August 21, 2012

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach runs for Congress

Dave Weigel writes in Slate on the GOP candidate for a New Jersey House of Representatives seat:
The bolt-black SmartCar parks, and out walks Rabbi Shmuley Boteach—spiritual adviser to Michael Jackson, author of Kosher Sex, candidate for U.S. Congress.

It's a Democratic leaning district, but Sheldon Adelson's $500,000 donation perhaps gives Shmuley a fighting chance. 

iSteve first became Shmuley-conscious in 2008 during the Nine Days Wonder over the rabbi's nephew Efraim Diveroli, the 22-year-old rogue arms dealer who fulfilled his $198,000,000 contract with the Pentagon to supply the Afghan Army with ammunition using illegal Chinese surplus bought off shady Albanian officials.

Last year, I found out Shmuley lives next door to a house in New Jersey owned by Libyan Colonel Muamar Gaddafi, then still kicking. Back before Qathaffee's unpleasant demise, I pitched:
C'mon, this can't miss as a situation for a sit-com: Michael Jackson's rabbi (played by Billy Crystal) and an attention-starved Arab tyrant in exile (Mickey Rourke) squabble over their backyard fence in suburban New Jersey. Then, the rabbi's arms dealer nephew, Efraim Diveroli (Eli Roth), has to move in with his uncle as part of his parole and he gets into wacky international intrigue with the Kaddafi Kids (Kal Penn and Sarah Silverman).

But, Rabbi Boteach Goes to Washington sounds promising as well.

22 comments:

  1. The Congress is literally becoming the Knesset...

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  2. New Jersey politics are too crooked to be really able to predict with any accuracy. But the district was gerrymandered to be a Democratic vote sink (New , Jersey has a unique system of gerrymandering by an independent commission). So I wouldn't get too excited, except as an indicator of Slate's editorial direction.

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  3. Aaron in Israel8/21/12, 9:05 PM

    My favorite quote from the article: “He’s an incredibly busy man, but he graciously takes my calls.”

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  4. Oh, man.

    It's Steve Sailer's world. We just live in it.

    -Jinx the Cat

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  5. Steve, would be interested in your take on Pascrell-Rothman fight in that district.

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  6. Is this really the same guy who headed up the L'Chaim Society at Oxford University about twenty years ago? If he is, then I have had the misfortune to meet him on a couple of occasions. A nasty, vane little twerp whose only real talent is self-advertisement. He caused a lot of trouble when he was there even though his connection to the university was tangential to say the least. If he gets to be a congressman then there really is no hope. His loyalties are absolutely not to the whole American people.

    22pp22

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  7. Yeah, that was Shmuley at Oxford. He never forgets to remind people he had some connection with Oxford, like Jay Gatsby would do.

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  8. i remember Shmuley "Noteach" Boteach!

    from years back... he was some hack online feminist acolyte, pretending to be a Wise Rabbi dispensing wholesome "religious" advice

    wow america must be getting desperate if theyre scraping the bottom of satan's synagogue to dredge up ole Noteach

    he's a liar, a coward, vain, grasping for worldly acclaim, them's the positives

    this guy's like... the antimoses or something

    fit right in at the inbreeding congress!

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  9. "Yeah, that was Shmuley at Oxford. He never forgets to remind people he had some connection with Oxford, like Jay Gatsby would do."

    He was there with fellow New Jersey resident Cory Booker -- and you can "book a conversation with them".

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  10. That Gaddafi trope could be called "Wacky! Tacky! Semites!"


    Seriously though... I first encountered Smuley when I saw him get his ass handed to him by Christopher Hitchens. It's on youtube and worth an hour and a half of your time.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMYL8sF7bQ

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  11. Having criticized Steve's sense of humor on a previous thread, I have to say his sitcom idea is pretty funny.

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  12. Is this really the same guy who headed up the L'Chaim Society at Oxford University about twenty years ago?

    Of course it's the same guy. Otherwise I'm forced to contemplate a world with two guys named "Rabbi Shmuley Boteach."

