This morning, The Huffington Post features an exclusive excerpt from the RP’s latest book, The Liberal Case for Israel: Debunking Eight Crazy Lies about the Jewish State” In the excerpt, the RP discusses the toxic charge of “pinkwashing,” in which anti-Zionist activists claim that Israel brags about its extraordinary LGBT culture to brainwash Americans about its other activities:
Israel’s commendable gay rights record should be a cause for the American Left to celebrate. But in the Orwellian dystopia that is our political discourse today, the Israel-is-always-wrong crowd has used Israeli publicity of its proud LGBT culture as yet another reason to criticize the Jewish State.
Borrowing a term coined by the breast cancer prevention community to describe companies that claim to care about the disease but at the same time sell carcinogenic products, the anti-Israel crowd has redefined “pinkwashing” as Israeli propaganda designed to hypnotize American liberals into ignoring Israel’s transgressions in the disputed territories.
The most quotable advocate of this terminology is CUNY English Professor Sarah Schulman, who described her objective as trying to frame the Palestinian cause with simpler language, “like in the kinds of magazines you read in the laundromat.” (Perhaps “pinkwashing” is supposed to remind laundromat users of the infuriating consequences of leaving a red shirt in a white washload?)
By Patrick Derocher, on Tue Jun 5, 2012 at 12:30 PM ET
Today's gubernatorial election in Wisconsin may be the state's most high profile recall, but it is by no means the first.
In dubious honor of the impending Wisconsin recall election, this week’s Politics of the States will be dedicated to that most polarized of states, the Badger State.
– It’s conventional wisdom that Governor Scott Walker will fend off challenger Tom Barrett today. A more unknown quantity is how the down ticket races, for State Senate and Lieutenant Governor, will play out. Rachel Weiner at The Washington Post takes a look at a couple of unexpected possibilities: Republicans keeping the governor’s mansion while Democrats either take the State Senate or win the Lieutenant Governor race. (Wisconsin elects the positions separately, so firefighters’ union head Mahlon Mitchell could well end up Walker’s lieutenant.) [The Washington Post]
– With polls tightening up in recent days and Walker seemingly unable to cross the 50% threshold with Wisconsin voters, that state’s Democrats are gearing up for yet another grueling, divisive recount (a sequel, perhaps, to last year’s month-long nailbiter of a supreme court election). State and national Republicans refuse to comment on the prospect, but the Wisconsin Democratic Party has some 440 lawyers ready to go across the state today in case a recount is necessary. [POLITICO]
While Wisconsin’s recent political acrimony is well-known and widely-documented, less famous is that state’s lengthy history of recall elections, both successful and unsuccessful:
Successful
1996: State Senator George Petak (R-Racine)
2002: Milwaukee Country Executive F. Thomas Ament
2002: Milwaukee County Board Chair Karen Ordinans
2002: Milwaukee County Supervisors Penny Podell, LeAnn Launstein, David Jasenski, Kathy Arciszewski, James McGuigan, and Linda Ryan
2003: State Senator Gary George (D-Milwaukee)
2011: State Senators Randy Hopper (R-Fond Du Lac) and Dan Kapanke (R-French Island)
2012: Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan
Unsuccessful
1932: State Senator Otto Mueller (R-Wausau)
2011: State Senators Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls), Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), Robert Wirch (D-Pleasant Prairie), and Jim Holperin (D-Conover)
For those of you keeping count at home, that’s 13 recalled elected officials and 8 unsuccessful attempts, all but one of which were in the 15 years between 1996 and 2011, in addition to the 6 officials up for recall today (Gov. Walker, Lt. Gov. Kleefisch, and 4 Republicans in the State Senate).
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Jun 4, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Woody Allen once famously said that, “90 percent of life is just showing up.” Our members of Congress apparently aren’t big believers in this philosophy.
Among the many reasons for Congressional gridlock is the fact that they’re rarely in session together, if at all. This past May offered a representative example as the House and Senate were only in session at the same time during nine out of 22 available work days.
