Florida’s Sun-Sentinel is reporting that Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) will announce tomorrow that he’s resigning from Congress:
It’s not clear what job he’ll be taking, though Spencer Ackerman at The Washington Independent speculates it could be U.S. Ambassador to Israel or head of USAID (though both of those, it seems, would be “working for the Obama administration”, counter to Sun-Sentinel’s report).
Losing Wexler will be a loss to progressive Democrats in the House given his historic tenacity on any number of issues, from taking on the nonsense of the Clinton Impeachment, to fighting for the responsible Bush Impeachment, to fighting for electoral integrity in the state of Florida. That’ll be one less bulldog with a “D” by his name, unfortunately, in a House that could use a lot more of ’em.
UPDATE: Miami Herald’s coverage is now here and similarly points to the issues we mentioned above. They offer no additional details, however, on either Wexler’s future plans or the specific reason for his surprise resignation.
LATER UPDATE: Miami Herald updates their report (same link as the above), to report: “In a conference call Tuesday night with Democratic leaders, Wexler said he will become director of the Washington-based Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.”
UPDATE 10/14/09: Wexler’s official statement is now here. Though questions are still percolating as to the real reasons behind this move. TPM offers a round-up of a few opinions of note, the general consensus so far being his interest in helping to move Obama’s Mideast peace effort forward. But the question of why he couldn’t have done so from his “dream-job” (as he described it back in January) in Congress still remains a bit of a mystery at this hour.
Wexler showing his leadership skill?
I will shut up now and filter and delete all his email nonsense flooding my inbox over the years.
Good for him!
Shows he’s not going to let himself turn into a corrupt bastard.
Wexler just went way up in my estimation.
You know 99, I thought that too. Too bad more don’t resign, over the failure to regulate the monetary system. But I said it the way I did, and I am sticking to it.
Oh, yes. “Good for him!” What do Congressional Democrats need with members who actually have spines, who actually try to force them to do the right thing every now again?! Yeesh.
What do Congressional Democrats need with members who actually have spines, who actually try to force them to do the right thing every now again?! Yeesh.
I agree Brad, maybe I am looking at this wrong.
On the one hand I think all of the oath breakers must resign right now. (they won’t, and we can’t hold them accountable via voting for obvious reasons with the chain of custody problem) On the other hand, what a waste of time an energy to grace someone with a seat and have them find God, or other nonsense, and just go on a permanent field trip. Which is why I poked some deserved sarcastic fun at his horrid leadership skills.
Phil, wise up. He’s not leaving because he wants to.
He’s leaving because he’s being forced to.
As I’ve said before the gloves are coming
off. The progressives have somewhat hampered the corpocrats and for that temerity they will be hammered into submission bit by bit and one by one.
Has it gotten as bad as ZapKitty insinuates? I’m very disappointed with Wexler’s decision. He’s giving up a lot of earned seniority and influence, hard to come by for a liberal, and more to the point COUNTED ON by the progressive movement. Granted, US Congress is a corrupt and rogue organization, but his departure makes it more so.
This is not good news.
Yes, good for him, whether it’s because he can’t stomach the futility of it, or, as zap so sagely states, because the gloves have come off and he’s bowing out before someone creams him for his stubbornness.
You don’t GET to be a good public servant anymore, Brad. What do you need? A boulder to fall on you? You go in thinking you’re going to be good, but they MAKE you stop being good. You can only go so far, and no further. If yer not Dennis Kucinich you don’t get to do the right things. Dennis doesn’t even get to do them 100% of the time. If yer stubborn about it, you get McKinneyed or Wellstoned. You are allowed to make noises like you are there for your district and then back down… you get to take turns not backing down, but losing anyway, but ONLY if you take your turn doing the intensely unpopular thing with some completely bogus excuse.
That is plain as day. It’s done over and over and over and over again. Smell the coffee. Our government is broken.
I’m glad for Wexler.
Conyers? Castrated.
Waxman? Castrated.
Barney Frank? Sold.
What the hell are they going to do to Marcy Kaptur after her performance on Moyers last week?
McDermott was disemboweled too a while back
He seemed like a man on a mission in congress, and this is quite shocking to me, and it seems like there’s more to it than is being let on.
Wexler is progressive in everything but the Middle East. Where are the critical thinkers when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Middle Eeast peace? What a joke! Wexler is one of the many obstructionists in Congress who defends the expansion of settlements. Not that anyone taking his place is likely to acknowledge that there can be no peace in the Middle East until the military and settler occupation of Palestinian Territory and the siege of Gaza ends. He could at least stick around long enough to fight for health care reform. Anyway, Alan Grayson is the star progressive in Florida and the U.S. I won’t miss Wexler’s arrogant self-promotion.
The Congressional Caucus on US-Turkish Relations is going to lose a co-chair.
BOO-HOOO-HOOOOO.
I guess the Turkish government is going to have to engage in more bribery, blackmail, and espionage in order to boost the caucus by at least one more member.
Can Bernie Sanders be far behind?
This is just too weird. Why the hell would he RESIGN from Congress to do this? He couldn’t just wait until his term is up in about a year?
