Be careful where you’re sending your money when you buy that kick-ass piece of Harris or Walz campaign Merch. You may feel good wearing it, but has any of your $$ gone to the campaign?

I’m impressed and delighted that Kamala Harris, and more recently the Harris/Walz campaign, has raised over one-half billion dollars over the past month, since Joe Biden bowed out as head of the Democratic ticket for 2024.

I’ve made three contributions myself since Kamala became the candidate, splitting one with Gabby Giffords anti-gun violence organization, making one directly to the Harris Presidential campaign, and with another donation purchasing a “White Dudes for Harris,” baseball cap, immediately following the Zoom call with tens of thousands of white “dudes.”   

I purchased the baseball cap right away because I wanted to wear it proudly into Trump country on a trip to Southern Florida, and an upcoming trip to another red state, Utah.  Even though the cost for the cap was $35, I was happy to pay it since the event organizers were clear that all of the proceeds went directly to the Harris campaign.  That was my one requirement for purchasing any “merch.”

In the meantime, we’ve been getting bombarded with a barrage of emails, Facebook postings, and Instagram ads, from nearly two dozen websites and digital storefronts hawking Harris headgear, clothing, stickers, signs and other campaign merchandise.  Only the official  Harris campaign sites—KamalaHarris.com, and “Kamala HQ”  confirm that your “purchase is a donation to the Harris Victory Fund.”

I did a bit of investigating of many other swag pushers and the results were startling:

First, despite selling every imaginable piece of Harris/Walz merchandise, very few of the companies gave ANY proceeds to the Harris Walz campaign.

 Common among many of the 21 sites I researched was the ubiquitous and meaningless statement that “every purchase supports the cause and helps keep the conversation going.”  Huh?  None of those said how they did that. 

Presumably, the purchaser is supposed to feel good about “supporting the cause” by wearing some clever statement or graphic on a tee-shirt or hat, which, “helps keep the conversation going.”  You expected more, like maybe your money helping Harris win?  Among those entities making that donation-less boast were:  Wearsalive, Justnowmn, Strostrke, & OESOWNACCORD.  Most carried the exact same merchandise, and some can be found right now by simply opening up your Facebook Page and scrolling for 60 seconds.

Secondly, and just as smart to avoid, were the sales-heavy sites which simply used a popular Kamala hat image, or Walz camo garb, and gave you a link to click on. Included among those were:  Our Strong Voices, Dem Days (yes, it was really their name and had absolutely NO connection to the Democratic Party or Democratic campaigns), Trendlifts, Assessmeny, Hear Our Voice (or HOV) Store, Red, White & Blue, and two others that could pass for subdivisions of each with similar logos Shop Blue Wave, and Blue Wave.   For all anyone knows, some of those sites could be owned by the Trump Organization to capitalize on the overnight outpouring of support for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.   Again, no proceeds of any sales were pledged directly to the Harris/Walz campaign, or any Democratic campaign.

In the third group of gold graspers, were a few that smelled like Act Blue merchandising arms.  Anyone who has contributed to any Democratic political campaign since 2004, when Act Blue was founded, is familiar with Act Blue. My “favorite” part of the Act Blue donation form comes at the end of your contribution line where the company has the audacity to ask for an additional “TIP” of 10% of the donation for simply processing your gift.  Such shameless chutzpah, especially to expect a “handling fee,” from small dollar donors.

Get ready to accept the new political merchandise middle men, who allegedly pass on “100 per cent of proceeds to Act Blue.”  Those include Fairyootd, KeepAtt, and a mixed bag from Structurlly, which in some promos says that “100% of its profits on shirts goes to the H/W campaign” and in other promos says “they support Act Blue.”  The link inside Structurlly’s  home page which leads you to Harris/Walz campaign stuff, is headed: “VOTE BLUE.”  No where on its site does it state how much of the proceeds actually go directly to the Harris/Walz campaign, and how much is paid to Act Blue, or if it includes a “tip” for their services.

The fourth and final circle of Harris hot-merch hawkers is nothing short of astonishing to behold, simply on the basis of their flagrant sleight-of-hand and flim-flamming of Harris/Walz fans.

One, with the appealing political name of “Balance of Power,” claims to be a progressive leaning site which states, in print, that “all of it’s employees are die-hard Democrats.”  When I asked, via a chat service, how much of their proceeds goes  directly to the Harris/Walz campaign, Balance of Power’s representative replied, “We are committed to Kamala as President. Our Facebook page is devoted to promoting her. We encourage you to donate as much as you can, too.”   Then they referred me to the kamalaharris.com site. 

