Anthony Weiner, Panderer extraordinaire

[cali]

<snip>

On the campaign trail, Mr. Weiner has sided with the ultra-Orthodox community against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s effort to regulate the practice of circumcisions that involve oral suction to clean the wound, which health authorities say has led infants to contract, and on occasion die from, herpes. He has spoken sympathetically about Jonathan Jay Pollard, an American convicted of spying for Israel, and the Rubashkin family, which has faced a variety of legal problems connected with its kosher meat businesses. And he has dropped Yiddish phrases, like “kishkes,” meaning guts, into his talks to Jewish audiences.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/nyregion/courting-group-of-voters-with-a-strict-moral-code-weiner-faces-a-challenge.html?pagewanted=all

Seriously? Jettisoning newborns for a few votes? And Pollard?

[JI7]

1. i don't think it's pandering, i think that's what he really believes

he has always been very pro israel and he was one of the biggest critics of helen thomas .

[cali]

2. what does being pro-Israel have to do with the health department

making sure that infants aren't endangered by a very unsanitary practice? Weiner isn't a practicing Jew, in any case.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. They frame the health issue as a religious freedom issue. In fact....

>>>>The ultra-Orthodox Jewish community could be crucial to Mr. Weiner’s bid because its adherents are a growing citywide force — 40 percent of the city’s 1.1 million Jews, according to the latest population survey by the UJA-Federation of New York. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are coveted by candidates because they tend to vote, and they are among the last communities that tend to vote in blocs, following the guidance of communal leaders.>>>>

Weiner has a long history of pandering to and servicing this bloc which votes in incredibly large #s and votes *as* a bloc. There are no other Jewish candidates in the mayor's race and certainly none w. whom this community has this kind of history.

[JI7]

4. i was referring to the pollard thing but this was stupid, religion should

never influence health care. somebody should ask him if it would be ok for christians to deny other women abortion rights because they feel their religion is against it.