Fire-Breathing Liberal Rep. Wexler Resigns From Congress For Mideast Think Tank
Jeez, all we need now is one less liberal to push those damn Blue Dogs into doing the right thing. From Rep. Wexler's site:
“Today, I am announcing that I will be accepting the position of president of the Center for Middle East Peace and will leave Congress effective in January of 2010.
“More than anything, I want to thank the voters of Palm Beach and Broward Counties who have allowed me the privilege of representing our community in the United States House of Representatives and the Florida Senate for the past nineteen years. I have truly cherished the opportunity to serve my constituents – many of whom make up the generation that sacrificed in World War II and Korea and rebuilt our nation after the Great Depression.
“I have both admired and learned from my constituents, especially their love of country and commitment to community.
“I am proud that everyday I have sought to advocate for and provide a voice to my constituents: whether it was fighting for a legitimate vote during the 2000 election, working toward enacting a voter verified paper trail in Florida, or advocating for health care, education, Social Security and countless other issues. Therefore, my decision to leave Congress did not come easy.
“Those who know me, and those who have followed my career know that one of my overriding passions has been my work on the Foreign Affairs Committee helping to strengthen and preserve the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel, and working toward a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab world. Additionally, I have made a special effort to improve congressional relations with key allies in the Muslim world by founding the Turkey and Indonesia caucuses. Moreover, it was an extraordinary honor to serve as a Middle East advisor to President Obama during the presidential campaign, and I treasure the experiences I had traveling the country, and especially throughout Florida, advocating for the President’s Middle East agenda.
“Taking over as president of the Center for Middle East Peace offers me an unparalleled opportunity to work on behalf of Middle East peace for an important and influential non-profit institute. After much discussion with my family, I have decided that I cannot pass up on this opportunity.
“My one regret is that I will be unable to complete my current term in office, but I truly believe there is no time to waste. We are at a unique and critically tense moment in the history of the Middle East with both significant opportunities to succeed in the Arab-Israeli conflict as well as major challenges involving Iran, Hamas, and al Qaeda. In the coming months, Israeli and Arab leaders will be faced with monumental decisions that will dramatically affect the region and the entire world for decades to come. Critically important American security and foreign policy interests are also at stake. I am convinced that now is the time for me to engage on these issues on a full time basis.”
While Wexler's focus will be keeping our relationship with Israel positive, according to JTA, he is equally interested in keeping Israel dovish and protecting the rights of the Palestinians as well:
Just two weeks ago, Wexler spoke about the Middle East at the Center for American Progress, and that does provide some indication of where Wexler might focus his efforts in his new job. (Here's a link to video of the entire speech on the Center's Web site). He emphasized, as I wrote earlier this month, that President Obama needs to do a better job of reaching out to Israelis:
"We need to understand that we ignore Israeli public opinion to our own detriment," said Wexler during an appearance at the Center for American Progress. "Because in order for us, along with the Israeli leadership, to create the political dynamic that allows" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "take risks," said Wexler, "we've got to do it from the bottom up. He runs for re-election, too."
And he stressed the importance of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's initiative to build a "de facto" Palestinian state. He also praised Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's two-year plan to build the institutions and infrastructure of a Palestinian state, and said the United States "ought to get behind it" and support it poliitcally.
And while I personally grieve a solid, unafraid and unapologetic liberal gone from Congress--because we know how rare a species that is--I think Wexler's larger legacy as a congressman can be depicted by this appearance on The Colbert Report:
My favorite thinking is done on the tank too.
http://images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/images/9...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbDiujuv6rQ
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
He is my Rep., but we knew about this last night: have been rumors for a few days.
Gonna miss him.
you guys please put another liberal in his place.
But if he can get real progress in the mideast peace process perhaps it will be worth it.
There is more going on than meets the eye.
I wish him the very best in everything and hope someone of like mind and character will replace him.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
This doesn't make any sense to me and at the same time it frustrates me cause he was one of the few democrats actually doing something...
Which GOP ReThug THREATENED him, or his family?
It can't be the dinero, so it must be he received a threat if he kept on acting like a fire-breathing liberal.
...second boot waiting to hit the floor.
.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
That's my theory..
Rahm needs to thin the heard of liberal congressmen, so that the Clinton conservatives can get back to selling out to the corporate fascists - without impediment.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
that it was either Rahm's father or grandfather was a card carrying, gun toting, dynamite lighting Zion terrorist.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
go to the site. You see any palestinians on board?
Nope.
Picture of Kissinger?
Yup.
Hillary Clinton?
Yup.
Ed Koch?