I responded that “I’ve already donated to the campaign three times.  I want to know how much of YOUR proceeds are donated.”  In response they referred me to a section of their website, which admitted that NONE of their proceeds from the sale of Harris merchandise goes directly to the Harris/Walz campaign but that “As private citizens we also donate to the Presidential Campaign and several Democratic campaigns.”   Kind of like trickle down economics; the more they make, the more they can give. Progressive?

Still, “Balance of Power,” wasn’t even the most unabashed abuser of the Harris/Walz Merch wave, nor the most deceptive marketing I found.  That  distinction belonged to an entity named, “Democratic Merch Shop,” which uses the capital “D” in a circle logo of the Democratic National Committee to reel in its politically unconscious fashionistas.  I became curious as to what kind of “official” site this was when I read it’s marketing statement on Facebook:  “Freedom is important, but freedom in style is even more important.”  Somehow, I didn’t think that was what Beyonce meant when she wrote her “Freedom” anthem, that’s become the theme song of Harris’ campaign.

I clicked on the “chat” button, and was surprised to get the person who told me he (or she) had “recently bought the store.”  I asked the owner of the “Democratic Merch Shop,” if the site was the Official Merchandise site of the National Democratic Party.

The response (which I took a screen shot of) again, surprised me:  “I am not a part of the official merchandise for the DNC. And yes, I am genuine in doing promotions for her (Harris’) campaign.  I just launched my store 2 days ago.”

To clarify my confusion, I asked the owner of the Democratic Merch Shop: “Why do you use the official Democratic “D” logo if you are not the official Democratic Merch site?”

The owner insisted that the logo was “not copyright protected,” while “this image may still be subject to other restrictions.” 

“Has the DNC given you their permission to use it?” I asked.

“I don’t need their permission,” the owner of the Democratic Merch Shop, said to me via Chat.   “I’m only following the liberties given to me by the USA.” (Smiley Face). 

I’m guessing the “Smiley Face” makes it all Ok.

We finished our Chat, and I wondered how much money had been contributed to the Harris/Walz campaign from the proceeds of the tons of Harris/Walz merchandise being hawked relentlessly by a gaggle of digital bootleggers, betting that with only 70 days left in a whirlwind Presidential campaign, no one was coming after them.

The KamalaHQ site may not have the hippest looking merchandise to show off your support for the return of hope, joy and sanity to the country.  Still, the phrase “Purchase is a donation to the Harris Victory Fund,” should be all the pizzazz you need, if you’re serious about getting the Harris/Walz ticket elected, and saving Democracy.  Or, you could just be interested in Stylin’.

Look, I love Kamala Harris and her historic candidacy. 

I love how she has electrified the electorate and how the Harris/Walz ticket has a real chance to crush Donald Trump and the MAGA anti-Democracy movement.  Many of us have worked hard for a lifetime to reach this moment.

I urged Biden to pick her as his running mate four years ago, and began boosting her to head the 2024 Democratic National ticket after the Supreme Court’s cold-blooded murder of Roe v. Wade two years ago.

No one, I wrote, could articulate the issue of reproductive rights and a woman’s right to her own healthcare decisions better than Kamala Harris.  Having been inspired by her cross-examination of Trump’s troglodyte Supreme Court nominees—and the bloviating Bill Barr—on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I believed that Kamala Harris was perfectly suited to prosecute the case against Donald Trump and the extremist U.S. Supreme Court, as the head of the ticket in 2024. 

Accordingly, before Biden’s disastrous debate performance in June, and well before he decided to bow out of the race on July 21, I was calling on Biden to live up to the promise he made to us four years ago, and pass the torch to a new generation of leadership.   Kamala was always the most logical, and my first choice, to replace him.

Establishment Democrats and blind Biden loyalists attacked me for “not standing with Joe,” and for “weakening” the Democratic ticket, despite the visible truth—which shortly became fact—that it was an enfeebled Joe Biden who was weakening the ticket.

In a series of articles, my attention turned to who would make the strongest running mate for Kamala Harris not just to defeat Trump, but to crush him and MAGA, and to sweep in with her a Democratically controlled House and Senate.  My choices fluctuated between Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.  Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz—a strong choice—whose progressive  pro-labor, pro-public education voting record is more simpatico to me  than the similar records of Shapiro or Kelly.

I am all-in for the Harris/Walz ticket, have already made three separate donations, and  am looking forward to doing on the ground work in Arizona, where Ruben Gallego is locked into a crucial Senate race with the MAGA Queen, Kari Lake, the eternal Fake.

