Schumer Takes Credit For Getting Chas Freeman Ousted
Chuck Schumer’s office sends over a statement from the Senator himself, saying he’s the one who got Chas Freeman dumped from the post of National Intelligence Council chief:
“Charles Freeman was the wrong guy for this position. His statements against Israel were way over the top and severely out of step with the administration. I repeatedly urged the White House to reject him, and I am glad they did the right thing.”
As I reported the other day, Schumer had privately communicated his doubts to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Looks like those conversations had their desired effect: Schumer’s statement says straight out that that the White House engineered Freeman’s ouster.
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Hmm, is that so? Well, Mr. Schumer, I’ll definitely keep that in mind in the future…. Who knew Chuck and Dick Vader had so much in common?
Greg, in addition to appearing to want to take full credit for this good man’s unwarranted political demise, Schumer appears to be implying that the White House hosed Freeman, and not that Freeman stood himself down. Is that what you’re hearing?
No joke, I think I’m starting to hate Schumer more than Lieberman or the Blue Dogs… The guy…. gahhh….
benton, I think schumer’s statement is pretty clear cut, right? he’s saying that the white house pulled the plug, right?
I can tell you this much, this ain’t over for Schumer. He better watch his *** because he and other Dems don’t seem to be getting that the mood is shifting in this country. Blind allegience to Israel especially when Bibi just got elected is going to be a political liablility sooner rather than later. I reiterate that this is bullsh*t and I am going to leave it at that. At least Schumer didn’t try to claim he was concerned about China or Saudi Arabia
Greg
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I know its not your job to take requests but it would be great if you could ask Schumer’s office to specify which specific statements of Freeman’s on Israel were quote “way out of touch and severely out of touch with the administration”.
As a NY resident, I always knew Schumer was the Senator from Wall Street; now he’s become the Senator from Tel Aviv. Here is one life-long Dem who won’t be pulling Chuck’s lever the next time he’s up for election.
So is Schumer a member of the ‘pro-Israel lobby’ or is he just a ‘neocon?’ And what does that say about the White House – a house full of neocons?
Or Greg, are you now willing to concede that Freeman’s detractors were not merely members of said groups?
We need Loyalty tests for our congress. AIPAC and other Israel lobby groups have so much power in washington. For many its money and Israel First!
sbj
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Let me point you to the relevant part of Schumer’s press release.
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His statements against Israel were way over the top and severely out of step with the administration
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Now when you can explain why Schumer’s ONLY reason for opposing Freeman per his own press release is his statements on Israel explain to me how this isn’t due to NeoCon influence. Really I am willing to wait forever if need be.
As much as I have the urge to attack the white house over their caving,it must be said that Obama has never shied from cutting things loose whenever they started giving him a headache and without minnesota’s final decision regarding a senator and noting that Olympia Snowe signed her name on the list of G.O.P people who wanted Freeman’s head,I can’t fault the adminstration. Sometimes you are just dealt a bad hand, and in this case- I think they have a bigger fish to fry. Hopefully he will serve as some sort of advisor in a non- senate candidate way. And at the end of the day, Obama sets policy of the Middle East not Congress so let them keep being AIPAC’s biggest cheerleaders. Whatev
Just FYI
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http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/03/10/blair-defends-freeman-against-concerns-of-lieberman/
I am greatly NOT impressed with the senior Senator from the great state of NY. First he brings us, (albeit w/Feinstein), Mr. “I will not cooperate with the law” Mukasey for AGOUS and now he is proving to be a bit toooooooo partisan regarding our future foreign policies.
WTF Schumer, do you want progress in the Middle East or just the same old same old until some ethnicity becomes extinct? Is that your idea of Middle East peace? What a bunch of horse ****! -Kevo
sgtwhatever:
So the views of the White House are in sync with the NeoCons?
Your link seems to indicate ethics problems and business associations – and not just NeoCon concerns – had something to do with the withdrawal: “Blair responded that “as far as the effects of business associations and the ethics rules, Ambassador Freeman is going through the vetting that is done with anybody joining the executive branch.”
