Two stunning moments. The process of impeachment is inherently volatile, and in the past week it grew worse than imaginable: Religion was injected twice in a five-day period.
The roles of Catholicism and Judaism were added to the debate of whether President Trump should be impeached. First House Speaker Nancy Pelosi furiously suggested that Trump’s helpers insinuated that she violated her Catholic teachings. Then a South Florida self-described “Christian” congressman dubbed a Democratic attorney “a New York lawyer.”
In past weeks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi often stiffened up in a gravely serious manner when she addressed developments in the impeachment inquiry. Last Thursday she pivoted to an enraged tone when a reporter asked her: “Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?”
She was headed out of her weekly news conference and abruptly returned to the lectern and, raising her voice, proclaimed: “As a Catholic, I resent your using ‘hate’ in a sentence that addresses me. I don’t hate anyone. I was raised in a way that is full – a heart full of love – and always pray for the president. And I still pray for the president. I pray for the president all the time. So, don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that.”
I did not understand in the moment what she was talking about. Was this some dramatic turn? Was Pelosi playing the religion card? It sounded as if she was making this up out of thin air. With my limited understanding of Catholicism, I was lucky to find a Washington Post article that explained her position.
Every Catholic child is taught that the word “hate” must never be used in connection with another human being, according to the Post. This admonition flows from the expansive Catholic interpretation of the Fifth Commandment. The article recounts that, in a General Audience last year in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis proclaimed that to hate is to murder in your heart.
Republican Catholics in Congress, the administration and the party infrastructure must know that, as do many Protestant Republicans.
Even so, critics of elected officials do not necessarily “hate” them. Certainly, many voters do “hate” Trump, but others like myself regard him as an incompetent, unresponsive president who has also violated the constitution.
On Monday, Rep. Greg Steube – as a member of the Judiciary Committee – opened his big mouth: “He is an unelected New York lawyer.” He added that he is “a partisan New York lawyer.”
The first-term GOP congressman was apparently referring to Barry H. Berke, a partner in the New York law firm Kramer Levin who questioned the staff attorneys for the Intelligence Committee following its hearings in recent weeks.
A few minutes after Steube finished his round of questioning, Rep. Ted Deutch asked Steube what he meant by a “New York lawyer.” The indirect exchange went no further at the time, around 6 p.m., and Deutch, a Democrat, must have wondered if Steube meant that Berke is Jewish.
“That’s coded language for ‘Jew.’” tweeted Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish group. “Trump and his enablers invoke anti-Semitism to distract from impeachment and promote bigotry.”
It should not be lost on anyone that Steube neglected to refer to “an unelected New York real estate developer” – in the White House. Trump won the anachronistic electoral college, but not the actual majority vote.
We can wonder what the New York transplants in Steube’s Gulf Coast district, which covers Bradenton and Venice, think of his remark. We do not need to wonder about Deutch’s constituents in Boca Raton and northern Broward County. Deutch and a high percentage of his constituents are Jewish, and they need not be from New York to question if Steube is anti-Semitic.
Some of Steube’s views are expressed in his website, and they are a matter of interpretation as they apply to the Jewish people. He “advance(d) conservative causes” as a Florida lawmaker; “as a Christian, I am strongly pro-life”; and he is a “fervent” Second Amendment backer.
If Steube is not anti-Semitic, he is certainly insensitive. Even if he meant nothing about Berke’s religion, why pit one region against another? New Yorkers are Americans, and in fact they send more money to the federal treasury than they get back.
If Berke is a “partisan” lawyer, what about the attorneys who work for the Republicans?
These book-ended scenes were compounded by Trump’s rendition of Jewish stereotypes during a speech over the weekend in Hollywood, Fla.; a website that describes the impeachment as a “Jew coup”; and Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar again characterize criticism of her as Muslim-bashing. Most people criticize her because of her hostile attitudes toward Jews and Israel.
It almost goes without saying how shameful it is that we must endure this lunacy in this day and age.
Almost forgot: You-know-who once again referred to you-know-who as Pocahontas.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World