That’s why—like the lightening fast and flawless start to the Harris/Walz campaign—I wanted every single night of the nationally televised Democratic National Convention in Chicago to be pitch perfect, and as well produced as the virtual Democratic Convention of 2020, a television production masterpiece.

I guess I was expecting too much.

The first night (Monday, August 19) of the Democratic National Convention was a television production bomb, with too many Democrats from too many places  running up, on and off the stage, too many messages bombarding viewers, and no end insight until Joe Biden shouted himself over the finish line at nearly midnight on the East Coast.   Yeeesh.

It appeared as if no one was in charge of the program and no one was running production.  If someone was (David Plouffe, where were you?), why wasn’t Hillary Clinton’s prime time spot given to Joe Biden?  After all, wasn’t it Biden who made Kamala Harris’ candidacy possible, not Hillary?

Instead, we got an endless, undisciplined parade of people and images—right down to Kamala Harris’ mother’s best friend’s 1966 Mustang convertible—making the event feel more like an Academy Awards Red Carpet runway, without the leveling presence of Joan Rivers.

The talent to produce a crackerjack TV show was right there, on stage, in movie Producer Tony Goldwyn, who recently produced the film Ezra (about an autistic boy and his father) and appeared in it with Robert DeNiro and Bobby Canavale. Unfortunately, Goldwyn wasn’t tapped for his production talent, though, but weirdly forced to try and fill Joan Rivers unfillable high-heels as an emcee, whatever that is supposed to be at a national political convention.  The context of such a Hollywood golden boy popping up on the DNC stage was neither explained, nor made any sense.

Rather than having Goldwyn flit on and off the stage at inexplicable times, the first-rate producer should have been called up to bring the show in on time (before 11 pm Eastern Time) and to keep it on message.  Wasn’t the whole purpose of the first night to have Biden pass the torch to Kamala Harris?

The show without even a show-runner ran away with itself.

Without looking it up on line, try to name all of the speakers of the DNC’s first night.  Try to outline all the messages.   What did Jamie Raskin say and when did he say it? AOC?  Shawn Fain? Why were the women (and husband) who experienced the excruciating trauma of the Trump-inspired Chastity Belt abortion laws sandwiched in between every state or local Democratic official from Padukah, Kentucky to Portland, Oregon?  Why was the biggest issue of 2024 used as a throwaway interruption?

Here’s another test for many of my Democratic friends and fellow activists and viewers:  What precise section of Project 2025 did Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow refer to?  What was the purpose of Senator Rafael Warnock being on stage? LaPhonza Butler?   And why, why, why was the inspirational Golden State Warriors Coach (and victorious Olympic Men’s Basketball Coach) Steve Kerr—with a strong patriotic, bipartisan, all-American appeal—used as an empty time-filler?

Much of this will be forgotten on the DNC’s Night # 2, when Barack and Michelle Obama, and Doug Emhoff, and a cast of thousands of bit players, will make the party faithful—at the United Center—feel like they are the cool kids, still living inside “The Night of A Thousand Stars.”

Yes, we’ve got history on our side; we’ve got the issues on our side; we’ve got the better candidates; we’re running against a convicted felon and a fraud with no moral or personal convictions at all; we’ve got the better celebrities (who could NOT be better than Hulk Hogan?); we’ve got Democracy and diversity, and personal freedoms, and community responsibility, and health care, and jobs, and on and on and on, on our side.  We’ve got the whole world in our hands, to paraphrase Mahalia Jackson.

All of which makes it more imperative that we get our act together on every detail in this election, especially when tens of millions of people are watching us. 

The Democrats need to immediately put a tough, no-nonsense professional producer in charge of the rest of the Big Show, NOW and through Election Day.  We need a skilled tactician not afraid to bruise a few oversized political egos, to not call upon some speakers, and to be fearless in giving high-ranking public officials the hook if they are wandering off message, or off schedule. In the end, this is a story which must be told to fit the form of media telling it.  

We need a Tony Goldwyn, or someone like him, to bring the Kamala Harris story home to 329+million Americans who are not the wristband crowd at the United Center in Chicago, or the quasi-journalist cheerleaders on MSNBC.

Otherwise, as Steve Kerr brilliantly mimicked the Warriors’ Steph Curry, it’ll be “night, night,” for the Democrats, still star-struck, singing and stuck on the Red Carpet, without the honesty of a Joan Rivers to bring them back to earth.

.

The LAST thing Kamala Harris needs–and Barack Obama proved this clearly–is to be saddled with the double albatrosses of Bill & Hillary Clinton around her neck and HER story.

