
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
April 22, 2013
US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer
April 19, 2013
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama's visit to Israel had no impact on public opinion or government policy
Morgan Housel: Gold collapse: The start of something big?
Pete Spotts: Livable super-Earths? Two candidates among Kepler's latest finds
April 17, 2013
Shira Rubin: Too much of a good thing? 'Palestinians' realize downside of foreign aid boom
Morgan Housel: BAD NEWS: EVERYONE IS RIGHT!
April 15, 2013
Kristen Chick: Egyptian Christians respond with harsh words to attack -- rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire -- against main cathedral
Marcy Darnovsky and Karuna Jaggar: High Court to decide if you should own your DNA
Howard LaFranchi: US bracing for more Russian blowback after taking action against 18 more human rights violators
April 12, 2013
Mark Clayton: New cybersecurity bill: Privacy threat or crucial band-aid?
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jackie Robinson's Friend, Hank Greenberg; CNN's Jake Tapper; Texas County in the News is named for 19thC. Jewish soldier and Congressman
The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: FRUITY QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS: A flavorful, colorful and edible vessel of delicately fluffy, mildly nutty filling combined with chewy apricots, tangy cherries, and crunchy pistachios
April 10, 2013
Peter Grier: North Korean missiles: Could US shoot them down?
Morgan Housel: Warning: Don't waste your capital being fooled by profit prophets
Donald Hensrud, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Take vitamin supplements with caution --- even approved, they may actually do damage
Eryn Brown: 74 DNA discoveries move cure closer for three cancers
April 8, 2013
Jonathan Tobin: What Part of No Preconditions Do American Jews Not Get?
Fred Weir: Is Putin finally trading his own party for a new power base?
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 9, 2008
/ 12 Kislev 5769
Stunning surprises in unlikely places
By
Wesley Pruden
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
NEW ORLEANS Louisiana, the late A.J. Liebling discovered when he ventured south for New Yorker magazine a generation ago, is not Southern at all, but Middle Eastern, riven with intrigue and studded with the unexpected. He would relish the latest returns from the state that only a few years ago sent a Klansman to Congress.
Over the weekend, a nine-term black congressman whom the feds have been trying without much success to send to prison for bribery, stealing and other civic endeavors once merrily practiced in Louisiana, was turned out of Congress.
The author of the stunning upset is a mild-mannered Vietnamese-American immigration lawyer. He was brought to New Orleans from Saigon when he was 8. He asked his new constituents in his victory speech to excuse his broken English and forgive him for "being bashful." He promised to work on his shyness when he gets to Washington, where bashful congressmen are rare and almost nobody cultivates mild manners (when they cultivate manners at all).
Anh Cao, who wants to be called Joe, effectively ended the career, at least for now, of William J. Jefferson, 61, a Harvard lawyer distinguished mostly for the circumstances of his arrest four years ago, when FBI agents, conducting a sting, found $90,000 in marked bills stored in his freezer. He's awaiting trial in New Orleans on charges of bribery and public corruption. Several relatives were charged with him, inspiring a lot of the joshing ("the family that steals together stays together" and "the colder the cash, the hotter the party") with which the natives traditionally celebrate great entertainers.
Mr. Cao still hasn't quite measured the size of his unexpected luck. He ran for office only once before, finishing fifth in a field of six in a race for the state Legislature. He minded his mild manners against Mr. Jefferson, mindful that he was an Asian running against a black man in a New Orleans district that is 62 percent black, or was, before Hurricane Katrina dramatically shrank the city's population and rendered such estimates suspect.
He rarely mentioned the incumbent's stash of cold cash. He didn't have to, since the congressman's magic freezer have become a cherished part of Louisiana lore. When he won, he seemed to share Mr. Jefferson's disappointment: "I know he went through two hard primaries. And that must have been hard. Never in my life did I think I could be a future congressman. The American dream is well and alive."
Louisiana is lately particularly kind to immigrants and children of immigrants. But Mr. Cao, following in the path blazed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, should probably enjoy his good fortune now; local oddsmakers put the chances of his surviving the next election as between scant and scarce. When most black voters stayed home to savor Barack Obama's success, Mr. Jefferson was bushwhacked by waiting Republicans. Considerably fewer than half of the 166,000 Orleanians who voted in November returned for the runoff.
The future looks considerably brighter for the other unlikely Louisiana success story. Mr. Jindal, only 38, not yet halfway through his first term as governor, already has his eye if not his hand on bigger things. He has been a success in Baton Rouge, getting an ethics code through the Legislature that should put a large and permanent dent in the festive attitude of the good-time Charlies who have dominated Louisiana politics. He's called "the Republican Obama" for his eloquent talk of "reform" and "change," and, like the president-elect, he has a funny name and an unfamiliar religious heritage. He was born to Hindu parents and converted to Roman Catholicism in high school. He testifies to his born-again faith often in Baptist and Pentecostal churches in the rural hard-shell counties in northern Louisiana, where Catholics are rare and Hindus an exotic curiosity.
He has the credentials to satisfy the educationist snobs (an Ivy League education at Brown, and his choice of Harvard Medical School or Yale Law School; he chose the law) and the views on the social issues (opposition to abortion, stem-cell research, same-sex marriage, gun control) to please the party base and the common folk.
Before all the votes were counted on Nov. 4, he hurried off to Iowa, where the caucuses of 2012 are barely three years away - merely the blink of a pundit's eye - to see whether the cards are marked.
"It signals to activists 'deal me in,' " says David Yepsen, the columnist for the Des Moines Register who has made a career of handicapping of the Iowa caucuses. "[His appearance] says, 'I'm not sure I want to play, but let me see some cards.' "
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Wesley Pruden Archives
© 2007 Wesley Pruden
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|