Speaking of John Conyers, it appears his pathetic little display in the basement of the Capitol yesterday had its own bigot eruption:
A handful of people at Democratic National Headquarters distributed material critical of Israel during a public forum questioning the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, drawing an angry response and charges of anti-Semitism from party chairman Howard Dean on Friday.
“We disavow the anti-Semitic literature, and the Democratic National Committee stands in absolute disagreement with and condemns the allegations,” Dean said in a statement posted on the DNC Web site.
Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, organized the forum on Thursday at the Capitol to publicize and discuss the so-called Downing Street memo. That document suggests that the Bush administration believed that war with Iraq was inevitable and that the administration was determined to use intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein…
One witness, former intelligence analyst Ray McGovern, told Conyers and other House Democrats that the war was part of an effort to allow the United States and Israel to “dominate that part of the world,” a statement Dean also condemned.
Dean’s full-throated disavowal is available here.
At any rate, just goes to show you both sides have to delicately balance the passions of their nutters. Many of the people most passionate about the Downing Street memo tend to be from the A.N.S.W.E.R. wing of the left, and their history of overt anti-Semitism is long and thoroughly documented. The DNC’s dilemma is no different from the Republicans, whose most passionate advocates of certain issues, like, say, judicial nominations, come from the lunatic wing of the Christian right. A tough job extracting their motivation and support while quashing their general nuttiness.
At any rate, shame on the anti-Semitic bastards.
Just as a side note- Does Conyers think this display in the basement is going to give people a reason to vote for Democrats? Seriously- are they looking for the martyr vote, or something? Like it or not, people respect power, and don’t generally reward sad spectacles. Or am I way off base here?