The Superior Anti-Semitism

Raging Judehaß or just good constituent service? We report, you decide:

[I]n an effort to show that Grimm lacks support among voters in the district, which covers Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, the McMahon campaign compiled a list of Jewish donors to Grimm and provided it to The Politicker.

The file, labeled “Grimm Jewish Money Q2,” for the second quarter fundraising period, shows a list of over eighty names, a half-dozen of which in fact do hail from Staten Island, and a handful of others that list Brooklyn as home.

“Where is Grimm’s money coming from,” said Jennifer Nelson, McMahon’s campaign spokeman. “There is a lot of Jewish money, a lot of money from people in Florida and Manhattan, retirees.”

As a point of comparison, the campaign also provided in-district and out-of-district fundraising totals from McMahon and Grimm’s G.O.P primary opponent, Michael Allegretti. However, they did not provide an out-of-district campaign filing from Grimm, but only a file of Jewish donors to him.

Staten Island? Sounds to me like Kongressabgeordnetes McMahon is running for re-election in Gaza City.

Not that he didn't possess at least the political acumen to be wetting his Dockers in panic at his campaign's "indiskretion":

“These comments were entirely inappropriate and there is no place for this kind of behavior. I was outraged by these unfortunate remarks which were unauthorized and are in no way indicative of my beliefs or of my campaign,” said Congressman Michael E. McMahon. “I am proud to represent an incredibly diverse community and to enjoy an incredibly diverse base of support. Any comments that could serve to divide our community along religious or ethnic lines have no place in our community or my campaign. I sincerely apologize for her comments, and as she has since been terminated from our campaign, there will be no such incidents in the future.”

Hmph. Maybe. And maybe Jennifer Nelson isn't president of the Brooklyn Ahmadinejad "Wipe 'Em Off The Map" Fan Club, either. Maybe it was just a case of good, old, all-American pandering to, um, raging Jew-haters:

I grew up in the 13th District, and my parents and family still live there. The NY 13th used to be a heavy Italian and Irish district, with some Jewish neighborhoods. About fifteen years ago, immigrants from the Middle East — mostly Syrian, but some Palestinian and Horn of Africa — started to populate the district. Now, in parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, there are more Middle Eastern markets than salumeria’s or delis. I go back a few times a year. It is very common to see veils (and the occasional burqa), and traditional Middle Eastern Arab culture (such as open air markets), walking down the streets. There are mosques in some parts of the district, and believe me, that was completely unheard of fifteen years ago. I don’t think it is a majority of the district or even particularly close, but it is significant, and the Jewish neighborhoods in the 13th District are long gone (Stephen Solarz, our old representative, would not have a chance today). McMahon may be crazy like a fox — he knows his district and his words may have resonance in that district. The traditional population may not care that much, and the new residents likely agree with the expressed views.

I would take it further as implicit evidence that a growing Muslim constituency is the direction that Mike McMahon sees his district demographically moving and his campaign was trying to get him out in front of it. They just didn't translate it into diversity-speak for public media consumption.

Either way, it speaks highly ill of McMahon that he's got such animals working for him. I find myself echoing J-Ger:

You know what, Congressman? I don’t believe you. The idea of isolating and separating all of the donors who are Jewish or suspected of being Jewish is so creepy, so chilling, so disturbing in its historical overtones, that I have a hard time believing that this sprung, out of the blue, in two staffers’ minds. Certainly the decision to distribute that list to a media entity in the belief that it would generate negative coverage of Grimm suggests a bizarre and unnerving sensibility of what constitutes a scandal in McMahon’s campaign.

MM is positioned to survive the November tidal wave, but not by much. This pantsful might be enough to knock him into the bitter waters of defeat.

One might even call it a "Grimm" outcome.