
 |
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
June 28, 2010
/ 16 Tamuz 5770
Republican stirrings in liberal heartland
By
Kathryn Lopez
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's a wild political climate out there. In keeping with the blistering heat afflicting previously ultra-safe incumbents, a happily, comfortably retired Queens businessman by the name of Bob Turner thinks he can unseat his Democratic congressman, six-term Rep. Anthony Weiner, in November. It's a long shot, but crazier things have happened. Just ask Sen. Scott Brown.
Running for office was the furthest thing from Turner's mind when he was watching Weiner on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show one March night. But, as Democrats were forcing their unpopular health-care revolution through the legislation machine, Weiner didn't even have the decency to answer his interviewer's questions. Weiner's "dodging" made Turner "hostile." So he went to his neighbor, Michael Long, who happens to be chairman of the Conservative party in New York, and asked, "To whom do I send a check?" No one, was the answer. There was no one challenging Weiner. So Turner pressed on, asking what could be done about that. Long, sketched-out prerequisites -- "Someone who isn't working," "Someone who has enough coin to start the ball rolling," and so forth.
Thus Turner asked his wife of 46 years, Peggy, what she'd think of his running for Congress. A talk-radio junkie, the special-needs nurse immediately became his biggest cheerleader: She was in a state of outrage about the undemocratic transformation going on before her eyes. And so "Bob Turner for Congress" was born.
Turner, who spent 40 years in media and business, is determined: writing his own policy statements, doing his own media, not shying away from the hard work of the campaign trail. The "business background helps," he says, of his effort to get voters to know someone is running against Weiner at all. His campaign "is not a gesture," he insists. He's in it to serve as congressman. "Plan A is to win. Plan B is to team up with likeminded people once I get to Washington." Deeply worried about the unsustainable nature of current federal spending, as well as the vital national-security and moral threats to our future, he wants Washington to make sense.
Turner is convinced that his zeal is shared in the Ninth District of New York (and around the country). Brooklyn and Queens may not seem like prime Tea Party territory, but their residents are living in the same country and feeling the same economic and other frustrations as the most pro-Palin gladiator. It's a concern about America's future and very identity that Turner hopes he can latch onto for the heart of his campaign. He has outdoor advertising and mailings planned, but he insists that the core of the campaign is going to focus on getting a "buzz" started at kitchen tables around the district, phone calls, knocking on doors and new media.
Turner says he's hearing his own frustration with Weiner echoed in the voices of volunteers in the campaign's humble Glendale, Queens, headquarters. He's hearing it from lifelong Democrats. And he's hearing it from Jewish voters: Have you seen the Obama administration's Israel policy lately?
Of course, in 2008, President Obama took nearly 80 percent of the Jewish vote. But an April poll from McLaughlin & Associates found the president's Jewish support eroding. Could Anthony Weiner be a casualty? Turner's run, pollster John McLaughlin says, is "interesting timing as Jewish voters are very upset with the Obama administration's antagonism to Israel." While Weiner is seen as staunchly pro-Israel -- even defending it in the recent flotilla incident -- Turner accuses Weiner of "talking out of both sides of his mouth" and uses the flotilla incident as a conspicuous example of Weiner's lack of leadership: "He condemned Turkey, not our policies toward Turkey. Turkey is a pretty easy target." While attacking Turkey "may seem the pro-Israeli position," Turner says, Weiner "leaves the administration alone, in an attempt to keep the political heat off himself."
In this climate, the result of "Congressman Bob Turner" is, the Conservative Party's Long insists, "not impossible." "If you called me a year ago I would have told you no way Chris Christie could win," he humbly recalls. Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, is now being celebrated, even talked up for higher office.
Bob Turner, mind you, has no such aspirations, or delusions. He looks ahead and says that as a potential congressman, "I will have a job to do. I want to do it and get the hell out."
"My jaw a little bit dropped," Long tells me, when Turner told him he'd be the guy the voter who is frustrated with Weiner could send a check to." He's "the last guy I would have suspected was going to run for Congress." But he's got "passion about what's going wrong in the country. He's not doing it for himself. He clearly is a citizen candidate."
Turner would be quite a change for his district. The 2010 edition of The Almanac of American Politics describes Weiner's "lust for the media limelight," likening his eagerness "to appear on cable talk shows" to that of his mentor, Sen. Charles Schumer. That Weiner is more interested in responding to his former boss than to his constituents, is one of the commonplace complaints Turner says he's hearing from voters.
Turner, Long says, is "standing up to one of the giants." He confidently predicts: "I think the giant is going to be taken down to size."
Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2009, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|