Marathon Pundit: Joel Pollak on the divisive Jan Schakowsky

Just two days after winning her first tough reelection campaign--Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), perhaps the most liberal member of the House of Representatives, was hobnobbing with J Street, the Jewish anti-Israel group partially funded by billionaire extremist George Soros.

Republican Joel Pollak ran a spirited campaign--but Schakowsky still won two-thirds of the vote in Illinois' 9th District. I hope he runs again. Democrat Melissa Bean knocked of out-of-touch Republican Phil Crane in her second attempt in Illinois' 8th in 2004. Of course since Illinois will lose a seat after the 2010 reapportionment, we might be looking at a much different 9th in 2012.

As for Bean, she repeated Crane's aloofness by refusing to hold town hall meetings during the run-up to the ObamaCare vote, which the so-called fiscal conservative voted "Aye" on in March. Votes are still being counted, but it appears Republican Joe Walsh has dispatched Bean to join Crane in retirement.

But back to Schakowsky: Joel Pollak writes about that J Street call in the American Thinker:

On a J Street conference call Thursday evening, Jan Schakowsky thanked the group for its financial and moral support. Her opponent, she said, was "an Orthodox Jewish Republican, Tea Party-endorsed candidate." It wasn't the first time Schakowsky alluded to my Orthodoxy: she did it in a July fundraising letter, and hinted at it again at an Israel forum we addressed in October, which she has since described as an "enemy camp."

In some contexts, there is nothing wrong with referring to someone's religion. I have occasionally drawn attention to my Orthodox Jewish faith, usually to explain where my values come from, or to dispel negative stereotypes the media tried to attach to the Tea Party. But in Schakowsky's chosen context, when she addresses far-left activists and J Street donors, "Orthodox" is a proxy for "extremist"--and she means it exactly that way.

That becomes even clearer in light of the false charges Schakowsky has made against me, and the way I ran my campaign to unseat her in Illinois's 9th congressional district. Schakowsky told the J Street conference call that "the majority" of my campaign's efforts involved a "vicious" misrepresentation of her position on Israel. She also accused my supporters in the Jewish community of "vitriol" that was "shocking" and "terrible."

All of that is untrue. It is what psychologists call "projection." Schakowsky's campaign was explicitly divisive. She changed her slogan from "Fighting for Our Families" to "Fighting on Our Side." She spent a fortune on negative mailings accusing me (falsely) of wanting to dismantle Medicare and ship jobs overseas. At one point, her campaign manager referred to critics of the Ground Zero mosque as "f**king dumba**es."

Yes, Schakowsky is the divisive one. She's Jewish. Pollak is an Orthodox Jew. Schakowsky is venturing into dangerous territory by dividing a faith. I'm Catholic, and I would be horrified if a once-a-week church-goer marginalized a daily communicant.

UPDATE 7:45pm CST: Chicago News Bench has video of Pollak speaking to some Tea Party supporters. Pollak is not going away. Good.

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