From the publisher

Weiner and Spitzer. Enough said.

Will New Yorkers elect “Carlos Danger” as Mayor?

Considering how quickly the scandal-tarred Anthony Weiner rose in the polls, before this week’s revelations, we shouldn’t discount it. And Eliot Spitzer as Comptroller? Also possible. There’s a thought afloat that “character” doesn’t count, that instead, we should weight a candidate’s “competence” when voting. Yet both character and competence count.

While our leaders may be imperfect, we expect them to strive to improve, to sincerely repent their sins and accept the necessity of paying a price for going off the derech and leading others astray. Moshe served G-d and his people with every fiber of his being, yet for a seemingly inconsequential misstep (when measured against all his sacrifices and successes) he was denied his life’s dream of entering the land.

We need not compare Weiner or Spitzer – or any contemporary politician — to Moshe, to realize that people like Weiner and Spitzer are unfit for a leadership role and are, to the extent that they are members of our tribe, a special embarrassment to us.

The failings of Weiner and Spitzer go beyond sexual indiscretions, sins which are almost universally discounted by secular society today. Their mean-spiritedness and lack of moral compass have been demonstrated throughout their political lives — in Weiner’s case going back to his first race, for City Council, in Flatbush in 1991. He was a bad character then, he’s a worse actor now.

As we enter Elul and focus on personal teshuvah, we are attuned to our own shortcomings. Just as we strive to be temperate in dealing with the shortcomings of others, so may Hashem be compassionate in dealing with our own.

Voters are nevertheless charged with using their best judgment to elect leaders who can be expected to serve the interests of their communities; we pray each week that Hashem offers our leaders guidance and protection in reaching that goal.

New York Democrats have a tough call this September, compelled to choose among a less than stellar field of mayoral candidates; in the comptroller’s race, without Spitzer, there is no choice at all (before Spitzer’s entry, there was only one candidate).

We’ve been adequately warned that Weiner and Spitzer have only their own desires at heart, and their election would presage more misery. They have repeatedly betrayed our trust and do not deserve our personal or communal endorsement.

Helen Thomas

Our columnist Jeff Dunetz recounts this week the anti-Semitic slurs uttered by Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent who died on Saturday.

Thomas’ declaration that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine,” and “go home to Poland, Germany and America, and everywhere else,” was brought to light by Rabbi David Nesenoff, who subsequently served as publisher of The Jewish Star.

Dunetz discusses how the general media, in reporting Thomas’ passing, focused on her role as a pioneering woman journalist in Washington and as dean of the White House press corps; the media gave short shrift to her later-day anti-Semitism which, when referenced at all, was placed in the presumably more palatable context of criticism of Israeli policies.

Make no mistake: Thomas’ utterances, which continued beyond her famous career-ending “get the hell out of Palestine” quote to include a range of vile anti-Semitic slurs with no connection to the Israeli state, marks her as no friend of Jews or of truth.

Yet a complete accounting of her life would describe both her rise in Washington — beginning when John Kennedy was president — and her inglorious and ultimately unrepentant fall. Thomas’ story is a lesson in how the scourge of anti-Semitism continues to root in seemingly intelligent people, some of whom, because of their leadership roles, have special influence in spreading this malignancy.