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  13. Great! With Shmuley representing my interests in Congress I can rest assured.

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  14. It is a very safe Democratic district, and Boteach has absolutely no chance of winning. Voting age population in the district by race: 31.2% Hispanic, 9.9% black, and 11.9% Asian. Republicans seldom win seats in New Jersey that are over 30% minority in voting age population, and basically never win seats over 40% minority. This district is 53% minority, and hence a very safe Democratic district.

    - New Jersy Republican (politically active, member of my Republican county committee)

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  15. Interesting to see how Jews lose their maniacal obsession with "separation of church and state" in certain specific instances.

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  16. I had an art teacher named Smiley B.O. Teach. Could he be the game guy?

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  17. Separation of Church and State simply means Congress shall establish no State Religion. It does not mean no religion at all. It was meant to prevent the US from becoming an official Anglican nation, like the UK, or Catholic, like Spain, or Methodist as some proposed. The Founding Fathers opened and closed both the Continental and Constitutional Congresses with prayers. And that went hand in hand with George Washington's letter to some Rhode Island synagogue.

    Shmuley Boteach would fit right in with Congress. He's got no chance of winning, but he'd be just like any creature of Tammany Hall, or Dennis Hastert, or Nancy Pelosi, or the Biden family, the semi-hereditary parasites with a talent for self-promotion and adherence to the Oprah-esque formal received hypocrisies of the day. Just like the Gilded Age. Boteach is proof positive of Twain's words that there is no native criminal class in America save Congress.

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  18. "Anonymous said...

    Interesting to see how Jews lose their maniacal obsession with "separation of church and state" in certain specific instances."

    As it happens, Boteach is one of those jews (Chabad/lubavitch)whom the separation jews (devoutly secular)are forever hauling into court over the horror of erecting a menora on public property or some such. Despite the conspiratorial leanings of many commenters here the "jews" are not really all that monolithic. We are obnoxious in many different ways!

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  19. "Yeah, that was Shmuley at Oxford. He never forgets to remind people he had some connection with Oxford, like Jay Gatsby would do."

    As I undersand it, he had no official position at Oxford. He just turned up there and statrted telling the university that a donation by a German family would only be acceptable if it was earmarked for Jewish causes.

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  20. Interesting to see how Jews lose their maniacal obsession with "separation of church and state" in certain specific instances

    I'm no fan of Boteach, but why shouldn't an ordained rabbi hold political office? An ordained Episcopal priest (John Danforth) was U.S. senator from Missouri from 1976 to 1995.

    John Danforth

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  21. "Interesting to see how Jews lose their maniacal obsession with "separation of church and state" in certain specific instances"

    I'm no fan of Boteach, but why shouldn't an ordained rabbi hold political office? An ordained Episcopal priest (John Danforth) was U.S. senator from Missouri from 1976 to 1995


    Are Episcopalians "maniacally obsessed" with "separation of Church and State"?

    As it happens, Boteach is one of those jews (Chabad/lubavitch)whom the separation jews (devoutly secular)are forever hauling into court over the horror of erecting a menora on public property or some such. Despite the conspiratorial leanings of many commenters here the "jews" are not really all that monolithic. We are obnoxious in many different ways!

    Lol. I've read tales of Christmas trees coming down and menoras going up at the same time, in the same place. In any event, I don't (necessarily) doubt you at your word, but even if secular Jews are pursuing SoCaS without prejudice, it still amounts to the Jewish minority getting its way over the Christian majority; something Jews would go ballistic over if the situation were reversed in, say, Israel (the very idea is laughable).

    PS, find a better class of ANTI-SEMITE!!! Nobody thinks Jews are monolithic.

    As I undersand it, he had no official position at Oxford. He just turned up there and statrted telling the university that a donation by a German family would only be acceptable if it was earmarked for Jewish causes.

    Cute. I can just see me now, Father Svigor in Tel Aviv telling the university that a donation by a Russian Jewish family would only be acceptable if it was earmarked for Russian Christian causes.

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