After following the Murtha and Hoyer race I have been reading a lot of references to AIPAC and its influence. This issue first came into my radar in a post stating that Barack Obama would not stump for John Laesch. The reason was the Rahm Emanuel does not support Laesch view of the Middle East.
Personally I don't know why I am interested in the Majority Leader battle as I live in a time zone away. Until the AIPAC revelation. There are two things that are threatening the world the first the worsening environment and the second is the repercussions of what is happening in the Middle East. US has a significant effect on both issues but especially in the Middle East..
From wiki AIPAC is American Israel Public Affairs Committee where its stated purpose is to lobby the Congress of the United States on issues and legislation "to ensure that the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong so that both countries can work together" to meet the challenges of "stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, fighting terrorism and achieving peace"
Its interesting how all this ethics charges against Murtha for considering a $50,000 bribe to help his district but its okay for AIPAC to influence congressman/senators to give Israel at least one billion dollars a year. There is a disconnect there. But actually influence is not patronage as shown by Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay K Street Project, the most important factor is being able to influence hiring's/decisions, which has much more significant effect as you can effect the culture and ideology of the group.
Knowing all this it seems that the meme of getting out of Iraq as fast a possible is against the APIAC view so they need someone like Hoyer to manage the process. I have got a feeling that APIAC faction is closely related to the DLC faction in congress.
What was strange about people supporting Hoyer was that it is not tracking logically based on ideology so I thought it would be good to match AIPAC congress-people with their support on Hoyer but was not able to find the data so have this instead from wiki
"AIPAC has attracted significant political leaders to address their conferences. Among them are former President Bill Clinton, current President George W. Bush, Senators John McCain, Evan Bayh, Susan Collins, and Joe Biden, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Democtatic Whip Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader John Boehner, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. It has also included former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."
The current negative media blitz against Murtha and Pelosi shows what is more important to APIAC. A true team all working for the same goals would not eat its own like what's happening with Murtha and Pelosi. Remember Murtha he is the one that did more the 140 TV interviews on the Iraq war for the benefit of democrats and hopefully the troops.
The biggest factor that I see APIAC having on Netroots is sometimes the candidates don't match where APIAC has the added benefit of also being able to approve the Republican candidates. So a lot of good progressive candidates will not get elected because they don't have the right Middle East view.
Anyway good luck tommorow Murtha and make sure you keep Pelosi's back no matter what happens, as she is going to need it.
Updated1:
Election held Murtha lost, and the new appointees are
Majority Leader: Hoyer considered one of AIPAC biggest supporters
Majority Whip: Clyburn not sure, but received contributions from AIPAC
Caucaus Chair: Rahm Emanuel the person that started my interest in AIPAC
And now the blue dog demoracts dont want Pelosi choice for Intel Chair and want Jane Harman who I understand is a strong AIPAC supporter.
Really to me actions speak louder then words.