The floodgates have opened. As members of the House and Senate either learn for the first time that their names are on the list of J Street’s host committee or learn for the first time just what being “pro-Israel” means over at J Street, they’re heading for the exits. Ben Smith reports:
That makes it four dropouts today: Reps. Castle and Ross and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. THE WEEKLY STANDARD put a call in to another member of the Arkansas delegation, Senator Blanche Lincoln, asking her staff whether they might have been the victim of the same confusion — whether they intended to lend the senator’s name to an organization that advocates for engagement with Hamas and against sanctions on Iran. We will update when her office responds. Only one Republican, Thad Cochran, remains on the list of senators endorsing the J Street conference. It’s not clear why Cochran would want anything to do with a conference that features a speaker who pointed the finger at Israel for the 9/11 attacks in the immediate aftermath of that tragedy. Cochran is also cosponsor of the Lieberman-Bayh-Kyl Iran sanctions legislation in the Senate that J Street has vociferously opposed. Has Cochran changed his position on that issue? THE WEEKLY STANDARD has tried to pin down Cochran’s staff on whether the senator intended to lend his name to the conference or whether this was some kind of mistake (though the number of legislators claiming their names were used without their permission might indicate this is more of a scam J Street is running than an honest mistake) with no clear answer so far. We will update when his office gets back to us. I have a feeling that there are going to be more names dropping off this list … Update: Cochran’s office informs THE WEEKLY STANDARD that he “will not be co-hosting the event.”