On the eve of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, I cannot stop thinking of Mario Cuomo, especially considering the DNC’s tone-deaf decision to put the spotlight back on Hillary and Bill Clinton as keynote convention speakers. I thought the Harris/Walz ticket was pointing forward, to the future, not going back and getting mired in the exhausting Clintonian quagmires of the past.

If there’s an Achilles Heel in this moment—which should be all about Kamala Harris and our future—it is dregging up the ghosts of Clintons’ past, which, I suppose, was inevitable with the presence of John Podesta and Neera Tandem, lurking among Biden’s team, and the Zelig-like, power-sniffing appearance of Gene Sperling on the new Harris crew.

I’m sure some of the old Clintonistas on the DNC and involved with the convention planning who cannot escape the narrow-box thinking that gave us Donald Trump, argued that Bill “must” be featured as a former President, and Hillary must also speak because she almost broke the glass ceiling 8 years ago—although the visual of Podesta delivering Hillary’s campaign eulogy under the still-intact glass roof of NYC’s Javits Center still gives me night terrors.

I’d rather hear from Liz Cheney instead of Hillary—who ran an abominable campaign for President in 2016, utterly ignoring the Midwest, and enabling Trump to get elected—and from Laura or George W. Bush on the night when Bill Clinton is slated to bring his wax-museum presence to the podium. A double-dose of the Clintons is hardly the way to appeal to undecided voters in 2024 who only voted for Trump eight years earlier because they found the alternative not “like-able enough” as Barack Obama hoped Hillary would be.

I’ve been thinking of Mario Cuomo, not just because so many of my former Cuomo Administration colleagues are in Chicago at the DNC this week, all-in for Kamala, and representing the very best public service has to offer. I was with Cuomo at the 1992 Democratic National Convention when he delivered the nominating speech for Bill Clinton.

Admittedly, I was never a Bill Clinton fan, from his days of leading the Neo-Con wing of the Democratic Party against progressive initiatives and ideas, to his ethnic slur against Mario Cuomo’s, and my, Italian-heritage when he was campaigning for the Democratic Nomination in early 1992. My distaste for Clinton grew even stronger during his Presidency when he caved in to stigmatize the LBGTQ community with “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” pushed and signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which banned same-sex marriages, sabotaged genuine Welfare Reform to appear more conservative, and vetoed the Needle-Exchange Program, costing hundreds of thousands of Americans with HIV/AIDS their lives. But, I digress.

Only five weeks after Mario Cuomo announced in December, 1991, that he would not seek the Democratic Nomination for the presidency for 1992, he was the subject of a widely publicized, tape-recorded conversation between Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Clinton and Gennifer Flowers, a cabaret singer from Arkansas who claimed to be one of Clinton’s mistresses.  The transcript of the Bill Clinton/Jennifer Flowers exchange was faxed to Fabian Palomino—a top aide and long time friend of Mario Cuomo’s— from Jimmy Breslin on January 27, 1992, the day Flowers held a press conference in New York City.  The conversations between the two were taped before Cuomo withdrew his name as a potential candidate in the Democratic Party’s New Hampshire Presidential primary:

CLINTON:  Well, no…Most people think, you know, that except for Cuomo, I’m doing the best right now, and uh…we’re leading in the polls in Florida, without Cuomo in there, but Cuomo’s at 87% name recognition, and I have 54%, so, I mean, I ‘m at a terrible disadvantage in name recognition still, but, we’re coming up, and well…so I…we’re moving pretty well; I’m really pleased about it…”

FLOWERS: Well, I don’t particularly care for Cuomo’s, uh, demeanor…

CLINTON: Boy, he is so aggressive.

FLOWERS: Well, he seems like he could get real mean (laughs).

CLINTON:  (garbled)

FLOWERS: Yeah…I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t have some Mafioso major connections.

CLINTON: Well, he acts like one (laughs).

FLOWERS: Yeah.

The revelation of the Bill Clinton/Gennifer Flowers’ “Love Tapes,” exploded on the front pages of newspapers around the nation and topped all major television network newscasts.   I flew into a rage when I heard the Governor’s name and the word “Mafioso” spoken in the same sentence.  Cuomo went ballistic, as was accurately reported, and immediately phoned reporters at the New York Post, New York Daily News, New York Newsday, and the New York Times.   Clinton’s attempt at an apology, as Cuomo described to Mike McAlary, of the New York Post, was “worse than the original insult.”  Clinton’s apology read:

            “If the remarks on the tape left anyone with the impression that I was disrespectful to either Governor Cuomo or Italian-Americans, then I deeply regret it.  At the time the conversation was held, there had been some political give and take between myself and the Governor and I meant simply to imply that Governor Cuomo is a tough and worthy competitor.” 