This was my point – Greg’s repetitive spin that this was all due to the NeoCons and Israel lobby was not accurate. There were other compelling reasons to pull this nominee.
Schumer’s statement that Freeman’s views on Israel were “…. severely out of step with the administration” undoubtedly tries to put Obama into a corner from which it will be difficult to escape.
They’ll be celebrating at the AIPAC office until morning.
sbj
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Again, address Senator Schumer’s press release or STFU. You can’t do it so I imagine you will be quiet for awhile.
sgtSTFU: That is so not nice of you. Thankfully Greg has seen fit to address my concerns – via Weekly Standard and Rep. Kirk. A great teaching moment . . .
all, much more reaction on freeman ouster:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/pundits/happy-hour-roundup-debate-rages-over-freeman-ouster/
a shonda, senator. you sully brooklyn and the entire state with your crude tribalism.
Just to be clear, Shumer got his marching orders from a man who is under indictment for spying for Israel against the Unite States,Steve Rosen, who has been lading the charge against Freeman
I don’t live in New York, and I’m a hardcore Dem, but I’ll be donating to whoever runs against Schumer in the next election, and I’ll be calling his office in a couple of minutes to tell him as much. I urge all of you to do the same.
So long as politicians feel they derive political benefits from acting as if they represent the religious/ethnic state of Israel, we can never expect any sort of reasonably balanced American foreign policy. AIPAC is working already; it’s up to us to provide a counterbalance.
I hope somebody runs against this ******-bag in the primaries.
you guys are right- these Jews are way out of hand. We really have to find a solution to the Jewish question. Any ideas?
We need a piece of terminology, analogous to “religious Right”, whereby we can condemn this collection of jerks without implying that we’re talking about all or most American Jews. Notice that we can refer to the religious Right without anybody (or at least anybody even remotely rational) supposing we’re insulting Christians as a whole. In this case we’re talking about an ill-defined group (like a cloud) of people, with neoconservatives and active AIPAC people at its center. The 08:42 comment above illustrates the problem. Complaints that Mearsheimer and Walt exaggerated the strength of the Lobby is another example of the problem.
The reality is that this ill-defined group of people are indeed not all-powerful — but they have distinctly more influence than they ought to, and their influence is distinctly noxious. Their behavior in the case of Chas Freeman has been reprehensible, and distinctly not in our national interest.
If only Schumer had spent the same amount of energy resisting the Mukasey appointment.
Schumer takes credit for everything except his “Brain” Hank Morris who is under investigation for how he made $25,000,000.00 dollars. So in2010 lets all take credit for NO MORE SCHUMER
VJ Machiavelli
http://www.vjmachiavelli.blogspot,com
NO MORE PELOSI
ref: “these Jews are way out of hand. We really have to find a solution to the Jewish question.”
I sure hope that db is playing with our heads here, but judging from the majority of other posts here, that sure can’t be taken for granted. Either way, it took enormous editorial control, no doubt, to say just “solution”, rather than “final solution”.
Regarding ex-Ambassador Freeman… his intemperate, even bizarre, screed following his excellent experience of the bus’s underside is the best recent example in US politics of Res Ipsa Loquitur: “the thing itself speaks”.
Schumer’s judgement has been proven to be pretty bad. Remember how he assured us that Mukasey would be an independent Attorney General. Look how that turned out.
Schumer has just revealed that he is a just another slave to AIPAC and the Israeli government.
(”D”) Schumer has been a reliable Wall Street vote, using his power and influence to protect the predatory banks that just wiped out trillions in main street wealth even while leaving American taxpayers the bill for those banks excesses. Schumer is also partially complicit with the right wing’s deregulatory fervor that allowed for many of the bank’s predatory loans
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Schumer has some “liberal” street cred but he also was a key Senate vote that enabled some of Republican Bush’s worst Presidential appointments including: Mr. Can’t Say It’s Not Torture MUKASEY and Mr. Can’t Say It’s Not Illegal Surveillance Hayden. Schumer also effectively helped put in the two extreme right wing Supreme Court justices Alito and Roberts (lifetime positions!).