Yup.
Their top people:
• S. Daniel Abraham, Chairman
Mr. Abraham has strong ties to Israel, which he expresses through deep personal involvement and commitment. He holds honorary doctorates from Ben-Gurion University, Bar Ilan University and Yeshiva University. He believes peace for Israel lies with its neighbours.
Yeah. Riiiiight...
• Avi Gil, Senior Policy Advisor
Ambassador Gil has held several senior positions in the Israeli government where he has been closely involved in Israel's policy-making and peace efforts.He is formerly Director General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Regional Cooperation, the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Media Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Finance, and Executive Policy Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In other words their Policy Advisor is part of the problem.
• Toni Verstandig, Senior Policy Advisor
Under Clinton, Ms. Verstandig served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department. In this capacity, she directed and coordinated U.S. bilateral relations and overall policy developments concerning Israel, Jordan, Syria Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority...
And we all know how THAT worked out.
• Jihan Ghanim, Executive Assistant
She spent most of her college years in Egypt attending the American University in Cairo. Yay.
• Dan Rothem, Senior Research Consultant
Dan Rothem is traveling regularly between Washington and Israel and since early 2007 based full-time in Israel. In Israel, Dan works closely with various organizations composed of former senior Israel intelligence and military officials on issues such as Israel's borders and the route of Israel's West Bank security barrier, Jerusalem, checkpoints, and settlements.
In other words, he's also part of the problem.
And now your dear Rep. Wexler is ALSO part of the problem.
How do you spell Political HACK?
The Center for Middle East Peace & Economic Cooperation is just another Israel lobby system.
Useless.
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
-George Carlin
I don't think there's anything wrong with being pro-Israel, per se.
But Wexler took a lot of heat from aligning himself with J-Street, which is not a rabid Zionist group and is in fact, quite dovish and recognizes the right of Palestinians to self-determination.
I think the Center for Middle East Peace could use a little dose of dovishness, don't you?
Is not that very different from being pro-South Africa in the early 1980s. Wexler may have supported Jstreet, but their Senior Research Consultant is one of the people who put all that crap together.
I don't think the Center for Middle East Peace can use some dovishness. I think it would be better off not existing. With "Friends" like CMEP, the Palestinians don't need enemies.
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
-George Carlin
Any Think Tank that has the mass murder Henry Kissinger, who went to China and kisses their butts after they helped kill 150,000 USA troops in Vietnams is an abomination. They are not pro-Israel; they are servants of Israel. Sound like he becoming a good stooge.
Not for profit! LOLOLOL. Yes, he's moving on for Middle East Peace. He's doing that right thing we always hear so much about.
What honor. Makes me misty. How I wish I'd bought his book. He is sooo gonna need the money.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Wow. From being one of the few democrats willing to show some fight in congress to being the useless head of a meaningless pro-israel think tank.
It would make me laugh if it weren't the most cynical and effective attempt to undermine the democratic left I have seen in ... weeks.
...I saw him at "Bagel City South" on SW 18th St. about 8 years ago, and I will always regret not saying hello to him. I am a longtime Wexler supporter. I loved his outspoken behavior;I loved his attitude.
What always bothered me were the Jews in South Florida deriding him for any num ber of reasons. "He's not for Isreal; he suporsts Obama, the coddler of Iran, etc." Blah blah... To my Jewish neighbors and friends, I say, "It is not all about Israel. It is about peace in the Middle East. And no matter how much you decry his efforts, Israel needs to make concessions, just as any country must in order to achive the end result: peace."
Congressman Wexler, I applaud you. Good luck to you, sir.
"Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying..."-------Roger Waters, "Comfortably Numb"
"The U.S.A. no longer supports or recognizes the so-called 'state' of Israel"
Cue the Kabuki....
If recognition came and went so fast among alliances that would have the effect of destabalizing the area worse than it already is.
That's part of the reason the Arab world has achieved so little, except for the oil rich countries that deal with the West. Their alliances are too fluid.
If Britain recognized the Confederate States sooner (they ended up not doing so when Lincoln declared those states in insurrection not a state of war, which would have been a negative recognition of them as a separate Nation), we could have a different map of this country.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
better not 'destabalize' our* Merica interests!..Ubetcha!
*!?
Cue the Kabuki....
For us it would be an inconvenience, for them something along the lines of genocide.
Nice to see you're so concerned with them.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
'them' can all come over here.....howwabout we solve our problems first before giving 30 billion+ to an illegal country ever year!
please check....
