Blacks are 12% of the population, Jews 2%. Did the NAACP convention draw the types of power brokers AIPAC did? No.
"The lack of press attention to this is probably due to the fact that it is so expected, and un-noteworthy."
Expected by whom? Perhaps by journalists and insiders, but not by ordinary Americans.
"Missing here is (a) proof that AIPAC has a huge influence on foreign policy"
According to AIPAC it has a lot of influence:
"aipac's leaders can be immoderately frank about the group's influence. At dinner that night with Steven Rosen, I mentioned a controversy that had enveloped aipac in 1992. David Steiner, a New Jersey real-estate developer who was then serving as aipac's president, was caught on tape boasting that he had "cut a deal" with the Administration of George H. W. Bush to provide more aid to Israel. Steiner also said that he was "negotiating" with the incoming Clinton Administration over the appointment of a pro-Israel Secretary of State. "We have a dozen people in his"--Clinton's--"headquarters . . . and they are all going to get big jobs," Steiner said."
AIPAC is routinely ranked by other lobbyists as one of the most influential lobbies. As Jeffrey Goldberg notes in the article linked above, "aipac is a leviathan among lobbies, as influential in its sphere as the National Rifle Association and the American Association of Retired Persons are in theirs, although it is, by comparison, much smaller. (aipac has about a hundred thousand members, the N.R.A. more than four million.)"
"We have a dozen people in his"--Clinton's--"headquarters . . . and they are all going to get big jobs,"
Holy crap, I remember people like that in 1992. Everyone thought they had it in with Clinton. Clinton had that ability, I guess; he kept everyone thinking he was on their side until it was too late to realize that he was on no one's side but his own. So how many "big jobs" did AIPAC people get in the Clinton administration? Do you really think Warren Christopher was their first choice?
Your comment caused me to think more about this, and the more I look at it the more I realize I've underestimated AIPAC influence.
It's obviously difficult to tell about indirect connections - for example ordinary citizens would have no way to know about Larry Franklins connection to AIPAC, until after he was indicted for spying.
I don't know if Christopher was AIPAC's first pick or not, but he's on the board of AIPAC spin-off group WINEP.
Former AIPAC employees in or connected to the Clinton administration that I discovered by casual googling:
Mickey Kantor, former AIPAC board member, was a Clinton-Gore campaign chair in 1992, appointed United States Trade Representative, also served for a time as United States Secretary of Commerce.
Martin Indyk, special assistant to U.S. President Bill Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the United States National Security Council.
Longtime Clinton confidante Susan Thomases.
Informal Gore advisor Steve Grossman.
Gore fundraiser/informal consultant David Steiner, the AIPAC guy mentioned above who bragged about his influence on the Clintons.
Former AIPAC employees in the DNC:
David Steiner, after resigning from AIPAC after those comments above were made public, he later became an official with the DNC.
In 1997 former head of AIPAC Steve Grossman was named head of the DNC.
Those are just overt connections to the democrats. You find the same thing with Republicans.
On AIPAC influence:
"I don't sit behind my desk and come up with this stuff," Coleman said, stressing that he often consulted AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr for policy advice. Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland, said that she, too, often spoke to Kohr and others in the AIPAC leadership. "They're like daily phone calls," she said, as other Democratic and Republican members of Congress onstage nodded in agreement."
I'm personally standing watch looking out for the black helicopters with the Star of David on them. Did you ever consider that the Jews are actually descended from ancient astronauts on a mission to infect the Cosmos with gefilte fish and klezmer music?
Illegitimi non carborundum.
Christ (a jew) on a crutch Gordon, do you have a dedicated staff who can bring you facts (if they are facts) with a snap of a finger? Or is writing up stuff like this your full time job? Hey...wait a minute...are you Cal Thomas? (He used to have a mustache, you know)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
When I do my morning pilates I watch the Al-Jazeera network.
Did you meant say Pilates?
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
He meant to say Pirates.
It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.
I don't know, journalists weren't interested in asking for the names of these dozens of people AIPAC had in the upper reaches of the Clinton campaign.
Damn Gurkle! You right...I smell cover up!
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
McCain's and Bush's presence at July's annual NAACP convention were well covered by the press.
It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.
