For What it’s Worth: Warren Hecht

It was not too long ago that there were certain standards of behavior by public officials that would not be tolerated by the public. It did not matter whether the person was a member of the party that you supported. Those days are gone. Now the standard is: If you are on my side, as long as you have not been convicted of a crime, you are acceptable. In contrast, those on the other side are judged based on the old rules.

If you are a Democrat, you have to be happy about how things recently transpired concerning Congress and the President. You saw the President, along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans, at a ceremony touting the repair of a bridge that is being financed with the funds of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act bill. Also, on the second anniversary of January 6 attack, Biden gave the Presidential Citizens Metal to individuals in law enforcement who defended the Capitol from the mob attack and election officials who also at great personal risk made sure that the results were properly certified.

One of the letters to the editor suggested that Sholom Markowitz and I exchange my column and his letter to the editor before publishing so they both can come out the same week. This idea has many logistical problems, including that I do not know anyone named Shalom Markowitz. If we both davened in the same shul or if he were someone I’d known for a long time and had his contact information, that may be a different situation.

One of the reasons that was repeatedly given for the Republicans’ poor showing in the midterm elections was candidate quality. The irony is that the worst candidate was a person who won his election. I can spend a whole column exposing all the lies that George Santos promulgated about his background. There have been so many, it would not shock people that George Santos is not his real name. He has already used two aliases.  Now his financial dealings are being investigated. On the face, his financial situation reeks of impropriety. How did someone who was earning $55,000 a year two years ago with no assets become able to loan his campaign $750,000?  If he was someone who was not a pathological liar, then maybe you could believe that it was due to business acumen. Although there are calls for him to resign before being seated, I doubt it will happen. Kevin McCarthy needs his vote to become speaker. That is why McCarthy is silent while the exposure of Santos’ lies has occurred. By the time this article is published, there will be a speaker chosen. It was surprising that Tulsi Gabbard, while substituting for Tucker Carlson, destroyed Santos when she interviewed him. Carlson probably would have made Santos into a victim of media hysteria or said that he was no worse than the president.

 Last week, The New York Times broke the story about a letter dated January 11, 2023, sent by three committee heads in the New York State Senate – all of whom are Jewish – to the President of Yeshiva University. One of the three signatories is longtime Queens County State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky. Although The Times referred to portions of the letter, I did not want to rely on their description of its contents and thus obtained a copy.

When deciding how to review the past year, there are so many choices. I decided to limit it to the unexpected.