Joseph Sarandos
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Jews gain not just more seats, but MORE POWER in new U.S. Congress
It’s already been reported that the number of Jews in the Senate rose from 11 to 13 and in the House of Representatives from 26 to 30. See the article at http://com3.runboard.com/btheowlsnest.f15.t10763
Now read just these two “follow-up” reports on the power that will be gained as results of those increases, and then read the appended boastful, pre-elections analysis by Dr. Gerhard Falk of “Jewish Buffalo on the Web.
Joseph Sarandos
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http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=197765&SecID=33
Schumer moving up in the Democratic Party
Updated: 11/14/2006 6:06:01 PM
By: Staff
Come January, New York Senator Chuck Schumer will be the third most powerful man in the U.S. Senate chamber.
Schumer won high praise for running the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee this year - and helping the Dems win a majority.
Now he has been elected vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus.
“Our challenge has really just begun. The American public has rejected the policies of George Bush and they're waiting to see what we can do. And we are gonna show them that we will never loose sight of them in terms of making their lives better and creating a better America for the average person and for all Americans,” Schumer said.
Future Majority leader Harry Reid says Schumer will act as a utility man - taking care of policy or political matters as they arise. Schumer will also stay on as the DSCC chairman.
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New York Times
November 15, 2006
Enter, Pariah: Now It’s Hugs for Lieberman
By MARK LEIBOVICH
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — Senator Joseph I. Lieberman strode into a Democratic caucus gathering like he owned the place or, at the very least, like someone who is a flight risk and could leave at any minute, taking the Democrats’ new majority with him.
In other words, everyone was extra-special nice to the wayward Democrat on Tuesday.
“It was all very warm, lots of hugs, high-fives, that kind of stuff,” said Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon marveled, “One senator after another kept coming up and shaking his hand.”
And Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas noted, “I gave him a hug and a kiss.”
Mr. Lieberman received a standing ovation at a caucus luncheon after Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who is poised to become the majority leader, declared, “We’re all family.”
All of which is particularly touching in light of recent history. It was, after all, just three months ago that Mr. Lieberman became something of a party pariah after losing the Democratic primary in Connecticut but continuing his re-election bid as an independent.
Mr. Lieberman won re-election last week without help from most of his Democratic Senate colleagues, who backed Ned Lamont, his Democratic rival, over their “good friend Joe Lieberman.”
These would be many of the same good friends “who were happy to leave my dad by the side of the road,” as Mr. Lieberman’s son, Matthew, put it in an election night speech. These, presumably, would include “friends” like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, all Lamont supporters.
“It’s clear that the Democrats need him at this point more than he needs them,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, whom Mr. Lieberman genuinely does consider a close friend. “How sweet is this?”
Indeed, it is hard to imagine how Mr. Lieberman could have emerged better from last week’s election. He was re-elected comfortably, and the Democratic Party he still belongs to is now in the majority, assuring him the chairmanship of the powerful Homeland Security Committee.
Yet that majority is slim enough, 51 to 49, to turn Mr. Lieberman into arguably the Senate’s most influential member. If he defects, the Senate would effectively be under Republican control because Vice President **** Cheney would cast tie-breaking votes.
“It was very painful to him to have all these people he thought were his friends embrace his opponent,” Ms. Collins said. “They just threw him overboard. But now, not only is he re-elected resoundingly, but he is also the key to which party controls the Senate.”
Mr. Lieberman’s situation underscores the precarious calculus of political friendships. People close to him say he remains miffed, if not bitter, about what he considers the betrayal of allies who supported an unknown, untested and unfamiliar candidate.
In recent months, Mr. Lieberman has frequently invoked the Harry Truman maxim that if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.
Mr. Lieberman has suggested he has felt especially wounded by Mr. Dodd, Connecticut’s senior senator, with whom he had shared a close bond since arriving in the Senate in 1989. Mr. Dodd had supported Mr. Lieberman in the primary, but endorsed Mr. Lamont after he won. Mr. Dodd’s appearance with Mr. Lamont at a Democratic “unity” rally and in a campaign commercial infuriated Mr. Lieberman, friends said.
