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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 1, 2006 / 5 Sivan, 5766

Today, Dems like Bentsen don't stand a chance

By Jonathan Gurwitz


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Lloyd Bentsen, who passed away last week at the age of 85, was no liberal.


After a hiatus from politics, the South Texan hit the campaign trail in 1970 to challenge and defeat incumbent U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough in the Democratic primary. Yarborough was then, and remains today, an icon of yellow dog Democrats.


In the Senate, as chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, Bentsen was an advocate of supply-side economics. As treasury secretary in the first Clinton administration, he was a champion of free trade.


But Bentsen was no closet Republican. He supported the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights and voted against the 1991 resolution authorizing the use of military force to eject Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. His partisanship was on full display as Michael Dukakis' running mate during the 1988 presidential race.


But party was rarely the defining issue for Bentsen. He was a mainstream, independent thinker who put the interests of his constituents first.


Independent-minded politicians willing to do right by their constituents are an increasingly rare breed in both parties. But among Democrats, they are positively an endangered species. And an alliance of far-left interests wants to push them into extinction.


Consider another South Texas Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo. In March, Cuellar faced off in the Democratic primary against former friend Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio, against whom he scored an agonizingly close and contentious victory two years ago. The principal campaign issue then was Rodriguez's lack of service to the southern part of the district, where residents contemptuously referred to the incumbent as "Zero" Rodriguez.


The 2006 rematch should have been a yawner. But Cuellar raised the ire of so-called progressive Democrats by voting to repeal the estate tax and in favor of the Central American Free Trade Agreement — votes, in the tradition of Lloyd Bentsen, that served the interests of his border district.


For this heresy, and for earning the endorsement of the conservative Club for Growth, the netroots — a wedding of the power of the Internet with traditional grass-roots organizations — mounted a nationwide campaign to take Cuellar down.

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In the months leading to the primary, the netroots poured as much as $500,000 into Rodriguez's coffers — in the end, to little effect. Cuellar won with 53 percent of the vote, increasing his margin of victory over Rodriguez from 2004 in 10 out of 11 counties in the district and pulling in an astonishing 84 percent in his home of Webb County.


Perhaps Cuellar does represent the interests of his district. But the results didn't deter netroots activists intent on enforcing left-wing discipline on Democratic candidates.


Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, a leader of the netroots effort, wrote on his blog, "So we didn't kill off Cuellar, but we gave him an ass whooping where none was expected."


Now the netroots bullies, intolerant of independent thought, have set their sights on Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. Businessman Ned Lamont, the new darling of the Kos and MoveOn.org camp, recently explained his decision to challenge Lieberman to James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal:


"When Congressman Murtha stood up and said 'Stay the course' is not a winning strategy in Iraq, it was Sen. Lieberman who took the lead and took some of the Republican talking points ... and wrote the piece in The Wall Street Journal, 'Our Troops Must Stay.'"


For tax cuts, for free trade or against an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq? Then you are tagged for political extinction by ideologues who are driving the Democratic Party away from the American mainstream.


Could Bentsen win a Democratic Senate primary today? Would he be considered as a running mate for a Democratic presidential candidate? Could Lieberman, who was Al Gore's running mate only six years ago, make it onto a Democratic ticket? Not a chance.


And if the netroots ideological enforcers ever do succeed in liquidating the Bentsens, Liebermans and Cuellars, the Democratic Party will take a headlong plunge into political irrelevancy.

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 Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, is a co-founder and twice served as Director General of the Future Leaders of the Alliance program at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In 1986 he was placed on the Foreign Service Register of the U.S. State Department.Comment by clicking here.

Jonathan Gurwitz Archives


© 2005, Jonathan Gurwitz

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