.
seeRpea (9a7f2e) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:43 amie: follow the money. Dems will walk out.
he’s a very intellectually stunted person, your president
this is marijuana talk
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:45 amHow come when people bring up The Crusades as examples of using religion
seeRpea (9a7f2e) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:55 amto commit atrocities, they never bring up what the Muslims did in Spain to Catholics a few decades prior to the 1st Crusade?
And they never bring up the Hindu/Budhist wars of Asia?
#18, seeR, Nor are the slave auctions in major ports along the North African coast mentioned. Islamic slave traders sold European and American Christians into slavery for centuries.
ropelight (eec39c) — 2/5/2015 @ 9:01 amObama;
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 2/5/2015 @ 9:02 amwell to stay OT, by far the biggest slave traders in the African continent were
…
black people.
But those were more tribal than religious disputes.
hmm, slavery is still going on in Muslim Africa – is that Islamic or something else?
seeRpea (9a7f2e) — 2/5/2015 @ 9:18 amHow come when people bring up The Crusades as examples of using religion
to commit atrocities,
To most historians, the Crusades were a defensive war, attempting to stop centuries of losses to Islam. When Islam began, Christian influence was at its height, spreading from Ireland to the borders of India. By the Millenium, Christendom had retreated to Northern and Western Europe. The Crusades were an attempt to undo some of that or at least stop the losses, not some grasping for expansion.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/5/2015 @ 9:23 amTo descendants of the Byzantine Empire, they were looting expeditions by illiterate Northern barbarian bandits.
To culinary historians, they were a desperate attempt by the English to find something decent to eat.
nk (dbc370) — 2/5/2015 @ 10:33 amropelight #19 – it was much more than just that limited sample …
seeRpea #20 – you are being more revisionist than usual …
The problem with that statement is that it ignores the reality that (mostly Arab) Islamic slave traders operated pretty much all around the coasts of the entire *continent* of Africa, turning Africans (and anyone else that fell into their clutches) into a commodity that they sold at and exported from the coasts of Africa …
When the first Europeans (Dutch and British) were exploring the southernmost parts of Africa, they encountered Arab slave traders … the Afrikaans word for a black man is “kaffir” (with the very short South African vowel sounds) which originated when the Europeans were trying to learn the language of those they met … when the (very white) Europeans asked the (brown) Arab slave traders about their black slaves, they were told they were “kaffir” (from kufr – unbeliever) … the Europeans thought that kaffir meant “black” …
To this day, I cannot understand why *anyone* who is ‘African-American’ (and likely to be descended from slaves) can even consider being part of the Nation of Islam – basically supporting those beliefs that forced their ancestors into slavery …
Alastor (2e7f9f) — 2/5/2015 @ 10:56 ambecause they are historically ignorant, would be my guess.
either that or they hope to one day be slave traders themselves…
redc1c4 (a6e73d) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:12 ami’m totally over the whole crusades dealio
it’s ancient history
food stamp needs to move tf on
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:14 amI hear this morning that Boehner has extended an invitation to speak before a Joint Session, and it has been accepted, by His Holiness, Pope Francis.
askeptic (efcf22) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:25 amTrying to influence the elections in the Vatican, eh?
nk (dbc370) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:30 am“and Republicans wanting stronger sanctions”
Dana – I thought there was a little contretemps just a short while back between President Stompy Foot and one of those Democrat senator types who accused the preezy of using talking point right out of Tehran. The Preezy, classy as always, made a vile inference that the senator was being influenced by a class of donors who controls all the banks and media, etc., etc.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:43 amthere is a method to the madness:
http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2015/02/obamas-secret-iran-strategy/
narciso (ee1f88) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:47 am“What I’ve repeatedly described as riding in a Chinook that was shot down in Iraq was inaccurate but factual.”
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:47 am– Brian Williams
==“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said.==
Barack, yeah, hey, just think how it would have been if they’d had instagram and twitter and hash-tags then! And modern weapons! And planes and automobiles! And smart phones. And golf courses.
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:53 am“remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,”
Seems like just yesterday.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:59 amdaleyrocks, we wuz lied to that he is the smartest, most brilliant person ever to occupy the White House, I think. .
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:07 pmIs this President above parody? There’s a malevolence in nearly everything he does and it’s way past time for him to climb up on HIS high horse and ride the EFF down the road. He’s a one-man pestilence.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:17 pmI’m just shaking my head in amazement that Obama’s NASA Muslim Outreach Program has turned out so well.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:33 pmOccupy White House
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:07 pm
hey, I think you’ve got something there…
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:37 pmre #23: don’t see where you are contradicting what i wrote. What you write about the Northern Africans being all over the continent as slavery merchants. So?
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 1:33 pmThey booed the inclusion of Providence and Israel in their most recent National Platform. They are a known commodity: Anti-Providence and anti-Semite.
John Hitchcock (b14c3a) — 2/5/2015 @ 5:07 pm