New York’s tabloids feasted on the clash of the two Democratic titans.  The New York Post stacked photos of Cuomo and Clinton on its front page with the bold headline:  “ CUOMO SAYS CLINTON TALKS LIKE BIGOT.”  The New York Daily News ran a photo of Cuomo dominating the front page, with the banner headline:  “CUOMO TO CLINTON:  SHAME ON YOU.”   The News Frank Lombardi’s story (“Cuomo Scalds Clinton, January 29, 1992), pulled no punches, reflecting Cuomo’s anger:

            “A fuming Gov. Cuomo yesterday slammed Bill Clinton as insensitive to ethnic stereotyping for saying Cuomo “acts like” a Mafioso.

            “If you say it this casually about Italian-Americans,” Cuomo bristled, “what do you say about blacks, what do you say about Jews, what do you say about women, what do you say about poor people, what do you say about all the other groups who traditionally become the scapegoats?…

            “Cuomo was clearly seething, particularly when first told that Clinton expressed regrets “if the remarks left anyone with the impression that I was disrespectful to either Governor Cuomo or Italian-Americans.”

            “What do you mean “IF?” Cuomo snapped to reporters in Albany.  ‘If you’re not capable of understanding what was said, than don’t try to apologize.”

As a member of the Governor’s staff who did have Mob connections, and was working with Mario Cuomo because he didn’t, and he revered the rule of law, I was furious over Clinton’s defamatory slur and negative group stereotype.

I pounded out an Op-Ed piece for either the New York Times or Newsday, and was emboldened to submit under my own name. I wrote:

“Bill Clinton simply doesn’t get it.  His flippant comparison of Mario Cuomo to a ‘Mafioso’ demonstrates that he understands neither what the most prominent Italian-American politician in the nation’s history means to us, nor how his acceptance of the word ‘Mafioso’ in connection with Cuomo’s name is like a dagger thrust into our chest.”

I immediately sent my draft to Cuomo, and within the hour he sent it back with his comments written across the top in dark, felt-tip marker:  “Steve—I am concerned people will think this is something I influenced because of our relationship.  What do you think?  M—“.

Of course, Mario Cuomo was correct. I re-tooled my tirade and sent it over to the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) for them to use anyway they wanted to express maximum outrage on behalf of our entire community.  Still, I wanted to scream from the stoops and rooftops of New York telling the press that I grew up with real life ‘Mafioso’, and that Cuomo was as far from them as anyone could be.

But Cuomo had a vowel at the end of his name, and that was all the tabloids needed as truth, particularly since it was casually accepted by the soon-to-be Democratic nominee for President.

A few months later, in April, 1992, Bill Clinton won the New York State Democratic Presidential Primary with 41% of the vote, beating Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas (29%) and California’s Jerry Brown (26%).  Only 27% of New York’s registered Democrats bothered to vote in the Primary, and one-third of those who did, said they would have preferred to vote for Mario Cuomo. 

That was no consolation at all for Mario Cuomo, who called me the morning after the primary to discuss Bill Clinton’s victory.  Cuomo knew I held a grudge against Clinton for using the “Mafioso” slur against him.

I told Cuomo I cast my vote for Jerry Brown, and did not know if I could ever forgive Clinton, even if he became the Democratic nominee.

“A superficial candidate for a superficial age,” Mario Cuomo said to me about Clinton.   Struck by the power of the Governor’s condemnation of Clinton, I wrote it down.

His caustic comment about Clinton made it all the more remarkable how Cuomo, three short months later, was able to keep his feelings contained and accept the responsibility of nominating Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in New York in mid-July.  The issues at stake in the national election mattered more to Mario Cuomo than the insults made by Bill Clinton at his expense months earlier.

I accompanied Mario Cuomo to Madison Square Garden on the morning of July 15, 1992, one month after his 60^th birthday.  Cuomo was scheduled to deliver a practice presentation of his nominating speech before a room full of members of Clinton’s campaign team, including Gene Sperling, who worked for Cuomo briefly in hopes of riding him into the White House, and Robert Boorstin, the nephew of historian Danial Boorstin.  Mario Cuomo was relaxed, dressed casually, with a sport jacket over a dark, open-neck sport shirt.  He was in good spirits, teaching all of us by example how to overlook personal slights to achieve a larger purpose.

