Comments on: Clinton advisor Ann Lewis to headline AIPAC Minnesota event

By: Ann Lewis and Bill Kristol do 'playful banter' at AIPAC summit

Ann Lewis and Bill Kristol do 'playful banter' at AIPAC summit — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:09:26 +0000

[...] problem. His own sister Ann Lewis is a big liberal Democrat, close to Hillary Clinton, and she does a lot of work for AIPAC. She has said, "The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are [...]

By: maria plummer

maria plummer — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 00:59:34 +0000

“Suspicious, suspicious…” “Methinks the Lady doth protest toooo much.”~Lord Shakespeare “everything secret degenerates” repeatedly uttered by an ex-FBI agent, has to be one of the all-time historically hypocritical statements, ever.

By: Coleen Rowley

Coleen Rowley — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:02:07 +0000

That’s right, ML. If an idea is thoroughly exposed by being debated, scrutinized and clarified, etc. by lots and lots of neuron pathways, instead of just a few sycophantic ones, it makes the idea stronger and thus obtains more support for the idea. The idea of free and open debate strengthening societies and societies’ decisions is a really old and time-tested one. It applies to any group, not just government as a whole. Discussing and debating issues will always tend to produce more consensus. The original position may be modified or compromised, however, in the process and that’s what some people don’t like.

By: ML

ML — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:39:42 +0000

AIPAC has been preaching to the choir, if not forever, for at least the past decade. They’ve always been positioned to the right when it comes to Israeli politics and policy, and definitely became more insular during the Bush administration.

Maybe their mission isn’t to foster debate, but it should be!

By: Coleen Rowley

Coleen Rowley — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:38:36 +0000

Well, I understand if you don’t want to get involved with asking AIPAC to help me organize something like this but AIPAC has definitely sponsored discussion panels before. There was the one I attended a couple years ago in St. Louis Park that featured then Senator Norm Coleman, an AIPAC foreign policy guy from DC (if I remember right) and someone else.

And that discussion event was completely open to the public. It was a packed room. And actually there were quite a few hard questions posed by the audience. I recall a certain amount of the discussion did focus on Iran.

Anyway, if the closing of AIPAC events to the general public actually signals a change from their past practices (which seems the case, based on my experience) then it would seem harder for AIPAC to achieve its mission to secure further American support for its objectives. After a while of closed events within any organization, you end up just preaching to the choir as they say. Then you’re back to my Lord Acton quote about “everything secret degenerates…”