Discussion for article #232940
3? That’s it??
You know damn well and good that if were happening to a Rethug POTUS by the Dems, the ENTIRE GOP congress would march in lockstep with one another and not attend.
11 Likes
It will be a lot more than three if Boner continues.
3 Likes
“I can emphatically say it is not an organized effort,” Butterfield said
Well, it certainly should be an organized effort. I called Rep. Yarmuth’s office and sent an email asking that he please stand with the president and the office of the presidency by refusing to attend what amounts to little more than the latest GOP show of contempt for the president. I also pointed out that anyone who is a progressive and supporter of Israel should be even more motivated not to attend, which would only give credibility to Bibi and the Likud’s brazen attempt to hold onto the Knesset. This isn’t just about President Obama, it’s about future presidents and respect for the office, as well as protecting our friend, Israel, from punching herself in the face again.
13 Likes
Where are the rest of them?
5 Likes
Came to say same - Only 3 ?!?!?!
5 Likes
“It is really sad that it has come to this,” Pelosi said
But what the hell, it looks like a party, and I’m going to have some fun!
Dems are pitiful.
5 Likes
Only three Democrats???!!!??? If the Democrats would show a little backbone, they would stand up for their President who has been bitch slapped by Boner! It’s no wonder that the Democrats lost control of Congress. People want representatives who lead not cower in the corner when things get hot.
4 Likes
Speaker Pelosi, yoiu know damn well this is nothing but a big FU to Obama, and by extension all of us that voted for him. You should show more respect to the Democrats that voted for you and him, rather than disrespecting us and respecting the Republicans in the Congress (and again by extension the people that voted for them), and refuse to attend, and you should tell your Caucus there will be repercussions should they choose to attend.
6 Likes
“Reps. John Lewis of Georgia, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon said they won’t attend Netanyahu’s March 3 speech.”
Reps. John Lewis of Georgia, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon are the only House Dems with any balls.
FIFY
Earl Blumenauer’s statement on this was spot on.
Biden not attending would be great. Pelosi and Reid are wimps, they’ll attend.
4 Likes
Wow. 3 whole clowngressmen.
Big statement.
I was going to say that the entire Democratic Party ought to get up and walk out five minutes after Bibi starts yammering.
But there is no “Democratic Party.”
Not anymore.
There are a few Democrats with both guts and brains, but they do not a “Party” make. They make a nice poker game, maybe, but not a political Party.
As for Bibi, he could stand up there and do readings from the Torah, and it couldn’t hold my interest.
As a Jew, and an American Born Israeli, I just feel sorry that so much crass manipulative personal politics (and I mean Bibi and Dermer, not Obama) has tarnished Israeli-American relations.
We can accomplish a lot that’s good for people all over. That is, if we can get Politics and egos out of the way.,starting with Bibi’s إن شاء الله
That statement’s perfect. Even setting aside the slimy politics involved, what part of
If negotiations do fail to progress, it must be crystal-clear that it was Iran, not the U.S., who failed. This will be critical if we’re to have the mandate needed to respond accordingly, and in a multilateral way in the future.
is so hard for these nutbars to understand? I mean, it’s almost enough to make you think they actually want a war…
And just repeating my request from earlier threads on this: Jews especially, call your nearest Israeli consolate and tell them Netanyahu must cancel his speech. Those calls are apparently having an effect: I got an email from J Street today – look them up and support them if you want a liberal counterweight to AIPAC – asking me to call the NY consul (don’t know if it’s because I’m in NY or because they’re focusing everyone there now) that included the following:
From today’s Haaretz: “A senior [Israeli] Foreign Ministry official said the consuls general in San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia have sent the ministry worried cables in the past two weeks about widespread dissatisfaction regarding Netanyahu’s speech.”
…
[T]ake 2 minutes and call the Israeli consulate for New York. Tell them that you support Israel, you support peace, and that politicizing the US-Israel relationship is dangerous. Israel should be above partisan politics.
…
P.S.- The calls are making a difference. In his cable to the Foregin Ministry, Consul General Yaron Sideman described American reaction to the speech “as sticking a finger in the eye of the president and the administration,” and said its supporters were more motivated by “their identification with, and admiration for, a move to defy and humiliate President Obama” than support for Netanyahu’s bellicose Iran policies.
As I said before, it’s very likely that the only American Jews they typically hear from are right wing; making this call would be doing great good for both countries. Here’s J Street’s info link for calling the NY consulate:
http://act.jstreet.org/call/isr_consulate_calls_022015/?t=4&akid=3663.148569.uGUo6q
3 Likes
I assume these are just the first; let’s see how it continues to play out.
2 Likes
As a democrat I have a problem with my congressional leaders not having the guts to kick bone head square in the nuts by all democrats refusing to attend this Propaganda filled speech organized by the republican party.
1 Like
BTW, Plucky, Israel’s consuls here are starting to communicate back home the reality that it is indeed “little more than the latest GOP show of contempt for the president” – I just posted an excerpt of a J Street email in a comment here quoting one saying pretty much exactly that. My comment also includes their link with info on contacting the NY consulate – if there’s none closer to KY, you may want to pass it along to any of those liberal Louisville Jews you may know. (And by all means, please make a call yourself.) Apparently the US consuls are getting nervous about the speech, and letting the home office know; if Netanyahu weren’t such a slimy sociopath, I’d be getting pretty hopeful that it’d be cancelled.
3 Likes
That’s the thing, even most Israeli citizens are not in favor of what Netanyahu is doing.
3 Likes
I’m grateful my representative in the house, Blumenauer, is communicating and representing my viewpoint on this almost pitch perfectly. I rank the issues here accordingly:
-
Every effort to allow diplomacy to work. No one wants a nuclear Iran. The only effort Congress needs to spend is: NONE. Just DO NOTHING. Do not posture, pontificate on, and especially don’t create and vote on legislation to sabotage the diplomatic dialog with Iran! And absolutely do not invite Bibbi here be an catalyst to DO ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG THING! So epicly short sighted and doing exactly what the PNAC war-mongers want.
-
As stated so concisely by someone else in the thread: we need to help Israel to not punch themselves in the face here.
-
Setting a precedent for toxic international relations going forward. Subverting our nation’s method of international diplomacy (clearly Executive’s domain) and the concern of what’s to come in 20, 30 years because of it.
-
As a mega Obama supporter over the years, I rank the internal US political damage lowest here… Obama has clearly stated his case here on many occasions: press conferences, interviews, SOTU, etc. The big picture foreign policy and nuclear containment is the most important element here.
And the long view of history I’m hoping to see out here is: flip our middle east relationship Shia over Sunni paradigm slowly over time, bringing back on board the more worldly, progressive, sensible Iran while slowly distancing from oppressive, increasingly backwards Saudi Arabia – all the while keeping Israel close as ever.
1 Like
three. take a look – this is your congress expressing its undying fealty to israel; that trumps everything – decorum, protocol, and is a direct insult to the president. once pelosi caved, it was clear that the rest of them were just waiting for the go-ahead.