Mr. Dodd said in a brief interview Tuesday, “We all make decisions, and those decisions have consequences.”
Earlier in the day, he attended a Capitol Hill news conference that drew every Democrat in Connecticut’s Congressional delegation except Mr. Lieberman.
Friends said the strains between Mr. Lieberman and his Democratic colleagues show.
“It will take a little time for the room to really warm up from both ends,” said Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, one of the few Senate Democrats who supported Mr. Lieberman in his general election campaign. “I would not be forthright if I didn’t say there was some healing and work that has to be done.”
During the campaign, Mr. Lieberman said repeatedly that he would continue to vote with the Democratic caucus, but there were calls from the left for the Democratic leadership to strip him of his seniority and committee assignments if he won.
But as Mr. Lieberman claimed a healthy lead in polls, Mr. Reid reached out to him. Over time, Mr. Reid’s and other Democratic leaders’ support for Mr. Lamont became half-hearted, or nonexistent, according to Mr. Lamont’s campaign.
Mr. Lieberman classifies himself as an “independent Democrat” and has said that recent events left him feeling “liberated” and “unshackled,” not exactly reassuring words to Democrats.
He stirred more anxiety Sunday, when in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he refused to rule out becoming a Republican (while adding, “I hope I don’t get to that point”).
In brief remarks to reporters Tuesday, Mr. Lieberman said he had refused to rule out switching parties largely because Tim Russert, the show’s host, “kept pressing me on it.”
But Mr. Lieberman also said that while “most of my vote clearly came from independents and Republicans” in Connecticut, “it’s fair to say that I couldn’t have won without Democratic support.”
Mr. Lieberman restated that it was possible he could join Senate Republicans, but he added, “I’m not going to threaten on every issue to leave the caucus.”
Clearly, friends say, he is relishing his sudden ascent from Democratic reject in Connecticut to Senate kingmaker in Washington. “He is just sitting there in the catbird seat, and it must be delicious for him,” Ms. Collins said.
Mr. Lieberman was asked Tuesday if he viewed his position as similar to a swing vote on the Supreme Court, a role often played by former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor or Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The parallel had not occurred to him, Mr. Lieberman replied, but he considered it “a complimentary analogy.”
He beamed as he said this, as he did for much of the day.
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(Next article below)
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11/15/2006, 4:47 am
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Re: Jews gain not just more seats, but MORE POWER in new U.S. Congress
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/16016632.htm
Boxer, Feinstein take leadership roles
Senators pegged to head committees, taking part in creating new Congress under Democrats' control
By Josh Richman
MEDIANEWS STAFF
Long seen as Senate Democrats' leftward border, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer was named a committee chairwoman Tuesday and will keep a leadership post in which she'll help implement the new Congressional majority's will.
Boxer, D-Calif. -- who sold her Marin County home and moved to Oakland this year to be closer to her husband's office and her son and daughter-in-law's home -- is incoming chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, as well as the new majority's chief deputy whip. She succeeds outgoing committee chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., who once called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
"I'm already restructuring the subcommittees in order to reflect the concern of global warming. ... We're going to have a very active subcommittee system," Boxer said Tuesday, adding the committee's first-year members -- Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- beef up an already formidable roster.
"My personal priorities are going to be global warming, children's health and aggressive oversight of what's happening, or rather, what's not happening," she said. "With all due respect to my predecessor, who I'm very friendly with, we didn't do much. ... We're going to approach things in a very different way."
She said the committee also will be "active in the whole Katrina issue," perhaps with field hearings in Louisiana on restoration of wetlands ravaged by 2005's hurricane. As Senate Democrats' chief deputy whip -- a post she held while her party was in the minority -- she'll help ensure caucus members show up for votes and marshal them to vote the party line.
