The incumbent Speaker, Republican Joe Straus, was elected two years ago with the help of Democrats in the House.
(Blogger’s Note–I live in Houston, Texas.)
With Republicans gaining many seats in this month’s election, some Republicans are calling for someone they feel would a more conservative Speaker to take the office from Mr. Straus.
Speaker Straus is Jewish.
Not surprisingly given the people involved in this contest , the fact that the Speaker is Jewish is becoming an issue in the race.
From TV station KENS in San Antonio—
“….a new series of attacks is coming from the Religious Right, with Straus’ religion used against him. On his blog, Texas Capitol Reporter Harvey Kronberg reports that robo calls have begun in parts of the state. The voice on the calls tells people to support a “true Christian speaker.” Joe Straus is Jewish. Furthermore, the Republican Liberty Caucus has come out in support of North Texas Republican Ken Paxton (R-McKinney), citing a New Testament Bible verse in its original endorsement. That verse has since been removed from the group’s officially posted endorsement.”
The Jewish Herald Voice is concerned. This newspaper has written about Jewish life in Houston and in Texas since 1908.
Jews have a long history in Texas.
From the excellent Handbook of Texas Online—
“No aspect of nineteenth-century Texas history is without the involvement of committed Jewish Texans. Adolphus Sterne of Nacogdoches served as alcalde, treasurer, and postmaster in 1826, Albert Moses Levy was surgeon in chief in the revolutionary army in 1835, Jacob and Phineas De Cordova sold land and developed Waco, Simon Mussina founded Brownsville in 1848, Henri Castro founded several towns, Michael Seeligson was elected mayor of Galveston in 1853, Rosanna Osterman funded significant religious and charitable activities through her will, Sid Samuels and Belle Doppelmayer were in the first graduating class at the University of Texas in 1881, Olga B. Kohlberg started the first public kindergarten in Texas in 1893, and Morris Lasker was elected to the state Senate in 1895. Jews also established themselves in Beaumont, Brenham, Corsicana, Gainesville, Hempstead, Marshall, Palestine, Texarkana, Tyler, Port Arthur, Wichita Falls, Baytown, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, New Braunfels, McAllen, Alice, Amarillo, Columbus, Wharton, Giddings, Navasota, Crockett, Lubbock, Longview, Jefferson, San Angelo, and Schulenburg.”
A great book to learn about Jewish History in Texas is Lone Stars of David–The Jews of Texas.
An ongoing exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science is calledForgotten Gateway—Coming To America Through Galveston Island.A portion of this interesting exhibit is about how Jews were often denied entry into America through Galveston for no other reason but that they were Jewish. The program runs through February 20, 2011.
The photo below is of the Beth Yeshuran Jewish cemetery in Houston. The large grave in the middle of the photo is that of Private Nathan Pizer. Private Pizer was a United States Marine who was killed in action in France during WW I.
Jewish folks have long served our nation.
It makes no difference what religion anybody is when it comes to who can serve in public office. We must remain vigilant. So-called states rights views, now all the rage in Texas and elsewhere , have long been associated with intolerance and injustice.
We can either fight back against this un-American behavior, or we can see the years of our lives wasted by extremists who refuse to acknowledge the outcome of the Civil War.
Political independents who often vote for candidates of both parties need to please consider what they will be getting from Republicans over the next two years.
Love this post, Neil. Thanks.
Obama has expressed concern over ‘bitter’ people who cling to their religion. Hopefully these folks are not clinging in such a way as to incur the One’s displeasure.
OMG, I can’t believe that you will not let that go. I’m amazed. I’m just amazed. The man screws up and you can’t wait to point it out. Congrats.
He didnt screw up. He was saying what he really thought.
His only ‘screw up’ was that the public found out what he really thought.
His statement , that people ‘cling to their guns and religion and their antipathy to people who aren’t like them’ , is a clear window on the way the man thinks. “When in trouble, play the race card, i.e. insinuate that people are bigots, that they oppose you because they are clinging to their antipathy to those that aren’t like them’ ”
This was what he learned from Jeremiah Wright, always call the other side names, specifically ‘you’re a racist’ kind of insinuations.
He knows that good people dont want to be smeared as racists, and will often over-react when it happens, caving in to whatever demand is presented just to make the label go away.
Obama made money as a lawyer suing Citibank , crying ‘racism’.
he did screw up. As a politician, you know that you cannot say every idea that comes into your head. You simply can’t. He did. Mistake.
As we’ve talked about before, you have no idea how black churches work. None. I have asked you on a number of occasions to go to a black church. I’ve asked you to sit in the pew and talk to the parishioners. I suspect that you haven’t done that. If you have, you would not even mention Jeremiah Wright. For some reason, you have a problem with a regular church grower sitting in a pew and deciding what he will and will not take in. You assume, that because he is sitting in that pew he believes and understands and takes in everything that the preacher says. More importantly, he takes everything into his soul that the preacher says. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It seems that, you believe, that in the United States racism never existed. At least it never existed in the last several decades. Have you looked into the merits of the case? Was Barack Obama the lead attorney? Did Barack Obama file this case? What exactly was his role in the case? Was racism the reason that the Black Woman was denied a loan? Have you looked into any of this? here are the details of the case – http://www.clearinghouse.net/detail.php?id=10112.
I completely mystified how you jump on the “cry racism” bandwagon. There’s not enough information to tell whether her case had merit or not. We don’t have the individual data to show whether she would’ve qualified for a loan or not. We don’t have the banks lending data to show the qualifications of those that they lent money to or not. All we have is that Obama was a junior lawyer on this case which was settled out of court.
I fully understand someone attending a church and not necessarily sharing every single belief that the pastor holds.
But Obama claimed to not even know what the pastor was teaching, and when confronted with it said he had no idea that Wright had ever said such things.
You can easily see the difference if you open your eyes.
Wright gave an award to Louis Farrakhan. Wright published a manifesto from Hamas in the church bulletin. These werent just some hidden private beliefs that Obama *might* not know Wright held.
In addition, Obama explains that the sermon that ‘converted’ him to the church was the one where Wright talked about ‘white man’s greed runs a world in need’. http://www.slate.com/id/2187358/