Congressional absenteeism is hardly a new problem. In the last 10 years, the House averaged only 135 days in session per calendar year, while the Senate averaged 160. But in recent years, it has reached tragicomic proportions, as some members don’t even show up when Congress is in session.
Members of Congress now routinely fly home to their districts on Thursday nights to meet with constituents or attend fundraisers, and they often don’t return until the following Tuesday. That often leaves only a few days a week available for actual legislating. As former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle once said, “When we scheduled votes, the only day where we could be absolutely certain we had all one hundred senators there was Wednesday afternoon.”
This is simply unacceptable. America has big problems to solve, and we won’t have much hope of solving them if we effectively have a part-time legislature. Thankfully, members of Congress from both parties are starting to speak up.
Read the rest of… The RP: Make Members Come to Work
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue May 29, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
We love to highlight, at The Recovering Politician, the works and thoughts of our next generation of leaders, the Milleneal Generation.
Marina Keegan was certainly in that category. Just last week, she graduated from Yale University, with a job at the prestigious New Yorker waiting. Tragically, she was killed on Saturday in a car accident.
Here’s an except from her final article, “The Opposite of Loneliness”:
We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale, and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this place.
It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats.
Yale is full of tiny circles we pull around ourselves. A cappella groups, sports teams, houses, societies, clubs. These tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest nights when we stumble home to our computers — partner-less, tired, awake. We won’t have those next year. We won’t live on the same block as all our friends. We won’t have a bunch of group-texts.
This scares me. More than finding the right job or city or spouse – I’m scared of losing this web we’re in. This elusive, indefinable, opposite of loneliness. This feeling I feel right now.
But let us get one thing straight: the best years of our lives are not behind us. They’re part of us and they are set for repetition as we grow up and move to New York and away from New York and wish we did or didn’t live in New York. I plan on having parties when I’m 30. I plan on having fun when I’m old. Any notion of THE BEST years comes from clichéd “should haves…” “if I’d…” “wish I’d…”
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri May 25, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
A little over a year ago, I came out of the closet in support of marriage equality, and urged the President to do the same. While my own announcement was personally gratifying, I believed that Obama’s support could provide trmendous momentum for the gay marriage movement:Indeed, there’s one politician whom I’m confident supports marriage equality, but has been afraid to admit it. I suspect he’s waiting for the right opportunity to announce it, when the electoral benefits outweigh the political downside.
Mr. President, the time is now. Yes, you can… trigger the tipping point. Exercising bold leadership — instead of waiting to follow the generational tide — might be your most enduring legacy.
Early evidence seems to prove that I was right. Esteemed New York Times pollster Nate Silver detects a pronounced shift among the electorate, particularly among African-Americans:
President Obama’s self-described “evolution” on same-sex marriage — from opponent to proponent — appears to be catalyzing a similar shift among some of his most loyal supporters, African-Americans. Although evidence for such a shift is preliminary — there are just a few data points and a number of caveats — Mr. Obama’s announcement may have accelerated the acceptance of gay marriage among blacks.
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu May 24, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
A lesser-known part of my biography is that my first elected office was serving as Co-President of The Lexington School’s Bee Gees Fan Club. I was 10.
During my college years, I arrogantly scoffed at my youthful indisrections. But by the time my own kids were at The Lexington School, I resumed my fanaticism for the Brothers Gibb.
Like all Bee Gees fans, I was very saddened by the recent death of Robin Gibb, and I was moved by this beautiful tribute by the only remaining Gibb brother, Barry, that also features his other deceased brothers, Maurice and Andy.
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue May 22, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
“Bring it to the Table” is a web and documentary project that seeks to bridge political divides in an increasingly partisan era. At a time when it’s so easy to filter out ideas that don’t sit well with us, they aim to get liberals speaking to conservatives–and conservatives speaking to liberals.
Take a look at the video below, and if you like what you see, I encourage you to click here to learn more about the Kickstarter campaign.