Paul Craig Roberts: War Criminals Are Becoming Arbiters of the Law
"The double standard under which the Israeli government operates is too much for everyone except the brainwashed Americans. Even the very Israeli Jerusalem Post can see the double standard displayed by “all of Israel now speaking in one voice against the Goldstone report”: “This is the Israeli notion of a fair deal: We’re entitled to do whatever the hell we want to the Palestinians because, by definition, whatever we do to them is self-defense. They, however, are not entitled to lift a finger against us because, by definition, whatever they do to us is terrorism. “That’s the way it’s always been, that’s the way it was in Operation Cast Lead. “And there are no limits on our right to self-defense. There is no such thing as ‘disproportionate.’ “We can deliberately destroy thousands of Gazan homes, the Gazan parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, courthouses, the only Gazan flour plant, the main poultry farm, a sewage treatment plant, water wells and God knows what else. Deliberately!!!"
Cue the Kabuki....
Leaves in January? With all that's going on?
More like "quitter."
"Public Service" is an oxymoron.
All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good people to leave to take high paying jobs with lobbying firms.
I wonder if he would have done this were there laws in place to prohibit people who served in Congress from taking positions with lobbying firms for five years after they leave office?
Why did he do this? I'm guessing MONEY. The Republicans are fighting a tug-of-war over Congressional votes, and they founds Wexler had a reasonable price.
"The Good and Great Must Ever Shun, That Reckless and Abandoned One
Who Stoops to Perpetrate a Pun," Lewis Carroll, 'The Three Voices.'
I'm on Wexler's mailing list and got the news last night , seems a little strange to me , I don't know what the real story is but of all the times he is truly needed and could do the most good it is this term and the next . The timing could not be worse and I think his priorities are F'd up .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
...and will it be a Live Boy or a Dead Girl?
Usually they wanna "spend more time with their family" not "save Israel"
"Ronald Reagan is DEAD! His policies live on but we're doing something about THAT!"
What we need is Congressmen who serve out their terms and not jump track for a cushy private lobbyist job.
Wexler certainly talked the talked but to me in the end he didn't walk the walk - he cut out like Palin for richer rewards. If he was committed to his constituency then he wouldn't have cut out for a higher paying position - and he did it when we really needed him to be there to fight for us.
I hope people remember that should he ever seek re-election again.
Goodbye and good riddance Mr. Wexler.
I wonder how many other politicians will take the Palin route and go for the gold?
Lobbyists prefer to hire those who have connections, either from the Legislature or from their targeted "host", such as the Military. Wexler's new employer pays him better than a Congressman just because he was a Congressman, with all those Congress-critter connections. Irony alert: lobbyist/think tanks are generally tax-free non-profits, who also frequently draw government grants for their "research". I also wonder just how much of the USA's foreign aid to Israel is funneled back into lobbying here - talk about rotting corruption.
But when your lobbyist organization can buy off a Congressman who opposed your legislative positions, it is double-plus-good. Wexler's legislative policies were aligned with liberal-leftist Israeli positions, like opposition to unchecked Israeli expansion into the occupied West Bank. His new masters have a somewhat less progressive attitude regarding this expansion.
The lobbyists have killed two birds with one stone - they got rid of some opposition to their policy objectives in mid-term, and will leverage his Congressional connections to help their agenda. Wexler is a sell-out, and a quitter. This merely reinforces the impression of the corrupting influence of lobbyists, no matter which political party is involved - another sell-out, IMHO ...
following in the greasy footsteps of former Gov. Sarah Palin, no less.
/sarcasm
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
I liked Wexler. I liked his standing up to fight for regular people, rather than corporate interests. For asking tough questions in committee.
I liked him enough to write a letter thanking him and asking him not to give up. Even though I'm from Michigan, he's the first member of Congress who actually sent a reply that wasn't an obvious form letter. Because of that, I bought his book, and read it avidly.
And from there, my fandom waned. His book seemed to honestly tell about how his family and his constituents all made him feel it imperative to fight not just for causes of those of us in the U.S., but also for Israel.
I'm not saying he was selling out the US. I'm not even saying he had "divided loyalties". I think he honestly believed that the causes of both nations were the same. Which, personally, was a little disappointing.
I guess his book was a non-icky example of TMI. I was glad to know what I'd learned, but at the cost of being a little more wary of the choices to which his motives might lead. I felt he was still a good guy, someone to be counted on to vote for the people; but, his decision doesn't surprise me. I guess I'm saying I don't believe it was all about the money. No doubt it was an issue.
I think he really believes he's doing the right thing. And for him and his causes, it might very well be. For the rest of us... I doubt it.
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