Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog

Congratulations to Steve Schmidt on his recent appointment. A consummate professional and brilliant strategist, Steve is admired and respected across the political spectrum and within the McCain team. We’re all proud and eager to be at his service.

Like the surge in Iraq and the rescue raid in Colombia, I have no doubt that Steve’s hiring will prove to be a turning point, a seminal shift in our road to victory. I wish I could say the same for the firing of Willie Randolph as my beloved Mets continue to disappoint.

I was one of Dennis’ first friends here in Washington. One of the few who could talk in detail with him about high school wrestling over the occasional mid-morning drink (I grappled JV back in high school). From what I hear, he was one of the most hands-on and effective wrestling coaches of his day. And I recognize that retirement can be expensive and a man needs to make a buck.

But going to work for transgender-friendly Dickstein and Shapiro? Well, I know I said I’d let bygones be bygones and focus on the present but my friend Stanley Rubin has told me stories about that operation that would make your blood curdle. And even though I fully endorse John McCain, I remember (like I remember Amalek) the dirty tricks campaign waged against my candidate at the time, Rudy.

Dennis, come on, buddy. I know you can do better. I defended you in the Mark Foley scandal, and now you’re just perpetuating stereotypes of the GOP.  We’re going to have enough trouble this fall defeating Obama and heading off another Democrat landslide.

Kudos to our good friend Debbie Schlussel for keeping the pressure on Dunkin’ Donuts over that tasteless Rachael Ray ad. Granted, Rachael is notoriously insecure about her lack of neck (so wear a mock turtle).

The keffiyeh has blood on its hands and should be as offensive to the West as the Windsor knot is undoubtedly to the East.

I must, however, take issue with Debbie on her criticism of Cindy and Meghan McCain. As a McCain campaign surrogate I know that Meghan’s wearing of the keffiyeh was personally disturbing to John, but as any father of daughters will tell you, girls at that age can’t be entirely controlled. I imagine even Debbie of Detroit made some poor fashion choices in her younger years.

At least when Pam Geller and Michelle Malkin rightly went after Rachael Ray, they didn’t drag Meghan McCain into the mud.

I am proud to announce that I recently accepted an offer from the McCain campaign to serve as “a Liaison with the Jewish community” and “foreign policy advisor”. Although I have in the past blamed the McCain campaign staff for dirty tricks against my candidate at the time, Rudolph Giuliani, I have come to recognize the importance of supporting John McCain at this crucial juncture in our country’s history. Israel is at risk. The dollar is at risk. The most cherished American symbol, the automobile, is at risk. So today more than ever before, let us unite for the common causes of liberty, of freedom, of family, of God. John McCain for President!

Okay. I’ve had a couple of drinks and I just saw something on TV that irked my goat. To those alter cocker Florida Jews who think “Barry” is a Jewish name while “Barak” is some scary boogie man name: “Barak” is the Hebrew word for thunder, you fools of life. I don’t know what you are. But you sure as hell ain’t Jews. I just returned from a trip to Israel where Jews wear on their skin the color of the desert, the sun. So, to Barry from Florida, stop being such a wuss.

Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, who only a few months ago was accused of not being black enough is now, in the eyes of many Americans, a bedfellow of Farrakhan, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the black liberation movement. Talk about chickens coming home to roost.

Obama, who somewhere along the way decided to ride the coat-tails of the African-American experience, something his DNA has no connection to whatsoever, is now reaping the flip side of that experience. Obama, raised by a white woman from Kansas, a distant relative of Dick Cheney, thought that by mimicking Martin Luther King’s speaking style, he could garner nearly 100% of the African-American Democratic primary vote and displace Bill as the first black president.

What Barack failed to take into account is that there’s a reason why there’s never before been a genuinely African-American president and that is because we enslaved, raped and lynched them over a period of four hundred years and there remains some lingering resentment and animosity.

Here’s a quick roundup on Obama News-for-Jews:

Advisor McPeak on NY and Miami

Sounds like Jeffrey Hart isn’t the only Obama friend who’s getting him in trouble (as we talked about a few days ago).

