2051 So What Else is New?

A woman recently was sworn into her job as a member of the House of Representatives. Then she tweeted criticism of the lobby AIPAC, The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, an outfit with dirty hands aplenty.  

That would have been fine, but Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) chose to lace her tweet with what are being called “antisemitic tropes.”  This raised a storm of cow chips from both sides of the aisle, and she later issued a counter-tweet of profound apology, saying -- in not so many words -- that she was ignorant and meant no malice toward American Jews.

Around here we call that the Helen Thomas Syndrome. Thomas was a cranky, beloved, brilliant writer and later columnist of Lebanese extraction caught on mic saying the Jews of Israel should “... get the hell out of Palestine.”  That ended her career and the part about beloved and brilliant.  Thomas was in her 90s at the time of that cliff-jump.  Omar is in her 30s, so has many working years left. There’s a lot of potential in her.  As soon as the wound from the bullet she fired into her foot heals.

The apology was pretty thin, contrived and sounds like the work of second rate political handlers:

Um, apologize, then divert.  “Sorry. I didn’t know the gun was loaded. But the guy I shot deserved to die anyway.”

Well, at least we have a sane democratic Congresswoman from Michigan, Rashida Tlaib.  She’s also newly elected, and at 42 is at a calmer stage of life than the younger Omar.  She talks about car insurance, reining in the credit scoring agencies and famously called trump a Motherf***er. Oh, wait. She’s also troping about the boycott Israel movement.

No worries. We all know that Jewish people control the banks, all of the American politicians, the media and that Jews, being all in lockstep and united in every way possible all blindly follow their leaders. Not.

Be good to have diversity in Congress.  Be good to have more women. More Muslims like these two. Let’s not condemn a whole subculture for the supposed stumbles of a couple of pioneers some of whose best friends are Jewish.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Correspondence towesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 5779