Oh, Please! Not More EMILY's List Anti-Semitism!

EMILY's List has a reputation for being the dirtiest players in politics-- as bad or worse than the Republican sociopaths employed by the Kochs and Adelson. The difference is that the man-haters at EMILY's List don't deploy their vicious nature against Republicans or against conservative Democrats-- only against progressive men in office. Especially Jewish progressive men in office.

EMILY's List was once an essential part of the progressive coalition. Their battles were the progressive community's battles and they were widely admired. There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then. We didn't really pick up on it until 2008, when EMILY's List recruited Nikki Tinker, a very conservative woman-- in conjunction with the corrupt reactionary Harold Ford Machine-- to run against pro-Choice champion, Congressman Steve Cohen in Memphis, Tennessee. Cohen is, by far, the most progressive federal elected official in Tennessee. Nikki Tinker is marginally pro-Choice by otherwise a raging conservative. Her campaign was so off-the-rails-- in terms of overt racism and anti-semitism directed at Cohen-- that then-Senator Obama took time out from his own campaign to embrace and endorse Cohen against EMILY's List's deranged onslaught against him. In the end, EMILY's List members were so nauseated by the group's tactics that they were forced to rescind their endorsement. But they waited until election day to do it! Obama, sickened by the tactics, had already said "These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It's time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country."

A politics driven by negativity and division is the EMILY's List trademark. They used it against Eric Garcetti, Marianne Williamson and Ted Lieu here in L.A. When I heard EMILY's List was sending one of their most thuggish operatives to Honolulu to take over the Hanabusa campaign against Senator Brian Schatz, I warned friends of mine in Hawaii that Brian would probably come under some kind of racist attack. And sure enough…

Hanabusa, already a power in the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, was a corrupt state senator when Cayetano was governor. Today he's part of her election team and has been functioning as a Hanabusa/EMILY's List attack dog against Schatz. Since losing the last Honolulu mayor's race, he's become increasingly conservative-- almost as conservative as Hanabusa-- and increasingly bitter.

Most of his criticisms of Schatz have been petty--he's too young-- and absurd. Cayetano complained on Civil Beat.com that Schatz once refused to pick up George Ariyoshi, another former governor and current Hanabusa supporter, at the airport.  But now his bitterness has got the better of him. In support of Hanabusa's flailing campaign, Cayetano was on Facebook attacking Schatz (and his bête noire, ex-Governor Linda Lingle) for being Jewish.

So far not a word from Hanabusa or EMILY's List disowning Cayetano or his anti-semitism. And, needless to say, Hanabusa hasn't returned the $1,000 he recently contributed to her campaign. Does EMILY's List plan on rescinding their endorsement of Hanabusa on primary day? Their candidate Nikki Tinker didn't even break 20% against Steve Cohen.

A desperate Hanabusa dancing around Cayetano's deranged anti-Semitism

UPDATE… And Lies

The desperation of Hanabusa’s campaign is seen in her last-minute attempt to re-define herself as a dove prior to the August 9 primary election. Today I got an e-mail from the ex-Time Warner lobbyist she has working for her claiming, falsely, that "since 2002, Colleen has opposed the Iraq war." Hanabusa, an unabashed warmonger who chairs the National Security Task Force for the Wall Street-owned New Democrat Coalition, may have finally realized that being pro-war doesn’t play well in Hawaii Democratic primaries. The e-mail can only be described as duplicitous, implying that she has always taken a pro-peace position on Iraq.

That’s just not true.

In 2006, there were two troop-withdrawal proposals on the table.

Bush’s commander in Iraq, General George Casey, proposed a gradual reduction in troops, putting off any substantial reduction until December 2007. Starting in late 2005 and through the ’06 elections, Rep. John Murtha (and most Democrats) proposed immediate withdrawal.

In 2006, Hanabusa and Schatz were running against each other for Congress (in a race won by now-Senator Mazie Hirono), and naturally were asked which Iraq plan they supported.

Hanabusa supported the Bush-Casey plan! Schatz, who was endorsed by Maui Peace Action and other peace supporters, unequivocally backed the Murtha plan.

This candidate questionnaire has the proof.

Of course, the Murtha-Schatz plan for immediate withdrawal, which was opposed by Hanabusa, didn’t get enacted. Bush ultimately sent even more troops to Iraq. As a result, the Iraq War became even more costly and tragic. The effects of this mistake are still playing out. And Hanabusa is asking for credit now?