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After Schumer’s complicity with repeatedly helping appoint Republican Bush’s extreme right wingers, NOW, with a Democratic President Schumer helps push out an appointee that sees America’s interests as being more important than Israels?
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While there should be sympathy and support for democratic ally Israel’s concerns, those concerns should NEVER trump America’s national security interests.
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It appears that Chuck Schumer just chose Israel over America.
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Perversely, the Israel interests that Schumer supports are the greatest danger TO Israel. The equivalent Neo-Con movement in Israel has provoked more hostility than it’s quelled and done so with the kind of bloody vengefulness, that, had anyone not a close ally committed the kind of (repeated) scorched earth military aggressions that Israel has upon it’s neighbors, would have been called out by human rights groups (some have called Israel’s actions “war crimes”) and in some cases rightfully labeled “terrorism.”
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Israel’s foreign policy against Palestine has degenerated into literally trying to terrorize Palestinians into submission.
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There are sensible Israeli’s that understand this. Unfortunately, the left in Israel has largely been marginalized and even moderate voices like Tzipi Livni are being drowned out by extremists like Avigdor Lieberman and right winger Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Chuck Schumer should be vigorously primaried. He’s now complicit in enabling the worst Republican Bush excesses, he’s complicit in protecting the most predatory banking excesses, and now he’s chosen to support Israel’s self-destructiveness over America’s national security interests.
Surprise. The lobby which isn’t a lobby, according to those who are in it, get donations from it, defend it or identify with it, nixed someone who didn’t tow the line on Israel. One day the adults in this country will wake up and recognize that it’s not a sign of a healthy democracy that there cannot be a range of views openly held in this society.
And it is an even greater sign of dysfunction that when you point out that there’s something odd about a Congressional rep. bragging about how he took credit for the withdrawal of a nomination for a position, and that bragging is solely on the basis of criticism of a foreign country, and you’re smeared as an anti-Semite.
And it is even more dysfunctional that Israel just helped complicate an administration’s efforts to resolve its conflict with the Palestinians, because that’s a key requirement for dealing with terrorism aimed at the security of the U.S.
And its hyper-dysfunctional that one of the leading figures in the fight to deny Freeman an appointment is indicted for passing intelligence info. from a US official to the govt. of Israel.
Finally, there’s something beyond dysfunction about lobbyists do not like the national intelligence estimates on Iran and nuclear enrichment decide that they will work to ensure that if someone is nominated for director of national intelligence and he doesn’t tow their political line, namely the one that Israel wants to install, they will libel and smear him to get their hired hands to pressure him to withdraw. Does any U.S. citizen whose first concerns are US security think that it’s a good idea to appoint the head of national intelligence based not on a person’s ability to think independently or not be a political “yes man”???? Don’t we want someone in that position whose mind is on intelligence gathering, given what the country went through on 9/11 AND Iraq?
Now, because Israel doesn’t want Iran enriching any uranium regardless of the purposes, there are “pro-Israeli” lobbyists and Congress people already preparing the country for some kind of attack on Iran by either Israel with a greenlight from the U.S. or possibly the U.S. itself.
This is beyond dangerous. It’s Looney Tunes. And it is not the problem of “the Jews” but of gentiles who allow themselves to be emotionally or morally blackmailed by “pro-Zionist” fanatics.
It might be better for the administration to look directly to Tel Aviv for the right applicant.
Get the US State Department to issue the appropriate immigration visas immediately.
Shame on America.
The day that Israel got away with the cold blooded murder of 34 US seamen aboard USS Liberty,is the day that they knew they could get away with anything.>>>>June8,1967<<<<<<<
Their fanatical idealogue supporters have managed to take a whole group of well meaning American Jews and others for a ride that has cost the US IN TREASURE(PRESENTLY @over $10,000,000 per day)and now in blood,Iraq.
Iran is their next target if the rest of America does not wake up.
Cooked intelligence is how it’s done.
Freeman would not have it.