March 24, 2006 - 4:47pm
Passaic Democrats mull Merhi's future
By Wally EdgePassaic County Democrats are meeting tomorrow to decide whether they want to stick with embattled Freeholder candidate Sami Merhi, an Arab-American businessman whose controversial comments about terrorism has caused a deep split among local Democrats and has caused leaders in the Jewish and Arab communities -- in New Jersey and in Washington -- to suddenly pay attention to a race for county office. Last Saturday, the Passaic Democratic organization voted 13-10 to support Merhi over Joanne Graziano, a Hawthorne Board of Education member and a teacher in Paterson.
Within two days, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and Governor Jon Corzine led a group of Democrats who said that Merhi's remarks at a 2002 political event made it impossible for them to support him, and Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie quickly called for another meeting to discuss the future of Merhi's campaign.
Merhi has now publicly said that there is "no way" he made the comments attributed to him in the New York Times article -- though the fact that it took him a full four years to accuse the New York Times of inventing its story make his current allegations appear less than credible.
Congressman Bill Pascrell, who was Merhi's chief advocate during the candidate selection process, publicly stood by Merhi -- but privately, Pascrell, under pressure from key Democrats and Jewish community leaders, has sent strong signals that he would not mind seeing Merhi drop his Freeholder bid.
Arab American leaders say that dumping Merhi was discrimination, and the Herald News has suggested that Democrats keep Merhi and let the voters decide if they want to elect him -- not necessarily a solid plan, one strategist said, since the politically impotent Passaic County GOP has shown no signs of mounting a strong campaign.
Assemblyman Gary Schaer, an Orthodox Jew from Passaic, offered his own compromise to fellow Democrats: dump Merhi because of his comments, but replace him with another Arab American. Currie, who had backed Graziano initially, appears to be leaning toward supporting her again.
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Gary Schaer couldn't be more right. Another qualified Passaic Co
Gary Schaer couldn't be more right. Another qualified Passaic County Arab-American, preferably a woman, would send the right message about inclusion without cow-towing to extremism.
I think this shows Schaer is a politically mature individual and would do a much better job representing the 8th in Congress than Bill Pascrell.
There's nothing like singling someone out based soley upon one's
There's nothing like singling someone out based soley upon one's skin color or ethnicity to prove that you don't judge someone by his skin color or ethnicity, huh?
What a world.
There's nothing like holding someone accountable based solely up
There's nothing like holding someone accountable based solely upon what they say.....
First they tell them to stay out of the ports and now they tell
First they tell them to stay out of the ports and now they tell them to stay out of the party. With the expection of Joan Quigley, it seems the dems don't find arabs particularly lovely people.
I did not know that Gary Schaer was the boss of the NJ Dem party
I did not know that Gary Schaer was the boss of the NJ Dem party. Gary is thanking his Lord for Merhi's appearance on the scene. It is not about presenting another Arab American candidate who meets Schafer's approval.
This is Gary's ticket to Washington over the dead body of Pascrell or se hopes. It is OK with Gary if Arab Americans are price for his political aspirations.
This Enron math is shortsighted however. Arabs and Muslims in NJ have already reached numerical advantage of Jewish citizens. If Gary wants to move the street fight from Jerusalem to downtown Paterson, he will be on the losing ending of a very unforgiving stick. This slap in the face of every Arab American will force them to be more vigilant in defending their turf. Alas, with or without Jewish votes and money. Pascrell will win come November. But he has already gotten the message. That is why he did not attend the Party?s meeting on Merhi. Whil it is tempting now for the Republican to to depict the Dems as being soft on terrorism, they stand to gain many Arab votes by butting out.
Republicans don't need this absurdity to depict dems as soft on
Republicans don't need this absurdity to depict dems as soft on terrorism. Since 9/11 Dems have been depicting themselves as soft quite easily enough without Republican help and it keeps on coming. Just take a look at Stender lately. Rambling on with the tired "Bush is bad" mantra while offering nothing of her own. She wants to fight the REAL security threats to the nation but doesn't outline what are real threats as opposed to fake ones. One can only assume that REAL is a buzz word for deaniacs who believe the REAL threat to our security is in the man White House and his consortium of imperalist christian hatemongers in Congress and now the Supreme Court as well. She doesn't like the use of wiretaps so what would she rather do to monitor sleeper cells? Besides forbidding foreign investment in America? No doubt she doesn't support deporting undocumented aliens or closing our borders either but would give them drivers licenses and universal healthcare on demand. Democrats have vehemently opposed every major initiative the Administration has put forth in the war on terror for 5 years running now -- without offering any alternative -- and yet Stender thinks congressional democrats have been rolling over. If their politically near-sighted pigheadedness is rolling over, can't wait to see the depths of her obstinate approach. Yeah, Republicans can sit this one out. The dems are doing a great job on their own showing their soft, pink underbellies.
Hey dumbdem, careful with the "over the dead body of Pacrell" re
Hey dumbdem, careful with the "over the dead body of Pacrell" reference. The good Congressman was hospitalized this weekend. Probably a severe case of the Arabian flu.