An important sign: Jake Tapper offers this exchange between Senator Joe Lieberman (D-from you know where) and Dennis Blair, director of National Intelligence, on the appointment of Chas Freeman, to be head of Nat'l Intelligence Council. Blair says Freeman has an inventive mind and a great intellect, and yes, strong views, and will face fine-comb scrutiny. But he's standing by his man.
Also note: the National Jewish Democratic Council has declined to bash Freeman. J Street has said nothing against Freeman either. AIPAC has also been careful not to say anything mean officially about Freeman. Which means that the New Republic (Chait) and Jeffrey Goldberg are now isolated as the sole Democratic types in the neocon camp on this one. When Freeman goes on board at the end of the month, that will be the second call TNR/Goldberg have missed in recent months (Gaza), making them more and more irrelevant.
Update: Greg Sargent reports that Dianne Feinstein is having Freeman in to meet with several senators, make or break.
Blair stood firm, and Lieberman ended it by saying, "To be continued."
The hypocrisy of these Israel-firsters who are taking Freeman to task for alleged "advocacy" – it's unbelievable. For most of them, they're whole raison d'etre is advocacy – for Israel.
Sounds like Freeman has some 'splainin' to do before the Senate on Thursday. Senator Feinstein has called a meeting. :-)
This normally would never occur for this particular post, but there's concern over whether his attitude towards 9/11, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and China (and possibly affiliations with Iran), add up to persona non grata among various sectors. His 9/11 remarks were pretty offensive. (not to lefties, but they don't count).
Blair is arguing that he has no policy-making duties so his views are of no consequence. We shall see if that's how the Senate feels.
On another unrelated note: I wonder if Mr. Phil is going to discuss the whispering coming out of Damascus about making peace with Israel. That represents a blow to Iran and its apologists– and perhaps will result in unity around the idea of the territories being absorbed by Jordan and Egypt.
Thankfully Sen. Lieberman is not a (D), but instead smeared Obama and impugned our now-President's patriotism from his perch as an (I).
"why can't suzanne, berel, ai, et al, hear themselves? why aren't they ashamed of their own thoughts? like "good thing that ethnic cleansing was successful"? the beauty of emerson's letter contrasts starkly."
"None of us said anything remotely like that, you vile little liar. If the Pals have such low iq, low integrity pos like you on their team, they are DOOMED. " suzanne
i love that suzanne's reply to my comment so perfectly illustrates my point.
"good thing that ethnic cleansing was successful" was said by al(ai,sorry). the thuggish tone is remarkably similar amongst the three of them.
thank you, phil, for 'thuggish', applied by you to israeli settlers. the aesthetic is a unifying thread.
Freeman's out::::::::
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/10/freeman-out/
Thankfully Sen. Lieberman is not a (D), but instead smeared Obama and impugned our now-President's patriotism from his perch as an (I).
It doesn't matter. Dual loyalist Israel fanatics like Lieberman are found on both sides of the aisle.
We need to move beyond the "left-right" paradigm in order to accomplish anything, not just in relation to Israel.
Freeman's out::::::::
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/10/freeman-out/
What a shame.
Oh well, no one said it was going to be easy. We've just got to keep plugging away…
Wow! He pulled out???
Guess he wasn't comfortable with the idea of having his views probed on the Senate floor.
Blair's support of Senator Freeman is commendable and would have done the Jewish lobby a good service, had not Freeman been so pressured to resign. Israel has already been cited by the ICC for potential war crimes against Gaza, so Freeman's remarks are not without some foundation. Justice and free speech is not the monopoly of the powerful, and those who support Israel come hell or high water, regardless of consequences, do no favours to Israel.