Democrats in Washington Struggling with How to Deal with Ilhan Omar’s Statements about Israel!

Dear Commons Community,

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in the House of  Representatives are struggling with how to deal with Ilhan Omar’s statements on Israel.  Ilhan Omar is a U.S. Representative serving a district based in Minneapolis and its suburbs.  The issue reached a boiling point yesterday during a Democratic caucus meeting, where members questioned how Pelosi made a decision to vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, and then later in the day when leaders signaled the resolution might not get a vote after all.  As reported by Politico and The Huffington Post:

“The divisions reached a breaking point Wednesday, first during a Democratic caucus meeting, where members took issue with how Pelosi made a decision to vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, and then later in the day when leaders signaled the resolution might not get a vote after all.

The resolution is seen by some Democrats as an indirect and unnecessary slight at Omar and by other Democrats as a common-sense response to Omar’s recent comments about members pledging allegiance to a foreign country. It was expected to get a vote on Thursday, but aides now tell HuffPost nothing is set in stone yet. A potential change of heart could anger some Democrats and create yet another cycle of backlash, while a decision to ultimately move forward with the vote could also spark another round of outrage from Democrats who think leadership is being taken for a ride ― a torturous sequence of self-abuse that Democrats can’t seem to stop feeding into.

Whichever way leaders go, they’re certain to upset someone, and they’ve guaranteed yet more coverage of a story they’d all like to just go away.

This latest controversy started when Omar said at a town hall, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” It wasn’t her first comment that was seen by some as anti-Semitic, after she tweeted that support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins,” but Omar contends both incidents have been taken at their worst meaning and not how she intended them. Omar has been targeted with Islamophobic attacks, including a death threat.

Still, some Democrats were fed up. Over the weekend, a small group of senior lawmakers, including Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey and Jerrold Nadler ― three Jewish Democrats from New York who chair prominent committees ― pushed Pelosi to hold a vote on a resolution condemning Omar’s statement. And with lawmakers out of town, Pelosi decided to hold a vote on the resolution without consulting the rank and file. That, in turn, angered a number of other Democrats.

New Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) complained on Wednesday at the weekly closed-door caucus meeting that she had learned of the resolution from MSNBC instead of leaders. “My only comment was, I don’t want to hear about, as a member of Congress, important issues from cable news,” Hayes told HuffPost.

And when Pelosi contended that there wasn’t yet officially a resolution, Hayes went into her bag to find a draft of the legislation. That’s when another Democratic member quietly told Hayes to forget about finding the draft, and Pelosi took the side conversation as a sign of disrespect.

“Well if you’re not going to listen to me, I’m done talking,” Pelosi said, according to Politico. And then she left the meeting, which members and aides say was breaking up anyway.”

This is a sticky-wicket for the Democrats that has Republicans in Washington gloating.  The Democratic leadership has to get its house in order and show the American people that it is organized and unified in its policies and goals.

Tony

 

 

 

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