Andrew Sullivan, as demoralized as we are here, says the MSM didn't cover Freeman and this means that the Israel lobby has won and there will be no change in policy in I/P under shrewd timid Obama. "The fact that Obama blinked means no one else in Washington will ever
dare to go through the hazing that Freeman endured. And so the chilling
effect is as real as it is deliberate."
But the good thing is that this one happened out in the open, more or less, and is bound to be covered by the Times. I believe it will lead at last to the "60 Minutes" piece on the Israel lobby. Glenn Greenwald is particularly eloquent on this point, that the third rail is still alive.
Also: it's all about money, as our correspondent Felson says below. Anyone who says this isn't about money is deluding themselves. The most important piece of journalism about the Israel lobby in the last couple of years was done by the Forward, when it reported that Ned Lamont's victory in the Connecticut Dem primary in August '06 had sent the big Jewish money running for the hills. They stuck with defeated Joe Lieberman, because of Israel. That's what the Democratic Party fears. And what the Republican Party is playing for: defection of the big money over Putting Pressure on Israel.
That's why Chuck Schumer's office is taking credit for getting Freeman knocked out, and Greg Sargent says it was Rahm Emanuel and Schumer working together.
The party bosses don't want Lamont/Freeman/realists/progressives to divide the Democratic Party.
Lincoln taught us all about this. You could maintain the party structure, Whigs and Democrats, and let slavery go out into the country. Or you could break up the party system and appeal to an unspoken moral constituency.
We're an unspoken moral constituency– still. But we're gaining. Yesterday Sullivan wasn't with us. Today he is. I thought it was 1859 in these parts. Turns out it's still 1857.
