Pivotal Role for Jews in Congress

Aaron Keyak — July 9, 2009 – 12:57 pm | Congress | Democrats | Obama | Republicans Comments (1) Add a comment

Raphael J. Sonenshein, chair of the Division of Politics, Administration and Justice at Cal State Fullerton, wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, “Jews in Congress Are Making Things Happen.” Sonenshein writes that the Jewish members of Congress are “pivotal to the legislative process” and that we have seen “the demise of the Jewish Republican in Congress.”

Here’s the beginning:

In 2009, the new U.S. Congress has the largest Jewish representation in its history, with 31 members of the 435 in the House of Representatives and 13 senators of the 100. More than a third of all Jews who have ever served in the U.S. Senate were in office as 2009 began.

As big as these numbers are, something else is happening under the surface, and that is the demise of the Jewish Republican in Congress. There were only two Jewish Republican senators in 2008. One of them, Arlen Specter (Penn.), switched parties in April to join the Democrats. The other, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, lost his race to a Jewish Democrat, Al Franken. Ironically, Coleman had won his seat when it was vacated in 2004 by the untimely death in a plane crash of another Jewish Democrat, Paul Wellstone. Who would have guessed that a Senate seat in Minnesota would have three Jewish holders in five years?

Republicans can now claim only one Jewish member of Congress, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia. There was a time when Republicans could elect Jews to the House and Senate. No more. The historic collapse of Republican identification among Jewish voters and in public office is a big problem for a party that is searching for ideas and policies for governance.

Meanwhile, the Jewish ranks on Capitol Hill are growing in influence within the bolstered Democratic majority and in concert with an ambitious and popular Democrat in the White House. Jews love public policy, and Jewish officeholders love to legislate. Los Angeles Congressman Henry Waxman recently gained his greatest legislative victory in a storied career with the passage of the first climate change legislation in American history. Waxman, no slouch at 69, worked his way into this historic position right after Obama’s election when, as the crusading chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he won the position of chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. What was once a roadblock committee now became the path to legislation. After a narrow and dramatic victory on the House floor, cap-and-trade legislation is now in the Senate’s hands.

These days, the real policy struggle is among Democrats, between liberals and Blue Dog moderates. In truth, congressional Republicans, except for a handful of moderates,  have become so weakened as a policy force that they are nearly irrelevant. If not for cable news, the op-ed pages of major newspapers, and the Sunday talking-heads programs, who would know they even exist? Ironically, it is the “liberal” media that is keeping the Republicans barely alive.

Click here to read on…

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