Ben Cardin also reached out to Art lovers and window shoppers in Bethesda yesterday morning. He was at the Bethesda Arts festival enjoying the arts and crafts and talking with voters. It was the first time that I had the chance to meet him in person. What a nice man. I know his fine legislative record and now that I've met him, I'm proud to give him my vote.

Kevin Zeese spoke about the need to "ally with the peace movement in the 'Jewish community'" -- a phrase he uses interchangeably with Israel. Where is the peace movement in the "Palestinian community?"

He criticizes Cardin for being among the top recipients of "Israeli lobby" money. To whom is he referring? And, don't supporters of the Arab/Palestinian perspective give money too?

Apparently, for Kevin Zeese, there are the "good Jews" who are willing to acquiese to Arab demands to put Israel at an unacceptable risk. Then, there are the "bad Jews" who unapologetically support Israel as the only nation in the middle east that has self-government, rule of law and due process for all its citizens. And, those who see Israel as a guarantor for the future of the Jewish people.

Zeese's Palestinian friends will have their own state when they renounce violence in word and deed and show they genuinely want to live in peace with Israel and with Jews. Not before then. Zeese's thinly disguised anti-semitism notwithstanding.

Zeese is getting too many column inches on this blog.

Focus on the real contest - Cardin/Steele.

Correct me here if I'm wrong, but didn't Cardin vote against the first gulf war...the one where Iraq launched some scuds at Israel?

"I think Iraq has made it more difficult for Israel. The United States is so focused on Iraq and moving in the wrong direction," Cardin said.

OK Ben, what is the right direction?

[crickets...]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Saddam Hussein providing funding to families of Palestinian suicide bombers?

Did Cardin vote to support the bombing of Yugoslavia? Didn't Clinton claim that there were 100,000 bodies in mass graves in Kosovo? Didn't we find those graves in Iraq instead?

Clinton lied, Serb civilians died, and Cardin said it was OK.

Ben Cardin is a ruthless hypocrite or put more succinctly-- a career politician. Too bad he'll try his damnest to pull the wool over voters eyes.

"Clinton lied, Serb civilians died, and Cardin said it was OK".

And the Bush administration cherry-picked intelligence, invaded Iraq looking for WMD's that weren't there, thousands of US soldiers died, many thousands more Iraqi civilians died, and Steele called it "making sausage", a noble process that produces a beautiful product. What's your point?

And unless I'm mistaken, Palestinian suicide bombings have continued apace since Saddam Hussein's fall.

"...invaded Iraq looking for WMD's that weren't there..."

You mean other than the one's shipped into Syria or the 500+ that our troops have located?

Who's lying now, huh huh huh?

Where is the proof the WMD's were shipped to Syria? And the ones that were found were old and nonfunctional.

What a crock.

Trying to make Clinton look worse than Bush is futile.

He wasn't a torturer and he WON a war without any American lives lost.

Oh, he also had the Good Friday, Oslo, and Wye treaties (that's foreign policy, Rufus).

Bush's saving grace is his complete incompetence. If he was actually capable of doing any of the things he wanted, we'd be in a whole lot worse shape.

Bye Rufus. Bye Republicans. May we never meet again.

Clinton's foreign policy is largely to blame for the dangerous world we live in today. Terrorism thrived during his tenure and erupted on 9/11. Wye treaty? Ask the families of dead Israelis and Palestinians how well that worked. We never lost a soldier in Yoguslovia because we have bombing down to a science, no thanks to Clinton. How about the troops in Somalia that were told to pack up and leave after our nose was bloodied? Anyone planning a vacation to Somalia 13 years later? No, it's being overrun by Islamic extremists. And on, and on, and on...

If Democrats do well in the upcoming elections, they'll actually have to come up with a plan to combat all these issues. Not just whine about them. Then Republicans will be back to pick up the broken peices AGAIN.

Sorry hateful one, I'm still here and Republicans run the White House for 2 more years.

"And the ones that were found were old and nonfunctional."

And Saddam was in violation of the UN resolutions that ended the Gulf War. If Clinton had been worth more than a squirt in the sink, he'd have done something about it. He didn't so Bush had to clean up the mess.

And Clinton's "Won" war left us with two Islamofascist terror bases in Southern Europe. What a bunch of losers.

Cardin's Jewish? Given how they've treated Lieberman, shafted Israel and sided with the Islamicists, I would of thought they would have purged them all by now.

The wearing of the yarmulke reminds me of John Kerry's "hunting" photo op.

Shocker the second someone questions Israel some anti-arab racist calls them ant-jewish (I don't use the word anti-semitism, because Palestinians are also a semitic people). My father and I have had long in depth conversations on the issue and we came to the conclusion that as a peace activist one must condemn all violence equally, that is part of being a peace activist, you cannot say that some violence is okay just because you like the ones committing it. I like to use an example: If you found out that your best friend from childhood was beating his wife, she will occasionally hit him back, but he, being much larger and stronger is the dominant one, what would you do? Would you continue to support him as a friend? Would you give him a baseball bat? Or do you condemn the violence, do you do everything that you can to end the fighting?

I know that this is a tough issue... as a man of jewish descent, my mother is jewish, I understand the emotions involved in this issue. The fact is that the violence does nothing more then perpetuate violence. Right now Iran want's to negotiate with the U.S. about getting them to recognize Israel. We need to build on the things that all sides are doing to bring peace. Most Israelites and Palestinians want peace, they want a fair two state solution, and we need to work with those people not the war hawks in Israel/Palestine.

I'm glad that Kevin Zeese has a good relationship with his father and stands against domestic violence. Now, go and study the history of the middle east, Kevin and stop calling everybody who defends Israel racist.

Excuse me. I meant Alex Zeiss in the previous post.

Ed,

I was not referring to "everyone who defends Israel". I was referring to your comments individually, because your comment sir has raciest undertones even if you cannot realize it. I have never met you, I doubt my father has either. So for you to accuse use of anti-semitism is wrong. There are times when I defend Israel, there are times when I don't. I have been to Israel, though it has been several years now. I have studied their history extensively, from all sides, Israeli, Palestinian, American. I have also studied military tactics and the simple fact is that the current policies being pushed by the US and Israel is not going to work, since "The Art of War" we have known that occupation does not work.