Senate Democrats' assistant majority leader and whip will be **** Durbin of Illinois, who retains his leadership role from the minority. Other deputy whips under Boxer are Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.; Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
Boxer has had a reputation as a liberal bomb thrower; her January 2005 dispute of Ohio's electoral votes was only the second such objection in 128 years, and her carpet-bombing of then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's record provided the tensest moments of Rice's Secretary of State confirmation hearings later that same month.
So, even before providing one of her party's loudest voices against confirmation of several Bush administration judicial nominees last year, Time magazine was asking, "Is she the Democrats' new attack dog?"
Boxer said Tuesday that she talked with Durbin earlier in the day and "I will be doing everything I can to keep us united, to keep us together to build consensus."
But, she added, "I'm not going to change who I am."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Tuesday was named the Senate Rules and Administration Committee's incoming chairwoman, and issued a statement pledging bipartisan cooperation.
"My top two priorities will be ethics reform and election reform," she said. "We've got to address the gross misconduct and influence peddling that surfaced in such a serious way in the last Congress and ensure every American citizen's vote is counted in a fair and accurate manner."
On ethics reform, Feinstein aims to tighten public disclosure of lobbyist activity, ban lobbyist gifts and travel, shut down "pay-to-play" schemes, and ensure pork-barrel earmarks aren't added without full scrutiny and public disclosure.
On voting, she said she'll introduce a bill to require that electronic voting systems print paper records that can be verified by the voter and subject to independent audit.
[NOTE: Feinstein is also a member of the Trilateral Commission.]
----------------------
(Gerhard Falk's article below)
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11/15/2006, 4:52 am
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Re: Jews gain not just more seats, but MORE POWER in new U.S. Congress
http://jbuff.com/c052302.htm
American Jews
The number of Jews in America is estimated in various ways. Those who consider only Jews with synagogue affiliations claim that there are only about 4,400,000 Jews in this country. If we add to these affiliated Jews those who view themselves as Jewish although not affiliated with any Jewish religious group then we can count as many as 6,061,000 Americans who claim to be Jews in random telephone interviews.
Accordingly, 9.1% or 1,651,000 of New York State citizens say they are Jewish. This is the largest concentration of Jews in any of the states. Jews constitute 5.7% of the population of New Jersey, 4.9% of the people of the District of Columbia, 4.2% of Floridians, 4.4% of Massachusetts citizens, 4.1% of the people of Maryland, 3.1% in Connecticut and 2.9% in California. In all other states Jews are very few. In some states Jews are more or less 2% of the population but in most states Jews are 1% or less of the American population. Our share of the total American population is no more than 2.2% and perhaps less, depending on how we define who is a Jew.
Despite our small numbers, we are well liked by the American population. This is best understood by looking at the list of Jews in Congress and other political offices. While one senator from New York, Charles Schumer, is Jewish, both senators from California, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are Jewish. Do you think our ancestors who came here in 1902 would have believed that two Jewish women would ever represent the state of California in the U.S. Senate?
Now look at this: Russ Feingold and Herbert Kohl are the two Jewish senators from Wisconsin, where Jews constitute 0.5% of the population. We all know Joseph Lieberman, erstwhile vice-presidential candidate, is U.S. senator from Connecticut. But did you know that Carl Levin is senator from Michigan, which has only 107,000 Jews, constituting 1.1 % of that state’s population? Pennsylvania has elected the Republican Arlen Specter to the senate several times. He is the only Jewish Republican in the senate and comes from a state whose Jewish population is only 2.4%. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota is one of 42,000 Jews in a state with a population of 4,776,000 so that Jews are only 0.9% of Minnesotans and finally Ron Wyden, the Jewish senator from Oregon, represents 3,316,000 Oregonians of whom 0.9% or 30,500 are Jews.
Ten of the 100 U.S. Senators are Jewish. We are five times over-represented in the U.S. Senate because the non-Jewish population votes for Jews not because the candidates are Jewish but because the American population is generally not bigoted.
Likewise, there are 27 Jews in the House of Representatives, constituting 6.5% of the membership. Again we are 3 times overrepresented because religion is not a factor in American politics.
