January 15, 2017

Cory Booker's rightwing friends

Alternet -  Many pundits are proposing Cory Booker as the Democratic hope in the 2020 presidential election. In his high-profile speech in the Senate against the confirmation of Sen. Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Booker intended to brand himself as a bold crusader for civil rights and a leading opponent of Donald Trump.

Yet away from the spotlight, Booker has cultivated a close relationship with a group that closely aligns with Sessions and his bigoted politics: NORPAC, a Republican-run, pro-Israel group that has pushed a nakedly Islamophobic agenda in the U.S. while supporting Trump’s extremist nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.

NORPAC's agenda is well to the right of AIPAC, the main arm of the Israel lobby. In fact, the group gives Booker more than twice the amount of money he receives from Goldman Sachs: $158,871 in a single campaign cycle. NORPAC is run by Ben Chouake, a New Jersey doctor who endorsed Ted Cruz for president in the Republican primary and insinuated that Congressman Keith Ellison is unfit to be chair of the Democratic National Committee based on the fact that he receives donations from the Council on American Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in America.

Despite knowing he cannot get Cory Booker to take right-wing stances on every issue, Chouake has discovered he can get Booker to take right-wing stances on Israel by ensuring he gives more money to Booker than anyone else.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Had so-called 'progressives' paid any attention to the analysis from the folks at Black Agenda Report, they'd have been on to Cory's act fourteen years ago. BAR today republishes a report from Glen Ford originally published on his then site, Black Commentator:
http://blackagendareport.com/content/fruit-poisoned-tree-hard-rights-plan-capture-newark-nj#overlay-context=
"In this groundbreaking 2002 article, which appeared in the very first issue of the Black Commentator, co-founded by Glen Ford, the author throws prophetic light on the early career and sponsorship of a new type of African American politician --- Corey Booker in his first run for mayor of Newark NJ. Thanks in part to this expose Booker was defeated in 2002, but won the election four years later in 2006"