Watching the Paul Manafort show has become bizarre.  While it is true that he did slimy things and got caught, it is interesting to see the cavalcade of pundits decrying the fact that a nearly 70-year old guy who is in a wheelchair only got four years in prison for his non-violent crimes.  What is not ever addressed is that Manafort was just one of a number of DC lobbyists who routinely represent odious people from around the world.  It was no secret who his clients were and yet he was clearly accepted into the power elite in DC with no noses twitching in disgust.  It is also obvious that if he had never hooked up with our President, he would still be promoting his skills abroad to dictators and bringing into his deals his Democratic lobbying colleagues as he did on Ukraine.

The other part of this that is distasteful is the hand wringing over the “light” sentence.  Repeatedly it is pointed out that people who committed lesser offenses but who are poor and/or people of color are treated worse.  That is true.  This same judge gave a longer sentence to Congressman William Jefferson who took $400,000 in bribes while Manafort his millions to avoid taxes.  There are two relevant points here. First, Jefferson was an elected official and, as such, it is fair to hold him to a higher standard.  That may not explain the disparity from this judge, but I believe it is fair.  Secondly, our criminal justice system is inequitable and, in many ways, broken.  By giving Manafort more time, does that help?  Actually, the shorter sentence helped focus more people on how dysfunctional our system is for people with no money to defend themselves.

And, on a different note, the noise surrounding Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments on all sides is disheartening.  Her comments were accurately seen as reflecting anti-Semitic attitudes.  Not necessarily by her, but when you repeat bigoted tropes, you own them – especially if you are a public official (see above).  The fact that the Democratic Party could not bring a resolution condemning anti-Semitism to the floor of the House of Representatives is ominous. It is perfectly legitimate for members of Congress to criticize the policy of the Israeli government.  I am appalled by Netanyahu’s latest embrace of racism.  What is not acceptable is to fall into the rabbit hole of anti-Semitic tropes that have been around for centuries.  When you do that, you are in league with our President when he said of the Charlottesville demonstrations featuring torch-bearing people chanting the Nazi slogan “blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us,” there were good people on both sides.  No there weren’t.  Falling into the trap of using anti-Semitic slogans to criticize Israel makes one no better than him. Something for my friends on the left to keep in mind.