Years Later, Kerry Finds A Set Of Snap-On Balls
And takes 'em for a test run. From an AP story on CNN.com:
Sen. John Kerry didn't contest the results at the time, but now that he's considering another run for the White House, he's alleging election improprieties by the Ohio Republican who oversaw the deciding vote in 2004.An e-mail from Kerry will be sent to 100,000 Democratic donors Tuesday asking them to support U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland for governor of Ohio. The bulk of the e-mail criticizes Strickland's opponent, GOP Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, for his dual role in 2004 as President Bush's honorary Ohio campaign co-chairman and the state's top election official.
"He used the power of his state office to try to intimidate Ohioans and suppress the Democratic vote," Kerry says in the e-mail, according to a copy provided in advance.
This Samantha M. Shapiro piece on Slate about the crisis in Conservative Judaism reminded me of the crisis in Democratic politics (no coherent message):
Take the issue of the ordination of gay rabbis. It's a no-brainer for Reform Jews, who allow it because they place precedence on personal choice above biblical mandates, and for the Orthodox, who bar it because they believe that the Torah strictly prohibits gay sex. But for Conservatives, it's a crisis, because the movement lacks a clear theology to navigate between the poles of tradition and change, even as the gap between them becomes ever wider. As a result, the decision to admit openly gay rabbinical students to JTS has been bitterly contested, tabled, avoided, and fought over for the last half-dozen or so years. Schorsch has said in previous interviews that advocates for the ordination of gay rabbis are bending and manipulating Halakha rather than looking at it honestly. His despair over this issue surely motivated some of the ferocity of his speech.But Conservative Judaism has never adequately explained how its rabbis or congregants should decide which aspects of modern times are worth adjusting the law to, and which aren't. The decision in 1972 to ordain women rabbis at JTS wasn't advocated by the institutions' Talmudic scholars but by a committee of lay people. They made many strong moral and ethical arguments for ordaining women, but they couldn't ground their stance coherently in Jewish law.
Still earlier, in 1961, the Conservative movement issued a ruling permitting driving on Shabbat—but only to synagogue. Orthodox Jews, by contrast, observe the prohibition against driving and build their neighborhoods around their synagogues and each other's homes. There is something powerful about this decision: The foundation of the community is a countercultural value that requires some sacrifice in the name of a higher purpose. While it might be possible to read Jewish law to permit driving on Shabbat or ordaining a woman rabbi, both of those choices seem motivated by a reluctant acquiescence to the demands of the time rather than by a deep and reverent reading of the texts. Orthodox Jews also change the law—you won't find any of them following the Torah's injunction to forgive all loans every seven years, or to stone a rebellious child—but they do so in a way that has internal coherence.
Of course, the other crisis in Democratic politics is their penchant for putting up wimpy bunwads as candidates who seem more interested in being liked than in contesting skanky smelling elections.
Memo to John Kerry:
Please don't run. I don't want to waste my vote again.
Wait. I already have.
John O at August 29, 2006 12:48 PM
A little late, perhaps? He's lost me when he didn't fight back against the swiftboat vet cabal. It was disgusting -- on both sides.
As I always say, "Where are the democrats?!" Think of the all ammo they have against the GOP -- compared to the Clinton years, when the GOP only had Monica's dress and apt lips. Hellooooo? Anybody there?
LA Frog at August 29, 2006 1:16 PM
Unbelievable, huh? And sad. The anemic (at best) left.
Amy Alkon at August 29, 2006 4:39 PM
The Dems really kill me...Gore and Kerry both waited until long after their election losses to speak their minds, leaving many to wonder why they seemingly threw those races.
Doobie at August 30, 2006 8:09 PM
I want Barack Obama for President.
Thoughts?
Michelle at August 30, 2006 8:12 PM
>>the other crisis in Democratic politics is their penchant for putting up wimpy bunwads as candidates who seem more interested in being liked
...even though they're completely unlikable.
Gary S. at August 31, 2006 5:19 PM
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