My Florida Crush, Rep. Wasserman Schultz, Pulls a Lieberman, Supporting Iraq-Hawk Republicans

I generally keep my crushes off this blog but every man has his limits. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic congresswoman from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, is sexy. Sometimes I just gaze at her on CSPAN. She has an elegant horsey face--my type (philip means lover of horses)--and looks a little like my sisters. (Need I say more?) I like the fancy black designer suit she wears all the time, the buttery tan--and that longwaisted, volleyballish figure. Again: my thing. Throw in full lips, great hair, and--frankly, if I had met Debbie at the right time, maybe I wouldn't be intermarried right now...

O.K. Now I'm done.

Wasserman Schultz, a Clinton supporter, is Exhibit A in the crisis of the Jewish liberal mainstream. She co-chairs a committee of the Democratic Party called Red to Blue, which is dedicated to knocking off Republican house members, but has refused to endorse the Democrats who are running against  three Republican congressmen in southern Florida: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart. All three of these congressmen were big supporters of the Iraq debacle.

What is driving Wasserman Schultz's abdication of official duty? I say the Middle East. The Diaz-Balarts and Ros-Lehtinen are rightwingers on Cuba--it is Ros-Lehtinen's "overriding cause" per the Almanac of American Politics--but they are also big supporters of Israel.   "In the 103rd Congress [L. Diaz-Balart] served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he concentrated on enforcing the U.S. embargo on Cuba and maintaining a strong U.S. relationship with Israel." And lo and behold, Wasserman Schultz is a big supporter of Israel and a strong supporter of punitive policy re Cuba. That's why I think Wasserman Schultz--who once bluntly told an Israel Policy Forum delegation, "I'm with AIPAC"--is behind these rightwingers. In her heavily Jewish, weakly Hispanic district, Israel is an "overriding cause."

So it's you scratch my special overseas interest, I'll scratch yours.

Wasserman-Schultz's support for these rightwingers exposes the political compromises that Iraq and Israel have caused in Jewish life. Many politicians who would have been against Vietnam are soft on Iraq and "the war on terror," because it is widely said to be Israel's war too; everywhere we see Jewish Democrats shading into neocons, from Ann Lewis to Chuck Schumer. There are notable exceptions, like Jerrold Nadler, but the Jewish establishment is trailing after Joe Lieberman. When Hillary's out, many older Jews are sure to leave the Democratic Party for McCain.

Israel is one of the bigger Obama/Hillary wedges. Both Wasserman Schultz and California congressman Brad Sherman are driving that one, saying that the Rev. Wright story is everything, and will kill Obama in the fall. I.e., let us now marginalize anyone who has ever criticized Israel.

Thus the Jewish political mainstream abandons its mid-century American tradition, moving righter and righter. Of course, class too is an important determinant here. You can't be as much in the Establishment as we are and not grow conservative.