We entered the small practice room at the Garden and Luciano Siracusano, one of the Governor’s speechwriters, handed a copy of Cuomo’s draft speech to Clinton’s staff for insertion into the teleprompter.  Cuomo made it clear to Boorstin, who was in charge of the practice session, he did not want to see any of the speech released ahead of time.  It was simply the way Mario Cuomo operated with his speeches, since he often improvised as he went along.  Boorstin acknowledged and agreed to the Governor’s request.

Cuomo mounted a makeshift platform which simulated the platform out on the main stage of Madison Square Garden, and read through the speech using the practice teleprompters available and stopping occasionally, when he thought changes needed to be made.  Following the first run-through, a handful of Cuomo and Clinton staff members, retreated into a small room to review the speech, making suggestions for changes.  Cuomo agreed to include a few more explicit references to Bill Clinton and to draw a stronger analogy between growing up poor in New York, and growing up in poverty in Arkansas.

We left the Garden and walked to the Sheraton Hotel on West 53^rd Street and 7^th Avenue, where the New York State Delegation was staying.  Mario Cuomo’s nominating speech for Bill Clinton would be reworked there.  Less than an hour after arriving at the Sheraton, I received a message from the New York Post’s Fred Dicker:  Cuomo’s nominating speech for Clinton was already on the newswires.  Not trusting Dicker nor the Post to tell us the truth, I reached out to Newsday’s Albany Bureau Chief Nick Goldberg (now, with the Los Angeles Times) who was supervising my son as a high school intern covering the convention for Long Island Newsday’s  “Student Briefing Page.”  Goldberg confirmed that the speech—Cuomo’s first draft which we specifically told Clinton’s people not to release—was already out on the Convention wire.

Mario Cuomo let his displeasure be known later that afternoon, when we came back into the Madison Square Garden practice room for a final 4:00 pm rehearsal, before the main event that evening.  We invited Daily News sportswriter Mike Lupica and columnist Mike McAlary to join us for the speech rehearsal.  Both watched as Cuomo mounted the makeshift podium and pointed straight at Clinton’s staff member, Boorstin.

“You broke your word to me on the speech, “ Cuomo said, glowering at him.

Boorstin began to stammer in response, but Cuomo ignored him, going right to the speech, reading it straight through without a pause and abruptly exiting the room the moment he was finished.  Mario Cuomo had put up with the last indignity he would tolerate from Clinton and his people, and wanted them to be nervous about what he might say when he spoke before millions of Americans that night, placing Bill Clinton’s name into nomination for President of the United States, something, Lupica later wrote, someone should have been doing for Cuomo. 

Despite the insults and slights from Clinton and his team, Mario Cuomo was brilliant that evening, as I knew he would be. His voice rang out with emotion when he spoke about the “quiet catastophes that every day oppress the lives of thousands,” and how some children were “more familiar with the sound of gunfire before they’ve even heard an orchestra.”

His passionate indictment of the Reagan and Bush Administrations and their war against working people and the poor, rallied Progressives and the country, behind Bill Clinton, making the fascinating backstory of the 1992 Democratic Convention how Mario Cuomo buried his personal and political differences with the Democratic nominee for the good of the country. 

I trust the Clintons will do the same thing to elect Kamala Harris as the first woman President of the United States.

Despite being singled out for double-standard treatment as a Vice-Presidential prospect because of his Jewish faith, the Pennsylvania Governor takes the high road.

(Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro takes the stage at Temple University in Philadelphia to endorse and campaign for the 2024 Democratic Ticket of Kamala Harris & Tim Walz.)

Josh Shapiro saved the Democratic Party from committing suicide this week and few people noticed.

No, they were busy basking in the smile and warmth and contagious joy of Kamala Harris, history’s child, destined to become the first female President of the United States.  Harris had announced on social media earlier that day her choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

But, all of that celebratory mood could have changed instantly before a huge Philadelphia hometown crowd that was his, had Shapiro—Pennsylvania’s Governor with a 61% approval rating– been a smaller man prone to grudges, or not “the kind of guy you want in a foxhole with you,” as some of his backstabbers whispered to willing grave-diggers from The Nation Magazine and The New Republic, and to some political bomb throwers, hell bent on sabotaging Shapiro’s chances to be chosen as Harris’ Vice-Presidential running mate

The New York Times’  Katie Glueck was one person who did notice, and she captured the full import of Shapiro’s monumental moment in an August 6, 2024 story headlined:  “I Am Proud Of My Faith:  Shapiro’s Fiery Speech Ends on a Personal Note.”  Her opening paragraph perfectly framed the issue: 

                                      “For years, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania has said that his Jewish faith drives his commitment to public service.”