Right now, seven Jews are running for governor in this fall’s elections. In earlier years, Jews have been governors in Alaska, Idaho and Utah as well as in New York. There are of course also numerous Jews in state legislatures and in other political offices.
These political successes may well reflect our economic success. The median income in the United States is about $25,000 a year. That means that one half of all Americans earn more than that, and one half earn less. The median Jewish American income is double that, i.e., $50,000 a year.
About 40% of American High School graduates go to college. However, 85% of Jewish high school graduates go to college. We also have a vast number of graduate students and a great percentage of Jews with graduate degrees such as M.B.A., M.D., Ph.D. etc. etc. This is not necessarily cause to be proud since diploma chasing did not save the European Jews from the Holocaust even as Israel survives because the Jews of Israel know how to use a gun (Throwing books at armed murderers doesn’t work).
It is of course magnificent that we are so successful. It ought to be understood, however, that all Jews are not wealthy and that many Jews have become invisible because they are poor. This is largely true because our Jewish organizations are almost always non-representative of our Jewish communities. For example, 66% of board members of Jewish organizations earn more than $150,000 a year and only 17% earn less than $100,000 a year. This is necessary because board members make the needed contributions to keep our communal organizations alive. In earlier years many of these wealthy board members had come from poor backgrounds and therefore had some sympathy for the poor. Today, many board members come from wealthy families so that they may not know what Jewish living costs today.
Look at this: The average synagogue assessment in America is $1,100, tuition in Jewish day schools costs $22,000 for two children, average day camp fees for two weeks for two children costs $1,200, average stay for one month in a residence camp for two children is $5,000, Jewish community center dues are $500 and the minimal gift to the annual Jewish Federation drive is $250 (The statistics are provided by the American Jewish Committee).
There are obviously many Jews who cannot possibly afford to do all of this and contribute $30,000 of their $50,000 income. Nevertheless, there are also a good number of Jews who could easily afford a synagogue membership and do more than that. The fact is that Jewish assets in this country are in the trillions.
Among the 10% of Jews who live a Torah-true life and who are called “orthodox” (Greek for straight belief) a great deal of money is spent on Jewish education despite the lesser average income of orthodox Jews as compared to all Jewish income.
We also have among us, as previously stated, a good number of Jewish poor. The idiot stereotype that all Jews are wealthy and successful is perpetuated by our enemies but also by ourselves. The fact is that 24% of Jewish households are “low income”.
These Jews cannot afford most or any of the expenses that Jewish life demands. They cannot send their children to a Jewish day school. They cannot be members of the Jewish Community Centers. They cannot afford synagogue memberships. Therefore those of us who can do so must contribute what the poor cannot afford because their membership is needed to insure our survival.
A good number of the poor among us are old. While 13% of Americans are over 65, 19% of American Jews are over 65. This has to do with our low birth rate as well as our longevity. The fastest growing segment of our population are those over 85.
In Buffalo, N.Y. as in all other Jewish communities around the country, a number of community resources must be funded all the time if we are to continue. Here in Buffalo we support the Jewish Community Center, the Weinberg Campus (Home for the Aged) Jewish Family Service, the Bureau of Jewish Education, the Holocaust Resource Center, the Kadimah School (Day School), Hillel for Jewish college students, Chabad, also for Jewish college students, the Jewish Discovery Center, an educational foundation, and, most important of all, twelve synagogues. (Greek for assembly).
In addition, we must and do support Israel.
I have presented here a good number of facts collected by the American Jewish Committee. These statistics show us the extent of our obligations. Evidently, it is very expensive to be a Jew in America. Yet, it is not beyond our reach. Obviously, all of us cannot do everything nor support every Jewish cause. We can, however, choose to support some of the Jewish activities available to us. We may want to support only a synagogue or Israel or both. We may want to support the Jewish Center or the Family Service or all of them. In any case we must do something lest we waste our lives in selfishness.
Read again the book by Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, and then decide what you want to do for yourself by giving to others.
Shalom u’vracha.
Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including Stigma: How We Treat Outsiders.
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11/15/2006, 4:55 am
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