Mazel tov to Katie Levinson! She just got a gig with Richard Edelman’s outfit. (Edelman’s a real mensch.) While it was sad to have the old Giuliani team break up, it’s nice to see talented and committed people like Katie land on her feet. Good luck, kiddo.
(h/t Potomac Flacks)

As all eyes turn toward Pennsylvania, for the upcoming Democratic primary, the GOP is enjoying watching the internecine party battle between Clinton and Obama supporters. From Pennsylvania Avenue:

The Republican National Committee gleefully pointed our attention Tuesday to what they see as hopeful a sentence in a recent Rasmussen Reports poll on the Democratic race.

To quote Rassmussen: “If Obama wins the Democratic nomination, just 55% of Clinton voters say they are even somewhat likely to vote for him against John McCain. That’s down two points from 57%.

If Clinton is the nominee, just 55% of Obama voters say they are at least somewhat likely to vote for her against McCain. That’s down nine points from 64%.”

For months, the Democratic lovefest enjoyed watching the circular firing squad of the Republican primary contenders (having had a spot in the trenches with the Giuliani camp, I can tell you it was pretty bloody), but now the GOP is all love and rainbows and McCain ponies. And so it should be. (we’ll save our bitterness for the inevitable convention platform fight and deciding who gets to speak in prime time… as if people still watch anything in prime time anymore).

Speaking of warzones and frontlines, poor Hillary has her Bosnia oops to atone for while Obama is still trying to figure out how to get out from under the Rev. Wright’s shadow (hint: distract people by pointing out that your supporter Jeffrey Hart is funny with the Jews - if history is any lesson, the only thing that will distract the MSM from a good racial witchhunt is a good anti-semitic one).

For those of you who didn’t see it in the comments buried below, we feel we owe it to Thomas Callahan to showcase his explanatory note in full:

Tom Callahan ‘84 here with a clarification:

My old man (who died in 2006 after a long bout with Alzheimer’s) used to refer to his former professor by name with an aphorism something like, “You know what Rosenstock-Huessy used to say…” and then would say something about fate and being aware that you don’t know how your life will unfold. My six living brothers and sisters can all attest to Dad’s references to R-H, but none of us can remember the exact words that had stuck in my father’s mind. I never knew how Rosentock-Huessy’s name was spelled, and I always thought his first name was Rosenstock and his surname was Huessy. I even googled various misspellings of his name one time but to no avail. Then I came across Hart’s article. Now I had the guy’s name (I thought - didn’t know that Hart misspelled it too), and I was able to find a philosophy web site and a few samples of his writing (still didn’t pick up on the misspelling). For the alumni profile, I used the citizen-education quote rather than my poorly remembered paraphrase of my Dad’s paraphrases of what R-E used to say. So–Hart definitely did not lift his quote from me; it is thanks to Hart’s article that I could track down more information about my father’s favorite philosophy professor. No plagiarism intended by me - just wanted to quote Prof. R-H accurately while capturing the spirit of my father’s aphorisms. I don’t think my late father or the late professor would mind. Indeed, the late professor would probably be more concerned if I misquoted him with a memory shrouded paraphrase. Finally, any mistakes are entirely mine, not Ms. Birzen’s. I provided that passage to her.

Regarding Phi Delt, Gig Faux was VP when I was President of the house. He was if anything even more instrumental than I in bringing Phi Delt back into the good graces of the College at the time.

Best regards,

Tom Callahan ‘84

So there you have it; mystery solved. Kudos to Callahan for responding so forthrightly. As we’d heard, he’s an honorable, patriotic man. As you can see, this also clears Birzin and Jeffrey Hart (as far as the quote goes, yes, but his attitudes on Jews vis a vis his support for Obama is still troubling - especially given Obama’s speech today about the Rev. Wright and Barack’s own crazy white Grandma. I guess that makes Hart the nutty Judeo-fetishist uncle in New Hampshire)