Glueck carefully observed that, “as he wrapped up a fiery speech in Philadelphia, after the conclusion of a vice-presidential search process that prompted intense public scrutiny of his views on Israel, Mr. Shapiro’s familiar references to his religious background took on a raw new resonance. And he seemed to sound a note of defiance.”

Those of us watching closely on television, listening to every word he spoke, and noting every nuance of his body language or facial expressions, were mesmerized by what came next.  Shapiro slowed his ministerial cadence and turned and looked directly into the camera:

                                    “I am proud of my faith.”

Glueck masterfully described the scene as 10,000 + people sucked in air, some shouting “PREACH,” not knowing what would come next, but clearly heard “his voice rising and speaking deliberately to sustained applause.”

                                    “I lean on my family, and I lean on my faith, which calls me to serve,” Shapiro bellowed.

Many in the packed hall at Temple University knew exactly what powerful meaning there was behind those words, coming after what the New York Times described as an “ugly final phase of Ms. Harris’ search” for a Vice-Presidential running mate.  What they didn’t know was how Shapiro would respond on the national stage after weeks of relentless anti-Semitic attacks against him, his faith, and his qualified support of Israel.

The slurs were leaked through specific stories, ugly social media campaigns and blatantly biased websites like NoGenocideJosh.com , which commanded its users to “say no to Genocide Josh Shapiro for Vice President.” 

Chris Lehmann in a Nation Magazine (August 2, 2024) story headlined “Josh Shapiro is a Bad VP Pick Anyway You Look At It,” scrawled that “The strongest argument against picking Shapiro is rooted in his hardline stance against both the Gaza protests on Pennsylvania university campuses…and the BDS movement (boycott, divestment and sanctions” against Israel.  Only later did Lehmann note that Mark Kelly and Tim Walz—the other two “finalists” for VP– held similar policy positions.  However, neither one was Jewish.

One week earlier, The New Republic (7/24/24) slimed Shapiro as : “The One Vice-Presidential Pick Who Could Ruin the Democratic Party.” Written by David Klion, a self-proclaimed “progressive millennial”, the anti-Semitism shouted off the page:

                        “Shapiro is an observant Jew with personal ties to Israel…”

As evidence of those “ personal ties to Israel,” Klion cited an October 7^th tweet from Shapiro—the day when Hamas massacred 1200 innocent Israeli citizens—which said:

                        “Our family has shared many special moments in Israel and our hearts break for those living this horror now.”

The statement was virtually identical to those issued by nearly every single public official in the United States, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

In another fabrication masquerading as a fact, Klion claimed that “unfortunately, Shapiro also stands out among the current field (of VP candidates) for being egregiously bad on Palestine.”  Klion intentionally ignored that Shapiro has called Netanyahu “ one of the worst leaders of all time,” and that the Biden/Harris administration, Senator Mark Kelly, and Tim Walz have similar policy positions on Israel and the War in Gaza.  Further, Senator Mark Kelly attended Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address before Congress—which Kamala Harris opted to skip– and stood and applauded when Netanyahu spoke.   Neither Biden, Harris, Kelly nor Walz are Jewish.

In a searing article in The Atlantic Magazine (7/31/24), entitled “Who’s Afraid of Josh Shapiro,” author Yair Rosenberg writes:

                        “…as its name implies, the “Genocide Josh” campaign is not about applying a single standard on Palestine to all VP contenders; it’s about applying them to one person, who just so happens to be the only Jew on the shortlist. And to make matters more absurd, Shapiro’s positions on Israel don’t come close to fitting the epithet.

“I personally believe Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the worst leaders of all time,” Shapiro told reporters in January, months before Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the Israeli leader to resign. At the time, Shapiro also pressed for an “immediate two-state solution,” something Netanyahu and his hard-right government stridently oppose.”

Rosenberg also quotes CNN’s John King about how Shapiro’s Jewishness, could pose a risk to the Democrats:  “He’s Jewish,” King noted, “so there could be some risk putting him on the ticket.”

In a brilliant piece of analysis, Rosenberg points out how the anti-Shapiro forces on the Left may have undermined their own calls for an end to the War in Gaza by sabotaging the Vice-Presidential candidacy of the most prominent Jewish American public official:

“The truth is that whatever Shapiro’s views, a Jewish vice president would function in precisely the opposite manner from what these critics fear. Far from a sinister Semitic Svengali suborning the president to an Israeli agenda, a Jewish veep would be trotted out to defend Harris in her inevitable conflicts with Israel’s right-wing government, and to insulate the boss from charges of anti-Semitism. As one Republican Senate staffer put it to the Jewish Insider last week, if Shapiro is picked, “forget about claiming we’re the only party standing against anti-Semitism.”

