Rose all over the place standing up to radical colleagues
COURIER L 32 IFE, APRIL 26–MAY 2, 2019 PS
The national Democrat
dilemma of how to handle
the radicals in their
ranks is playing out right here
in Brooklyn and Staten Island
with Rep. Max Rose, who campaigned
and won as a “moderate.”
Whether it is Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green
New Deal,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s
effort to “impeach this m----------
--,“ as she said referring to the
president, or the continued outlandish
comments of Rep. Ilhan
Omar, there is a battle within
the Democratic Party. It is between
their far-left radical base
whose clout seems to be growing,
and the purported moderates
who won swing districts,
such as Max Rose.
Unfortunately, our freshman
congressman has been all
over the place in standing up to
his extremist colleagues. It’s almost
as if he has multiple personalities.
The most recent example is
his confl icting responses to the
comments made by Rep. Ilhan
Omar (D–Minn) at a Council
of American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) event. As we learned
when this speech became public
earlier this month, Omar
said that CAIR was needed because
“all of us were starting
to lose access to our civil liberties”
because on 9-11 “some people
did something.”
The New York Post placed
this quote on its front page
April 11 and many were immediately
outraged by Omar’s remarks
— except Democrats. We
heard silence or excuses about
the quote being taken out of
context. If there was ever a time
for common sense Democrats
at any level of government, especially
in New York City, to
stand up against the extremism
in their ranks, this would have
been the time to speak up.
Jimmy Riches, the father of
a local FDNY fi refi ghter killed
on Sept. 11, summed up the local
Democratic response by
saying, “They can’t deal with
reality — Schumer, Nadler,
all the New York politicians
were quiet. They didn’t say one
thing…She Ilhan Omar owes
us an apology.”
Amazingly, far-left organizers
in Rose’s Brooklyn district
are actually calling on Yemeni
businesses to boycott and not
sell the Post because it had the
audacity to relay Omar’s quote
to New Yorkers on its pages.
There was a time not too long
ago that all New York City leaders,
regardless of party stripes,
would have condemned these
comments, which were clearly
meant to minimize or brush off
the tragic events of 9-11, where
almost 3,000 Americans were
killed.
In a follow-up story the next
day in the Post after its cover
page about Omar was published,
Rose could not bring
himself to condemn Omar, instead
his quote was “we need to
uphold our civil liberties.” This
actually echoed her comments
made at CAIR. One would assume
someone who was an offi
cer in a combat zone would
have a little more backbone.
After hearing a backlash
for his silence from his constituents,
Rose later appeared
on the Fox News Channel with
Dana Perino. He fi nally said
what many thought the second
we heard Omar’s comments,
and what he should have said
on day one — her remarks were
“insensitive” and “offensive.”
The crickets coming from
local Democrats has caused
Staten Island Republican Councilman
and Public Advocate
candidate Joe Borelli to introduce
a resolution in the City
Council denouncing Omar’s
remarks. I wonder how many
Councilmembers will vote for
this? We shouldn’t hold our
breath because in this age of polarized
politics, common sense
goes out the window. But, if it
was a Council resolution condemning
President Trump for
something he did when he was
a teenager, Democrats would be
all aboard.
This wasn’t Rose’s fi rst time
twisting himself like a pretzel
to not anger the left in dealing
with Omar. In February, she
tweeted that support for Israel
was “all about the Benjamins,
baby,” and accused Jewish-
American leaders of having a
“dual loyalty” to America and
Israel. Initially, Rose accepted
Omar’s half-hearted apology
and was ready to move on. Once
again, after his silence sparked
outrage from constituents, he
had to go back to the drawing
board.
At Rose’s March 19 town
hall meeting at the Council of
Jewish Organizations of Staten
Island, he said “You sent me to
Congress to take responsibility.
You sent me to Congress to
have your back…and I failed
you. Because I know that Congresswoman
Ilhan Omar’s
comments really caused you all
a lot of pain by bringing up anti-
Semitic tropes.”
However, Rose still refuses
to join calls to have Omar removed
from the House Foreign
Affairs Committee.
Here is the unfortunate
political reality: Rose doesn’t
want to be too harsh on Omar
because he fears the reaction
of far-left voters and their rejection
of him in a tight race next
year. But what about all those
that lost friends and family on
9-11?
Bob Capano has worked for
Brooklyn Republican and Democrat
elected offi cials, and has
been an adjunct political science
professor for more than 15 years.
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano