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May 24, 2013

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'

Caroline B. Glick: Thank you, Hafez al-Assad

Diana West: From the Brooklyn Bridge to London
Morgan Housel: Why spotting bubbles is so much harder than you think

Environmental Nutrition editors: NuVal labeling to the rescue?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Memorial Day: Jews Serving and KIA in War on Terror; Liberace Bio-Pic; Jew Wins "Survivor"; Shalom, Dr. Brothers; More

The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: HIDE THESE FROZEN TREATS FROM THE KIDDIES!: Sangria pops; Irish cream pudding pops; mango Lassi pops

May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting

May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review Dec. 18, 2008 / 21 Kislev 5769

We could do much worse than Caroline Kennedy and other dynasty senate candidates

By Michael Barone


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | There have been lots of complaints in blogs, liberal as well as conservative, about the (apparently) impending appointment of Caroline Kennedy to the Senate and the impending Senate appointments in other states — Illinois, Delaware, Colorado — to seats made vacant by the election of the Obama-Biden ticket or his cabinet appointments. There's a dynastic element in all four states. Caroline Kennedy would not, after all, be a plausible nominee for the Senate but for the fact that she's the daughter of John and Jacqueline Kennedy. The Delaware seat is going to a longtime Joe Biden aide, Ted Kaufman, apparently to keep it warm for Joe Biden's son Beau Biden, who is currently the elected attorney general of Delaware and is also serving in the military in Iraq. A leading possibility to succeed Colorado's Ken Salazar (on whose appointment I've written about in another blog post) is his brother, Rep. John Salazar. And in Illinois, we have the delicious Blagoscandal, with the appointment still the legal prerogative of the son-in-law of 33rd Ward Democratic Committeeman Dick Mell (that would be Gov. Rod Blagojevich) and with one of the hopefuls being Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.


I'm not as outraged by this element of dynasty as the commentators linked above. Caroline Kennedy is, after all, probably more qualified to be a senator than Edward Kennedy was in 1962, and he has turned out to be a very competent senator indeed, whatever else you may want to say about him. Beau Biden has won a statewide election in his own right and, judging from his performance at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and from my memory of a telephone interview with Joe Biden in May 1972, at least as well qualified (and about 10 years older) than his father was in 1972, when he was first elected to the Senate. John Salazar has won four elections in his own right (one to the state House and three to the U.S. House) and has been elected in a congressional district that generally leans Republican. About Rod Blagojevich, a spectacular example of how the stupid can rise in American politics, I have already written. As for Jesse Jackson Jr., he won a special election to the House in 1995, over Illinois Senate President Emil Jones (Barack Obama's great ally in Springfield) in the decisive Democratic primary and has won re-election seven times since. I'm inclined to agree with John Nichols of the Nation that he has been a competent left-wing congressman.


As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal in January 2007, we have become "a nation that is less small-r republican and more royalist than it used to be. Viscerally, this strikes me as a bad thing. But as I've thought about it, I've decided that something can be said for the increasing royalism of our politics." And that is that, in a large representative democracy, in which we must make judgments about the character of candidates with whom almost none of us will ever have personal contact, it helps to know the family. Delaware voters know a lot about the Bidens (in a small state many voters meet their senators and attorneys general), Colorado voters know a fair bit about the Salazars, Illinois voters know a lot about the Jacksons and the Blagojeviches (the governor's job approval is now in single digits), and all of us know a lot about the Kennedys. The voters in the appropriate states have a pretty good idea of both the strengths and the weaknesses of the dynasts who will be or may be or (as it seems in Jesse Jackson Jr.'s case) might have been appointed to the Senate (or had the way greased for them). I think it's not a coincidence that voters in some other very large representative democracies — India, Indonesia, the Philippines — have chosen daughters of previous heads of government for the positions their fathers have held. And in Brazil, one man mentioned as a possible next president is Aécio Neves, the governor of Minas Gerais and a grandson of Tancredo Neves, who was elected president in the 1985 but was struck ill and died before he could effectively take office.


Dynastic politics is of course unfair to nondynasts. There are probably dozens of matrons of a certain age living in Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue co-ops who have been engaged in civic good works and have maxed out to Democratic candidates and would be as good at being a U.S. senator as (or maybe better than) Caroline Kennedy. But none of them are going to get a call to come over and meet with Gov. David Paterson (whose father, Basil Paterson, was a longtime state senator and power broker in New York politics). As Caroline Kennedy's father said in a different context, "Life is unfair." There are probably less than a dozen Americans alive today, out of the 305 million people in this country, who ever have been or will be president of the United States; there are probably not many more than 1,000 who have ever been or ever will be U.S. senators. We hope our electoral system will produce good officeholders, and we have come some distance in extending the pool of plausible candidates, as Barack Obama's election vividly demonstrates. But it seems that dynasts have and will probably continue to have an advantage over the rest of us in becoming one of those dozen or thousand or so who will reach the peaks of American electoral office. I think we have to make the best of it and help the voters to distinguish the bad dynasts from the good.

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