That Republican claim is laughable on its face when put up against the Charlottesville, Virginia, 2017 White Supremacist rally where extreme Right Wing protestors marched with Tiki-torches shouting “Jews will not replace us,” and their actions were later embraced by Donald Trump.   Additionally, the MAGA-maimed party continues to traffic with a vast network of Far Right, anti-Semitic extremists  from the American Nazis, to White Supremacists, to conspiracy theorists who believe that a Jewish cabal of bankers, internationalists and media rule the world.

Of equal importance was Shapiro’s 2022 campaign for Governor where he faced the nation’s first full-frontal assault of the extreme Right Wing fundamentalist Christian Nationalist Movement, which advocates for a nation devoid of Jews, gays and women’s rights, and influenced the authoritarian philosophy behind the Heritage Foundations’ Project 2025.  Shapiro, then, the darling of the progressive left within the Democratic Party, was eloquent and electrifying in standing strong for protecting individual and human rights—including Freedom of Religion—and he crushed his Trump-loving opponent by some 15%, an unheard of margin of victory for a Democrat in the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania.

Shapiro’s presence on the ticket, as a religious Jew and champion of individual liberties & human rights, would have, in short given a President Harris the perfect cover and opportunity to end the War in Gaza, reduce the sale of weapons to Israel, and hold ultra-extremist Israeli government officials accountable for the deaths of nearly 40,000 innocent Palestinians. 

But despite being defamed in print and online as plotting and disloyal (a common charge hurled at Jews throughout history), egomaniacal and not a team player, Josh Shapiro made a conscious decision not to expose –before 10,000 of his fellow Pennsylvanians and a national television audience–how virulently he had been singularly targeted–among all of the other serious Vice Presidential possibilities—because he is a Jew.

Instead of elaborating on how much his faith meant to him, and how only he—among all the other Democrats on the Vice-Presidential short list–had been held to a faith-based standard on Israel—strikingly similar to how JFK was discriminated against for his Catholicism in 1960—Shapiro gave a rip-roaring speech in support of the Harris/Walz ticket.

Had Shapiro used that precious moment in time when 10,000 Pennsylvanians held their collective breaths, and he held the nation’s attention in his hands, to reveal the details of  the “ugly final phase” of the Vice Presidential search—aimed only at him–Kamala Harris’ historic candidacy and the Democratic chances to win the House and Senate in 2024, would have had a fiery ending.

In keeping with his character and great personal integrity—despite being “othered” because of his Jewish faith by a segment of the Democratic Party and some elements of the media–Josh Shapiro took the high road, the only one he knows, and that made all the difference.  What remains to be seen is whether that path will be available to him, or any other national Jewish Democrat, to take in the future.  And, if not, what the consequences will be.

Four years ago this month, I rewrote “Camelot” when Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his running mate. Now, we await the history-making Harris’ choice for VP to help her sweep the nation.

A law was passed 100 years ago, dear —

All women now could vote how ‘ere they saw.

No more a limit on how far they’d go here —

It’s Kamala! Kamala!

Kamala! Kamala!

She loves to hear the liars fall…

…hear the liars fall.

Kamala! Kamala!

Knocked Big Bill Barr off his wall…

…Big Bill Barr off his wall.

She’s Black and Indian and even Jewish,

Charismatic as well as so damn smart.

Makes Trump and Pence appear so very shrewish —

It’s Kamala! Kamala!

Kamala! Kamala!

I love to see her make slime squirm…

… see her make slime squirm!

Kamala! Kamala!

Turned Kavanaugh to worm…

…Kavanaugh to worm!

The winner may be hidden ’til December;

The loser exits swiftly, like it or not.

Trump’s lies and cheats and crimes will be dismembered —

By Kamala! Kamala!

Kamala! Kamala!

I love the team of her and Joe…

…team of her and Joe!

Kamala! Kamala!

It’s time for Trump to go…

…Time for Trump to go!

His hate-filled flailing, wailing, has now ended.

Trump’s scheme to steal the mail was one last fail.

Now jail awaits with criminals he friended —

It’s Kharma time! Kharma time!

Kamala! Kamala!

I love the patter of her name…

…the patter of her name!

To Kamala! Kamala!

Lives matter all the same…

…matter all the same!

Humanity will once again be sacred,

Love & science rule in every spot.

In short, we all will know —

To Kamala & Joe,

Our Dignity and Lives…

All Matter quite-a-lot.

KAMALA!