McCAIN FALSELY CLAIMS TO HAVE FOUND A JEWISH DEMOCRATIC HILLARY SUPPORTER TO JOIN HIS TRAIN TO NOWHERE

Yesterday's Hill was trumpeting that McCain found a Jewish Hillary supporter to back him and then tried fluffing up the story about how Jews were crossing to the GOP-- something I've been hearing every 4 years since Nixon ran for president-- by trotting out Joe Lieberman and demented Virginia Republican kapo Eric Cantor. But the meat on McCain's triumphal press release was Florida developer, Stephen Muss. "Muss has given tens of thousands of dollars to help Democratic candidates in recent years, including $80,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and CQ MoneyLine... Cantor said Muss would help bring more Jewish Democratic donors in South Florida over to McCain. 'He’s an influential player,' said Cantor. 'From my knowledge of his influence in South Florida, that’s significant.'”

Sure, just ask Ted Stevens, Conrad Burns, Slade Gorton, Rudy Giuiliani, Rudy Boschwitz, Robert Bennett, Frank Wolf-- a gaggle of far right Republicans this so-called Democrat has showered with thousands of dollars. Muss has a history of giving to both parties. In 2007 he made two political donations, $2,300 for Giuliani and $2,300 for Frank Lautenberg.

One would have to be pretty senile-- or totally racist-- to switch from Hillary Clinton to John McCain. I mean I can certainly imagine that some of the most passionate and bitterly disappointed Hillary fanatics unable to get over their confusion and deciding to sit this race out. My bet is that there could be at least 100 people like that, most of them in Florida. But vote for McCain? Why were they passionate about Hillary if they're going to vote for someone who has adamantly opposed every single great idea she's ever had who shares none of the ideas that have made people passionate about her.


Look, in the 1930s there were a handful of Jews who voted for the Nazis in Germany. There are African-Americans who were devoted to the Confederacy and who are devoted to the GOP. You've probably heard of Log Cabin Republicans, self-loathing gays who vote for the GOP. In fact the Nazi movement had its share of gay people-- until Hitler had them exterminated. And there were the 19% of Jews who voted for Bush in 2000 and that even rose by a few percentage points in 2004. In the 2006 congressional election 87% of Jewish voters went with the Democrats; 12% voted for the GOP candidates. "For decades, Republican operatives have been claiming that the Jewish vote was moving significantly to the right; in 2004, one key Jewish Republican leader even claimed that 35-40 percent of the Jewish vote would swing towards George W. Bush. Yet the Jewish vote has remained one of the most solidly Democratic demographics in America. Since the late 1920's, American Jews have voted overwhelmingly Democratic in federal elections-- and no amount of spin can change that simple fact."

But that won't stop McCain's spin machine from trying. And fools on the Hill from buying. I think Alexander Bolton, the conveyor of McCain's propaganda message could have found that Muss has been donating significant amounts of money to Republicans for years-- if he had bothered to look. It took me less than 60 seconds to find the information on the web. McCain is trying to drum up some nonsense about Obama not having as much fealty to Israel as he does to America. I, for one, wish it were so. McCain will keep trying and a people-- mostly racists who are looking for an excuse to vote for McCain without looking at themselves in the mirror and seeing a white sheet and hood-- may buy one or another lie. But as Democratic fundraisers are reporting, there may be Giuliani supporters (like Muss) who have switched to McCain, but there are no Clinton supporters going down the Dark Path.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people in the past couple of days and I have not spoken to anybody who was supporting Hillary Clinton and who has indicated any likelihood of supporting McCain,” said Steve Grossman, a former co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a former chairman of AIPAC, who raised tens of thousands of dollars for Clinton this election cycle.