Anti-Defamation League director criticizes Dean for pandering [View All]

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Dean, who recently pledged that he would begin speaking about faith on the campaign trail, is off to a rocky start — and earning a frosty response from the head of the Anti-Defamation League.

The candidate, a Congregationalist whose wife and children are Jewish, began trumpeting his fealty to Jesus around the Christmas holiday in what he acknowledged was a bid to connect with Christian voters in Southern states. Last October, Dean had talked up his Jewish family's background during a meeting with Jewish communal leaders.

Those moves are "patronizing to both communities" and "in poor taste," said ADL national director Abraham Foxman. "You talk to Jews and tell them how Jewish your family is. You talk to Christians in the Bible Belt and tell them how much you love Jesus. We've gone beyond that."

Dean certainly is pushing it. Since he began his God jag, he has likened the Democrats' campaign to Jesus' squabbles with the Pharisees 2,000 years ago, saying the presidential contest "ought to be about evicting the money-changers from the temple" ñ not realizing, perhaps, that the Gospel story and the 'money-changer' disparagement have formed the basis of oh, 1,900-plus years of anti-Jewish polemic. He also flubbed a question asking him to name his favorite book in the New Testament. He named Job, which as we know is part of the Hebrew Bible — known to Christians as the "Old Testament." He later corrected himself.

But Dean is nothing if not ecumenical. The New York Times overheard him channeling his inner Muslim, using the expression "Inshallah" ("God willing"), which is often heard across back fences in Vermont. And at a Chanukah party in New Hampshire, Dean recited the Hebrew blessing over the candles, just as ñ great moments in presidential campaigning — he did impromptu during an interview with the Forward in November 2002.

Foxman, who issued a statement Tuesday "to remind everybody that (religious talk) has limited viability and credibility in an election campaign," said the ground rules are: "there's nothing wrong with being proud" of one's faith, but "it's not a reason to vote for anybody."
http://www.forward.com/issues/2004/04.01.09/news5.campaigncon.html