Inside the Beltway

NEWS AND OPINION:

OY VEY, OBAMA

Yes, there is a Kosher Tea Party. And it is pretty gleeful now that Republican and fiscal conservative Bob Turner won his “stunning” victory in the special election in New York’s 9th Congressional District, where 40 percent of the population is Jewish, with three Democrats to every Republican voter.

“This underdog victory is evidence that Jewish voters are saying ’no’ to the Obama liberal agenda of big government and out-of control spending. Jewish voters no longer passively participate in the political process and automatically pull the lever for Democratic candidates,” observed FreedomWorks campaign coordinator David Spielman, who founded the group in August during a visit to Israel to gauge that nation’s tea party sentiment.

“Traditional Jewish values like family and fiscal responsibility have much more in common with conservatism than most Jews realize. But the unfortunate reality right now is that Jewish Americans are overwhelmingly liberal, and as a Jew you’re expected by your community to fall in line,” he adds.

Mr. Spielman says that Kosher Tea will launch an expansive get-out-the-vote campaign in Florida, Ohio and New Jersey neighborhoods that includes phone calls and visits to Jewish voters - from Israeli tea partiers.

THE CHOSEN FEW

The Drudge Report, Matt Drudge, Glenn Beck, World Net Daily, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Huffington Post Politics, Roll Call. (Among the 19 Twitter accounts followed by the Twitter version of AttackWatch, the new online tattle site funded by Obama for America, to “fight the smears” during President Obama’s re-election campaign.

PERRY’S OLD DOMINION

“Perry/McDonnell 2012”

(Lapel pins worn by audience members during Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s visit with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell during a campaign stop in Richmond.)

“Don’t leave it to a bunch of politicians in Washington to tell you what to do with your life.”

(What Mr. Perry told students at Liberty University, founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell in 1971 and the nation’s largest evangelical campus.)

STARTS WITH A CAPITOL

A gift for the couple with everything, a mantle knickknack that could quiet mindless cocktail chatter? That would be architectural relics that once adorned the U.S. Capitol from 1793 to 1828, brought to auction by none other than the descendants of original Capitol architect Benjamin Latrobe. The Potomack Company in Old Town Alexandria is doing the honors Sept. 24-25; the historic goodies include original Corinthian column fragments, with tactile layers of old paint still visible.

Also on the auction block: A pair of sandstone blocks and bookend-size marble step pieces from the original grand stairway of the Capitol’s Senate Wing. Present-day historical items include fancy designer draperies and bedding from Blair House, the official White House guest quarters, plus a 19th-century oil painting of Mount Vernon that once belonged to the late Pamela Harriman, a Progressive Party battle flag from Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 presidential campaign and assorted antique photographs.

Preview viewing is Saturday and Sunday. More details at www.potomackcompany.com.

OUTFOXED

Yeah, well. Comedy Central host Jon Stewart thinks his “Daily Show” has a lot in common with the Fox News Channel.

“We are both reactions to the news and to government. We’re both expressions of dissatisfaction,” Mr. Stewart says in a upcoming Rolling Stone interview. And President Obama?

“He feels like the only president who begins every press conference with a heavy sigh. I think he was already kind of over us by the time he got into office,” Mr. Stewart tells the magazine, which hits newsstands on Friday.

PARSING THE DEBATES

Broadcast producers, take note: You are not operating in a vacuum. Sharp-eyed researchers are monitoring the Republican debates for fairness. And so far, the Tea Party Express/CNN showdown on Monday night gets better marks than the recent Politico/MSNBC “hatchet job,” says Media Research Center analyst Geoffrey Dickens, who counted and rated every question that was asked in both bouts.

Of the 54 total questions asked by NBC anchor Brian Williams and Politico correspondent John Harris, “25 of them came from the left, with just one from the right. Twenty-eight questions were neutral,” Mr. Dickens explains, reasoning that 96 percent of “questions with an agenda” were liberal in content.

“In contrast, a review of the 62 total questions posed to GOP candidates at the CNN debate shows only 13 of them came from the left, 21 from the right, with 28 being neutral. So, of questions with an agenda, 62 percent were from the right, 38 percent were from the left,” Mr. Dickens says.

POLL DU JOUR

• 86 percent of Republicans say their political views are “more conservative” than Democrats; 60 percent of Democrats say their views are “more liberal” than Republicans.

• 55 percent of Republicans describe themselves as “conservative,” 18 percent say they are “very conservative,” and 24 percent say they are “moderate.

• 3 percent of Republicans say they are liberal.

• 23 percent of Democratic voters say they are “liberal,” 9 percent say they are “very liberal,” and 41 percent say they are “moderate.”

• 23 percent of Democrats say they are conservative.

• 37 percent of U.S. voters overall perceive the Republican Party as “conservative,” 23 percent say it’s “very conservative” and 21 percent say the party is “moderate.”

• 32 percent of voters perceive the Democratic party as “liberal,” 22 percent say it’s “very liberal” and 26 percent say the party is “moderate.”

Source: A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll of 1,509 adults conducted Aug. 17-21 and released Wednesday.

• Liberal whines, conservative grunts, snappy press releases to jharper@washingtontimes.com. Follow the column at twitter.com/ harperbulletin.