A Long, Empty Campaign Ending — Finally

Another long national nightmare — the 2014 campaigns — is almost over.  And it demonstrates once again, as H.L. Mencken said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."  One of the most amazing things about the record amount of spending in this campaign year is how little was devoted to substantive discussion of issues. 

I find it disturbing that anyone is willing to spend millions of dollars — most of it OPM (other people's money) but often quite a bit of their own — to get a job that pays $174,000 a year in a city they say they despise to be part of a government they claim to detest.

The Jewish vote will not be critical in this election.  Republicans lost their onlt Jewish member of either chamber when Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor was defeated in his primary and promptly quit.

State Senator Lee Zeldin is running in New York’s first district on Long Island and raising money among Jews across the country in support of his declared goal of wearing Cantor's kippah.  The district leans Democratic but he has a better chance of making it to Washington than the other Jewish-Republican candidates around the country.

One of them is Micah Edmond, an African-American convert to Judaism, is running a long-shot campaign on the Republican ticket to replace retiring Northern Virginia Democrat Jim Moran, who has been widely criticized for what many consider anti-Semitic comments and hostility toward Israel.

Two Jewish House Democrats are facing strong challenges – Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois and Steve Cohen of Tennessee – but are expected to survive.

The Jewish caucus of the 114th Congress is losing three lawmakers. Cantor, the highest ranking Jew in Congressional history, unsuccessfully tried to position himself as a champion of the tea partiers but was beaten in his primary by someone even more conservative. Two leading Jewish Democrats are retiring: Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and 20-term Rep. Henry Waxman of California, top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The happiest outcome of this election will be an end to the tsunami of emails, phone calls, flyers and attack ads from all those anxious and panicked politicians who could win if only I’d send them $3 before the midnight deadline.