I’m a big fan of former South Dakota Sen. James Abourezk, but I raised an eyebrow over his statement that he had collided with Wolf Blitzer, then of AIPAC, at the "Federal Press Club." I didn’t know what that is/was. Abourezk had this to say:
What is the Federal Press Club?
I was told that it was an alternative press club for anyone not invited or allowed into the National Press Club. I was also told that the membership consisted of women and African Americans. In any event, whatever the proper description of that Press Club is, I was invited to talk about my trip through the Middle East and a lot of reporters–including Wolf Blitzer–showed up for it.
Thanks, Senator.
American Jews had to join special organizations like that once upon a time. There was an article in Smithsonian Magazine by a guy who was researching the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 or thereabouts. Trouble was the transcript of the trial had been LOST. So he was reading up on the Jewish lawyer who defended the factory owners (and got them off!) and found a footnote that he kept bound transcripts of all his cases and had sent them to a Jewish Lawyers' Association. The author contacted the archive that the now-defunct association's papers had been sent to and they were able to find two out of the three volumes of the transcript. So thanks to the lawyer's ego most of the trial has been saved.