PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — With one of the GOP’s few legitimate issues, Laura Loomer is flubbing it in President Trump’s home county.
Loomer is among at least three GOP congressional candidates who are criticizing incumbent Democrats in the House of Representatives for their tolerance of intolerant colleagues, namely Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Both have bashed Israel with fact-free accusations and have been branded anti-Semites by many Jews.
Republicans are right to call attention to their rivals’ association with Omar and Tlaib, but they debase their credibility when they distort the level of Democratic failings in this regard. Consider Loomer’s words for incumbent Lois Frankel, if you have the stomach for it:
“We’re putting the Jews on trial here in District 21,” Loomer told a Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter. “They have a choice between a Republican Jew who is going to advocate for their survival in their best interests, or they can stand with self-hating Jew Lois Frankel, who is doing the bidding for the jihadists in the Democrat Party who are just literally walking Jews to the gas chamber.”
Jews on trial? Self-hating? To the gas chamber? Loomer has also called Frankel “meshuggah” for praising Black Lives Matter, which Loomer falsely claims is aligned with radical Islamists, according to JTA. One of the two candidates is “meshuggah,” common Jewish term for crazy. You decide who fits that description.
Frankel’s district covers much of Palm Beach County in south Florida, a three-county region with a Jewish population of more than 500,000. Almost every House member from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties are Democrats, three of whom are Jewish. Frankel’s district rivals a Manhattan-Brooklyn district for comprising the largest percentage of Jews, 25 percent, in the nation.
Trump formally moved from New York City to Palm Beach, where his estate, Mar-a-Lago, is located. If history is any guide, Trump will lose his home county and it is plausible that he will lose his adopted state in his re-election bid on Nov. 3, just as he lost his native state four years ago. Thankfully, Loomer will probably be trounced by Frankel, who has attempted to maintain her dignity in this flap.
Republican critics are right. Democratic representatives have treated Tlaib and Omar with kid gloves. When the current congressional session opened in January 2019, Democrats were ready to bring down the thunder on their conduct, but they soon relented. They watered down their response to one of their outbursts.
Democrats should have voted to censure them each time they opened their big mouths. They should have reacted in every reasonable way to their actions against Israel and implications about Jews. While they lack the scale of power possessed by President Trump, Tlaib and Omar are as “meshuggah” in their own way as Trump.
It is understandable why Democrats are soft on them. They want to hold on to the followers of so-called progressives who press for far-reaching changes in society. At the same time, the Democratic leadership needs to keep their majority, which was made possible in 2018 by flipping 40 House seats with candidates who are mostly regarded as moderates; the flipped seats were reduced to 38 because of a special election in California and a defection in southern New Jersey.
Loomer is draining most of the credibility from a credible issue by getting so personal with Frankel. The four-term Democrat, who is a former mayor of West Palm Beach, is being helped by two former senior officials of AIPAC, the powerful lobbying group for Israel. The Republican Jewish Coalition refuses to endorse Loomer.
She misfired when she sought an explanation from Frankel for mentoring Rep. Ayanna-Pressley, a first-term House member who belongs to a coalition on progressive issues with Omar, Tlaib and Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez; their coalition is known as “the squad.” Loomer may not be aware that Pressley said she supports Israel since many of her Boston-area constituents are Jewish.
Loomer, declaring herself an “Islamophobe,” has in the past celebrated the deaths of Muslim migrants in Europe, according to JTA. She was banned from social media and the ride services Uber and Lyft for urging them to ban Muslim drivers.
The Loomer strategy is reflected in races against Democratic incumbents in Michigan and Minnesota. As Jewish Insider reports, a spokesman for Republican Paul Junge attacked Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who is Jewish, saying, “Hate groups and anti-Semitism have no place in our society but unfortunately Elissa Slotkin continues to support anti-Semite Ilhan Omar and refuses to call for her removal from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“The congresswoman is clearly trying to deflect from her anti-Israel record, the fact that she received $2.4 million from (Michael) Bloomberg (ex-New York City mayor) in 2018 and is poised to receive more this election.”
According to JTA, Slotkin was among Democrats who urged Omar to apologize for a tweet suggesting that Jewish campaign contributions have distorted our Middle East policy.
Slotkin said in a statement, “Rep. Omar’s comments traffic in age-old stereotypes and anti-Semitic bias, drag down public conversation, and are counter to our fundamental values of religious freedom and respect. Elected officials must lead by example, particularly now, and carry out their responsibility to unite rather divide the public.”
Republican candidate Michelle Fischbach attempted to link Rep. Collin Peterson, the Democratic incumbent of a Minnesota district, to Omar in an advertisement on Sept. 11, according to The New York Times.
Fischbach said she will form her own squad, a conservative counterpart, if she is elected. She has the right to organize her own squad, if elected.
If Junge, Fischbach and other Republican challengers stick to the facts, we can have no problem with their criticisms.. If they distort the situation, all they will do is compound the turmoil. They will join the ranks of the “meshuggah.”
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Bruce S. Ticker is a freelance columnist based in Philadelphia.
Both Tlaib and Omar came out as anti-Semites & definitely anti-Israel! The Dems in the house should shun them and vote them out next go round! That or face fallout from Dems like me! As for Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez…I actually like her but she should re-look at her anti-Israel stance also!