The other day I pointed out that the Obama administration was “lobbying the lobby” going to Israel lobbyists like Bill Kristol to get their endorsement of the START treaty as being in Israel’s interest.
Well now Senators Chuck Schumer and Carl Levin are pushing AIPAC to come out for the START treaty as being in Israel’s interest. Jennifer Rubin, the new Washington Post blogger, and Politico’s Laura Rozen have both mocked this. Lobbying the lobby, ha!
Why are they doing it?
Because AIPAC has power. Because it represents the Israel lobby, which is something of a shadow force in American government. Because a congressman from Illinois or Tennessee checks with AIPAC before he votes on some stuff because he gets at least $250,000 a cycle from being right with the lobby (as Bob Filner explained at J Street). Because it exists outside of our conventional political structures, and that is why men of whom the lobby approves– Stuart Levey, under secretary of Treasury, and Dennis Ross, Middle East negotiator in State Department– calmly float right into powerful positions in the Obama administration even though they served Republicans in years gone by…