Mizgin,
I’m also concerned about Wexler’s Turkish ties. My Armenian friend reminds me of this a lot and was wondering if this was a “Hastert” move when I just let him know about it a short time ago. Though I’d like to think Wexler’s not tied to the “bad” entities of Turkish politics, and that there are some good ones there, since I lived there myself and do know many decent Turks, I’m concerned about whether he’s seeing the Jan Schakowsky situation as a warning to him that he might want to get the scrutiny turned off on his ties in case there might be anything that he’d want to avoid. I do think he’s a decent politician. Just hoping that he’s not fallen under “bad influences” that Shakowsky also might have fallen under too.
I made a point to ask whether Sibel mentioned his name when she was being deposed here during her deposition for the Krikorian/Schmidt lawsuit, and it didn’t. Though that doesn’t mean that he’s not gotten himself into potentially compromising situations since 2001 too which Sibel didn’t have access to.
I’d earlier wondered if he had an extra incentive when he took the lead on trying to go after Bush and Cheney in the efforts of impeachment investigations to help steer any sort of scrutiny of corruption ties to him, if that gang was the nucleus of this Turkish corruption effort.
Pardon me, but wasn’t Wexler waxing awfully sympathetic to the Gazans under siege recently? Maybe I’m just befuddled and confusing him with someone else, but isn’t this the elephant in the room?
If the JPost’s hypocrisy here is any indication, and Wexler’s continued emphasis on the need to take politically unpopular stands and then defend them in order to achieve the two state solution [hour-long talk on 6 October re this here], I’d say it’s better to resign than let himself in for the besmirchment campaign that may well have been gearing up for him.
Plus, in the hour-long talk on 6 October linked here, Wexler is irrevocably stumping for Obama’s positions and strengths, against Israel Lobby criticisms… with emphasis on Obama’s brilliant ability to get Russia to change its stance on Iran sanctions… which, as of today, seems not so much.
If you never watched The Israel Lobby, I think you should take out another hour to watch it. It’s just nuts to underestimate their influence in our government… and Wexler has been trying to help Obama walk the razor’s edge and it’s very possible that he’s got a price to pay for that now.
Maybe I just want to think Wexler hasn’t been as big an Israel bootlicker as he has sounded. Maybe I just want him to actually be a man who wishes to use his efforts toward positive ends without the constant concessions to thugs and pit vipers.
I’m not finding evidence of his sympathy for Gazans, and I’m learning how vocally pro-Israel he has been, even as they are in the middle of slaughtering babies, which makes me want to spit in his eye, but it does look to me as though he really may have pissed off the wrong people in the lobby.
That’s what I was thinking too 99, he stepped on AIPAC’s tootsies.
Sooner or later it will come out, but not right away.
I had to look again about McDermott…he had to pay that fukin Boner like 1.2 million bucks. (on wiki)
This is truly disappointing. There are so many issues outside of Middle East peace, like single-payer health care, for which Wexler’s presence remains vital.
While his reasons for leaving don’t seem to add up, I, for one, feel it inappropriate to speculate about such matters as a connection to the Turkish lobby, absent evidence to support it.
We progressives have enough on our plate in trying to expand knowledge of the hard evidence presented by Sibel Edmonds without clouding such matters with rumor and innuendo.
I’m with Zapkitty. He wouldn’t fall into line, so he was forced out. Progressives are either neutered, silenced, threatened, forced out or ejected in rigged elections. And don’t get me started on small planes. It’s my guess that Wexler thought Obusha really was about change, and when he realized he’d been had, that was it for him.
Cascadiance, you may want to check this report by Luke Rosiak at the Sunlight Foundation. Your Armenian friend might be interested in that, too.
It would appear that Wexler is deep in debt and he “was a hub for lobbyists working for other nations”“far more so than any other member, including his colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He was contacted 173 times in a recent year-long period analyzed by Sunlight, followed by Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., (105 times), a former whip, and Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., (100 times), a fellow committee member.”
Of those 173 times contacted, 57 of those were for the Turkish Embassy or for the Government of Turkey, and we know what Sibel Edmonds has said about Blunt and Burton.
The debt issue reminds me of the situation of William Cohen, founder of The Cohen Group. The Cohen Group is not only involved with DLA Piper, but also with the American Turkish Council.
Let’s see who Wexler’s lobbying for a year from now.
Mizgin,
I did see this report amongst others the other night. I believe our good “friend” Marc Grossman is the Vice Chairman of the Cohen Group too.
I hope that he’s not in trouble, because like others in this thread also feel, I think his heart is in the right place, perhaps as Janet Schakowsky’s is as well, though it’s really too premature to make him out to be a corrupt individual. And as I have noted, I and other friends of mine hae our own ties to Turkey, and my Dad has probably closer ties than I’d care for when I lived earlier in Thailand to Stan Sheinbaum’s Vietnam Project, which none of us probably want to have been any where near earlier too. So, it is possible for both of them to still be on the “right side” spiritually, even if they are closer to the bad guys than we’d care to see.
This sudden move outta no where at a time like this makes no sense , I think there is a reason alright and it isn’t pretty . Go to work Brad .