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POLITICS
The Jewish Voice
Weiner Wedding Could Impact Career Continued from Cover Yorker, sometimes called “pragmatic.” He has been a politician on an upward trajectory, one who may want to call Gracie Mansion home one day. As a practical politician, one might say he has made an unexpected choice of a bride. In establishing his political career, Weiner has followed a somewhat traditional path “putting in his time” as a campaign worker, later staffing Schumer's Washington, D.C., office and later his district office in Brooklyn. He became involved in local politics, running and winning against three primary opponents in a heavily contested race and finally successfully gaining the seat of his former boss, Senator Chuck Schumer. Throughout his career, Weiner has commanded a public platform. He has sought and found, a high visibility profile since his earliest days in Congress. Many in the “pundit” category believe he would like to list Gracie Mansion as his next address: (Weiner ran for Mayor in 2005, and almost ran in 2009.) He has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to raise significant political dollars, and more and more, commands the visibility that could help him develop a national following. Weiner acknowledges that he can be “sharp-tongued,” funny, irreverent…always who I am.” He has been called “pugilistic,” a “street kid.” Yet, according to the Wall Street Journal, Weiner “leads the pack of potential 2013 mayoral candidates in the race for campaign cash.” The congressman is said to have $3.9 million in cash on hand: nothing like the 108 million the self financed Michael Bloomberg is said to have spent, but “at least a $1 million more” than any potential rival.He has filed paperwork with the city Campaign Finance Board to run. “He’s a Brooklyn boy,” says political consultant George Arzt. “He’s a street kid who has always been a little bit edgy. The “streets” Weiner represents include parts of southern Brooklyn comprising Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park, Midwood, Mill Basin and Sheepshead Bay and south central Queens, including Forest Hills, Maspeth, Fresh Meadows, Glendale, Howard Beach, Kew Gardens, Kew Gardens Hills, Middle Village, Ozone Park, Rego Park, Rockaway Beach, and Woodhaven. He was born in Brooklyn. He father is a lawyer and his mother Fran, a math teacher. After graduation from SUNY he roomed with Jon Stewart, host of the Comedy Central program The Daily Show. Weiner is known to work on issues of importance to his urban, middle class, constituency. He is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Public Housing, has, as noted, been heavily involved in health care
Comptroller's Office Staff to Get $750,000 In Pay Raises City Comptroller John Liu will be handing out over $750,000 in raises to employees at the Comptroller’s office, according to an email sent out to office employees. is office stressed that the salary bump-ups will go to staffers in the Comptroller’s office who predate Liu’s term, which began on January 1 of this year, and not some of the big-name deputy comptrollers that Liu brought on-board, including former city councilman Simcha Felder, former Empire State Pride executive director Alan Van Capelle, or former Clinton White House staffer Eric Eve. Nor will the raises apply to any of Liu’s campaign staffers who have joined his administration. Sharon Lee, a spokesperson in Liu’s office, said that the raises were “in compliance with a larger mayoral order that was made in July 2009,” a directive which gave salary increases to non-unionized Bloomberg Administration officials as well as non-unionized employees in city agencies. She said that 81 employees in the office will receive the raise. In the heat of the political campaign season, city Comptroller William Thompson, then running for mayor, turned down the
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Former president Bill Clinton officiated at the Saturday nuptials of Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York and Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. legislation, and fought to add more police officers to the beat. Positioning himself as a champion of the middle-class, he has established a strong, pro-Israel position, often ending speeches in front of Jewish audiences with Am Yisrael Chai! He has made his Jewish connections very visible. In 2006, Weiner sought to bar entry of the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations, claiming that the Palestinian Authority is listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department. Weiner joined Rep. Jerold Nadler on a visit to Israel’s north during the Lebanon War, and is said to have worked to stop a $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia because that country “has not done enough to stop terrorism." Now, he has a Muslim wife raised in Saudi Arab. Weiner married Huma Abedin, a longtime personal aide of Hillary Clinton, on July 10, 2010. Weiner proposed to Abedin on May 23, 2009, four days before he dropped out of the race for Mayor of New York City She stood alongside him as he announced his withdrawal from the race. Weiner’s father is Jewish. Abedin, the daughter of a Pakistani mother and an Indian father, is a Muslim. Many of the constituents Weiner represents are Jewish; many of those observe their religion in a “traditional” pattern. Theirs is not a social tradition that approves intermarriage. Both in Brooklyn and Queens, many of his constituents have strong and active connections to Israel. How will the Congressman’s choice of spouse resonate with these constituents? Despite the presumption that a Democrat can’t lose in the 9th, could the red flag Congressman Weiner now flies in the faces of his voters unseat even that deep loyalty?
Iowa Sign Linking Obama, Hitler Draws Complaints
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Billboard ordered and paid for by the North Iowa Tea Party shows President Barack Obama, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. national Tea Party Patriots, says the sign isn't appropriate. She says her group opposes any comparisons of Obama to Hitler or Lenin. The White House declined to comment.
City Comptroller John Liu will not get a raise, but elected offical, Liu can set salaries in his office how he chooses. raises in light of the economic downturn. Lee noted that the money for the raises was included in both this and last year’s budget, even though this was the first year that they were granted. She said that the money was approved by the Office of the Management and Budget. However, Jason Post, a Bloomberg spokesman, rejected the notion the administration was responsible for the staff raises, and noted that as an elected offical, Liu can set salaries how he chooses. The Comptroller himself, who was not an employee of his office before July 2009, will not get a raise, his office noted.
Conservatives Launch Anti-Obama Pro-Israel Group
Screen from Video Ad for New Pro Israel anti Obama group. Leading neoconservatives including Bill Kristol have launched an anti-Obama pro Israel group, the Emergency Committee for Israel, Ben Smith reports: eading conservatives will launch a new pro-Israel group this week with a scathing attack on Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, the first shot in what they say will be a confrontational campaign against the Obama administration’s Mideast policy and the Democrats who support it. The Emergency Committee for Israel’s leadership unites two major strands of support for the Jewish state: The hawkish, neoconservative wing of the Republican Party, many of whom are Jewish, and conservative Evangelical Christians who have become increasingly outspoken in their support for Israel. The new group’s board includes Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol and Gary Bauer, the former Republican presidential candidate who leads the group American Values, as well as Rachel Abrams, a conservative writer and activist.
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A billboard created by an Iowa tea party group comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is being condemned by other tea party activists. he North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the sign in Mason City last week. The sign includes photos of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin with the statement: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive." North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson says the sign highlights what the group argues is Obama's support for socialism. He says the pictures might be overwhelming the intended message. Shelby Blakely, a spokeswoman for the
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“We’re the pro-Israel wing of the proIsrael community,” said Kristol. While President Barack Obama and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to put the best public face on their differences after a White House meeting last week, the two leaders have had a contentious relationship. Some American backers of Israel, as well as many Israelis, remain deeply suspicious of Obama’s efforts to press Israel toward specific policy shifts and to improve American relations with the Muslim world. The new committee declined to disclose its funding — as a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization, it isn’t required to — but said it had raised enough to air its first ad, starting this week, on Fox and CNN and during a Philadelphia Phillies game. The ad attacks Sestak for signing a letter criticizing Israel’s blockade of Gaza while not signing a defense of Israel circulated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and for appearing at a fundraiser for the Council on American Islamic Relations, which it describes as an “anti-Israel organization the FBI called a ‘front group for Hamas.’”