Lindsey Graham’s “All-Jewish Cabinet”
By Eli Clifton and Jim Lobe
April 23, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - April 20, 2015 -
Sen. Lindsey
Graham (R-SC) spoke bluntly about his plans for
raising campaign funds for his prospective presidential campaign in an interview
published today on “Washington Wire,” a Wall Street Journal blog.
Over a glass of Riesling, according to the account, he answered a series of
questions, including how he plans to finance his campaign.
He described “the means” as the biggest hurdle facing his
potential campaign, adding:
If I put together a finance team that will make me
financially competitive enough to stay in this thing… I may have the first
all-Jewish cabinet in America because of the pro-Israel funding.
[Chuckles.] Bottom line is, I’ve got a lot of support from the pro-Israel
funding.
Indeed, pro-Israel heavyweights, such as
Sheldon
Adelson, Paul
Singer, and other heavyweight donors of the
Republican Jewish Coalition, are
emerging as the go-to funders of the Republican Party. Graham’s
observation—whether meant lightly or not (or uttered under the influence of the
Riesling)— tends to confirm that access to their millions is critical to the
fortunes of any Republican presidential candidate in 2016.
Graham’s Desires
Graham hasn’t made any secret of his desire to curry favor
from the RJC’s pro-Netanyahu, pro-Likud board of directors. But suggesting that
“pro-Israel funding” may determine his choice of cabinet secretaries (as well as
his policies) may make even his potential benefactors squirm just a little bit
in light of the purposes to which real anti-Semites who believe “Jewish money”
controls the U.S. government might put such a statement.
Back in December, during a trip to Jerusalem, Graham
assured Netanyahu that “the Congress will follow your lead” in pushing the
Kirk-Menendez Iran sanctions bill. This was an unusual statement for a U.S.
senator to make to a foreign leader in that leader’s capital, given the fact
that the sitting president of the United States was ardently opposed to the bill
and three weeks later vowed to veto it in his State of the Union address.
Graham is clearly hoping that Adelson and other RJC
billionaires will come through for him, although his needs appear relatively
modest. After referring to the “pro-Israel funding,” he riffed:
Can I raise enough hard money to get through Iowa and New
Hampshire and South Carolina with a staff about 75?…South Carolina is unique
because I’m from there. So here’s the deal. If I can raise $15 million —
that’s enough and that can make me competitive…If I can perform well in Iowa
to get some momentum coming into New Hampshire, hit hard here, finish in the
top tier, I’ll win South Carolina and I’m in the final four.
“If I raise the money, I’ll run,”
Graham told Fox News Sunday.
Fifteen million dollars is exactly what Adelson and his wife
Miriam provided to keep former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential
campaign afloat for many weeks after its natural life expectancy, so it’s
probably a pretty easy get for Graham. (Jim
predicted last month that Graham may turn out to be the Gingrich of 2016
given his ardent courtship of the Adelsons for whom Israel—of the Likud
variety—ranks as
the top priority). Indeed,
Adelson last month co-hosted the first official 2016 Republican presidential
fundraiser on behalf of Graham at Washington’s Capitol Hill Club shortly after
Netanyahu finished his March 3 address to Congress.
Graham’s Gamble
It was of course House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) who issued
the controversial and very unipartisan invitation for Netanyahu to speak that
day. Like Graham, Boehner evidently saw that the way to Adelson’s and the RJC’s
heart—or rather, wallet—was through aligning the party’s position on Iran and
other Israel-related issues as closely to Netanyahu’s as possible.
Significantly, Boehner
told the Fox News Channel Friday that he’s hoping Obama and the other P5+1
leaders will be unable to conclude a nuclear deal with Iran that would curb its
nuclear program. The comment no doubt came as music to the ears of both Bibi and
Adelson. Asked if he thought a comprehensive agreement could be reached by the
end-of-June deadline, Boehner said, “I would hope not.”
Graham and Boehner may have correctly identified the
RJC and “pro-Israel funding” as the key to the party’s 2016 fortunes, but if
they are expecting Jewish voters to back them, they are likely to be
disappointed. A Gallup poll
released earlier this year showed that, while there has been a small
reduction in Democratic Party identification among Jewish voters, as a group,
Jews still identify pretty overwhelmingly as Democrats—by a 61-29 margin.
Suggesting that he would appoint an all-Jewish cabinet is not likely to win
Graham much favor among the many Jews whose politics not only are considerably
more liberal than his but who have also been made ever more uncomfortable by
Bibi’s blatant efforts to influence U.S. foreign policy, as well as Israel’s
rightward drift under Likud’s leadership.
Still, Graham should make a greater effort to avoid feeding
anti-Semitic tropes (even over a glass of wine on the high-intensity campaign
trail), as much as Adelson himself seems to invite them.
Eli Clifton reports on money in politics and US foreign
policy. He previously reported for the American Independent New Network,
ThinkProgress, and Inter Press Service.
http://www.lobelog.com/lindsey-grahams-all-jewish-cabinet/
See also
‘NYT’ addresses pro-Israel donors’ influence over
Congress: The New York Times has finally done
it: an honest piece about the Israel lobby’s financial influence over Congress.
The Republican side of the aisle, anyway. Reporter Eric Lipton explains that the
Republican orthodoxy on Israel is a reflection of big money: