Losing his religion
Doomed Silverstein panders to GOP instead of calling Inhofe on the carpet
Sitting on a plane next to a beautiful woman who’s reading a magazine, a man asks, “So what are you reading?”
“It says here,” she says, “the best lovers, the best kind of men are half Jewish, half Indian.”
“Let me introduce myself,” he says. “My name’s Tonto Goldberg.”
Stay with me.
Months ago—and for full disclosure purposes—I was invited to a fundraiser (I didn’t contribute) for Democratic Senatorial Candidate Matt Silverstein. Before his prepared remarks, he made a joke about his Jewish/Choctaw heritage.
I’ll get back to that.
As regular readers of this column know, I have a special place in my heart for Sen. James Inhofe. Nobody makes me more meshuga—nobody except Matt Silverstein.
I’ll get back to that, too.
First off, to the surprise of absolutely no one, it’s not really a race. Most polls have Inhofe up 30 percent, and it probably won’t end that close. And although Silverstein is right on the issues of choice, ACA, marriage equality, and global warming, his campaign is a muddled, phumphering mess. Like a lot of lazy Democrats who chase down GOP members for an unrequited bipartisanship hug, Silverstein has a peculiar affinity for Tom Coburn. Silverstein has put forth a three-point plan to fight the deficit, including freezing automatic pay raises, curtailing earmarks, and creating something called the Office of Debt Reduction and Public Integrity, which will have … absolutely no effect on the deficit.
Odder, still, are his attacks on Inhofe, who is wrong on everything—everything—and criminally wrong on climate change. What, then, in the name of rising sea levels is Silverstein doing spending even one campaign dollar (that, judging from his email requests for money, he doesn’t have) trying to convince voters that “Inhofe’s wasteful spending in Washington is devastating our economy”?
Missed opportunity, line one …
In the Top 100 reasons not to like Jim Inhofe, that’s coming in at 117.
Missed opportunity, line two …
Inhofe’s Democratic opponent in the November election, Matt Silverstein of Bixby, said he supports the Second Amendment and the right of Oklahomans to hunt, but that the pigeon shoot didn’t appear to be hunting. “That was more like shooting fish in a barrel,” Silverstein said. “Personally for me, I enjoy hunting, but I don’t think I would have enjoyed that.”
For the love of Wayne LaPierre, your enjoyment of hunting and support of the Second Amendment has fuck-all to do with Inhofe’s barbaric slaughter of birds a few weeks back.
I don’t think I would have enjoyed that?
That’s all you got? That’s your way of denouncing the carnage? I’m sure the pigeons that got away will be touched.
(Bonus points if you can tell me which Oklahoma 2nd District congressman who owns a plumbing company with red trucks was also there.)
Back in July, during a mostly watchable interview with KOKH TV-25 in Oklahoma City, Silverstein read from a cheat sheet, extolled his work as an independent investment planner—where he says he makes sure Oklahoma families are investing “conservatively”—yeah, we get it, you’re as subtle as a management fee—and then told anchor Mike Brooks, “Regardless of our differences, Senator Inhofe and I are brothers in the Lord.”
Jesus wept. And the rest of us got pissed.
Sen. Inhofe and his political supporters slaughtered more than 1,000 live pigeons, while spectators drank beer under a tent and a mariachi band played. The fundraiser was to support the “Friends of Jim Inhofe and the Fund For A Conservative Future.”
He then joked they still had blood on their clothes from last year’s event.
This is your ‘Brother in the Lord,’ pal.
Another thing: Jews do not say “Brothers in the Lord.” It’s not in our rhetorical rhythm. It is a Christian construct, so, his use of it reeks of calculation— a cynical sop to audiences who might be leery of the Silverstein surname—leery of Jews.
“He is not my enemy,” he said of Inhofe, “he’s my opponent.”
Sound familiar?
“I have said this before, but it bears repeating in this instance: as brothers in Christ, Congressman Lankford and I are competitors, not enemies.”7
That was T.W. Shannon speaking about his opponent James Lankford last June.
Silverstein pinched a GOP/Christian Kumbaya talking point and made it his own.
Lovely.
What kind of Democrat does that?
News flash to Oklahoma Democrats: you run as a Democrat in Oklahoma, you’ll lose; you run as a Republican, you’ll lose. So how about, since it doesn’t matter anyway, run with integrity—stop sucking up to people who aren’t going to vote for you anyway?
On that point, and do with this what you will, Silverstein no longer even mentions his Jewish heritage on his website.
This is what you’ll find on MEET MATT8 today …
Matt’s grandmother was a Choctaw Native American who was thrown in to a government boarding school where she was beaten if she spoke her native Choctaw language. Her stories shaped his philosophy that government cannot be allowed to become too big or too powerful and that’s why he is a strong supporter of our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.
But click through the News link on the site and you’ll find this, dated July 22, about a speaking engagement in Grove9:
A member of the B’nai Emunah Jewish Synagogue in Tulsa, Silverstein said his Jewish faith, along with his Choctaw Native American, gives him a unique perspective on government – including the second amendment. One side of his family escaped the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, while another side was removed from their lands and forced to walk along the Trail of Tears to the Indian Territory. Because of his ancestors’ experience, Silverstein said he “cherishes individual rights including the right to bear arms.”
What happened, we break up? Did Native American score higher than Jew with the focus groups? Did they like the idea of an armed Pokni standing up to government language bullies more than they did Polish Jews traipsing across Europe to avoid murderous Nazis? Look, you want to jettison Judaism from the campaign, jettison it, but you can’t use our stuff anymore, so no more Holocaust references. Defend your cockamamie Second Amendment rationale some other way.
Oklahoma candidates talk about faith too much, anyway, and, worse, get rewarded for such nebulosity. The Tulsa World,10 for instance, in endorsing Representative James Lankford for Senate said, “He is also an individual of faith and unquestioned family values.” (Great, but he also voted to cut SNAP benefits11 which a lot of families value.)
Lankford, at least, doesn’t play Three-Card Monte with his faith, doesn’t adopt another religious persona to attract voters. Silverstein cops to being Jewish at a fundraiser, but not on his home page; he highlights it in a press release, but not during an interview on an OKC FOX affiliate. It’s obvious, it’s troubling, it’s part of the reason his campaign is deader than one of Inhofe’s pigeons. He can’t decide if he wants to be Tonto Goldberg, or just Tonto.
1 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2014/senate/ok/oklahoma_senate_inhofe_vs_silverstein-5123.html: Oklahoma Senate - Inhofe vs. Silverstein
2 http://www.mattforoklahoma.com/matts-3-point-debt-reduction-plan/: Matt’s 3-Point Debt Reduction Plan
3 http://www.ecorazzi.com/2014/09/25/us-senator-involved-in-killing-of-hundreds-of-pigeons/: US Senator Involved in Killing of Hundreds of Pigeons
4 http://www.fox19.com/story/26610011/senators-live-pigeon-shoot-draws-criticism: Senator's live pigeon shoot draws criticism
5 http://www.sharkonline.org/index.php/about-shark/shark-press-room/1517-pigeon-shoot-scandal-widens-rep-markwayne-mullin-identified-as-2nd-oklahoma-congressman-blasting-live-pigeons: Pigeon Shoot Scandal Widens: Rep. Markwayne Mullin Identified as 2nd Oklahoma Congressman Blasting Live Pigeons
6 http://www.okcfox.com/video?clipId=10639708&autostart=true: Matt Silverstein, Democratic Nominee for U.S. Senate
7 http://newsok.com/t.w.-shannon-says-outside-groups-should-stick-to-issues-records-in-u.s.-senate-race/article/4884522: T.W. Shannon says outside groups should stick to issues, records in U.S. Senate race
8 http://www.mattforoklahoma.com/meet-matt/: Meet Matt
9 http://www.mattforoklahoma.com/2014/07/22/democratic-candidate-for-senate-to-stump-in-grove-next-week/: Democratic candidate for Senate to stump in Grove next week
10 http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/editorialboard/tulsa-world-editorial-for-lankford/article_f23126ac-4dcb-54cf-9199-88b934b5b38f.html?_dc=916777622420.3408: Tulsa World Editorial: For Lankford
11 http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-liberal/2013/09/house-republicans-celebrate-war-on-poverty-by-gutting-the-food-stamps-program-2468872.html: House Republicans Celebrate War On Poverty By Gutting The Food Stamps Program
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