Eliot Engel

Here’s a clip from Matt Stoler’s interview of Democratic Congressional candidate Kevin Powell (who is trying to unseat Representative Ed Towns of Brooklyn), where the two discuss the FISA bill that recently passed both houses on Congress, and which many on the left opposed. (Barack Obama faced criticism from progressives over the bill, which he voted for.)

About halfway through, Powell says, “We’ve lost our backbone.” He adds later, “A lot of us have become spineless Democrats.”

Towns voted against FISA.

In case you’re wondering, Democratic members of Congress from New York who supported FISA include Tim Bishop and Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island; Gary Ackerman, Greg Meeks and Joe Crowley of Queens; Eliot Engel of the Bronx; Nita Lowey of Westchester; Kirsten Gillibrand of Albany; and upstate's Mike Arcuri and Brian Higgins.  read more »

As we wrote in today’s paper, Clinton- (and now Obama-) supporting congressman Eliot Engel thinks that Barack Obama’s election may depend on him picking the former first lady as his running mate.

Engel’s fellow New York Democrat Louise Slaughter, who, like Engel, backed Clinton until the primaries were over, has a different analysis: “I don't see any way in the world Obama could ever lose New York," she told me.  read more »

It's worth noting that Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one trying to get squared away with Eliot Spitzer’s new license policy.

The governor’s (original) plan would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license, but now it's being linked to federal guidelines that will be outlined in the Real ID Act. Although Spitzer backed Real ID this week, a number of Democratic congress members from New York opposed it during a 2005 vote (which may explain why it hasn't been easy getting most of them to say anything about Spitzer's new plan).

One congressional aide was kind enough to refer me to the results of the 2005 vote on the Real ID Act.

Democrats Gary Ackerman (Queens/Nassau), Tim Bishop (Suffolk), Joe Crowley (Queens/Bronx), Eliot Engel (Bronx/Westchester), Carolyn Maloney (Manhattan/Queens), Greg Meeks (Queens), Jerry Nadler (Manhattan/Brooklyn), Charlie Rangel (Manhattan), Jose Serrano (Bronx), Ed Towns (Brooklyn), Nydia Velazquez (Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens) and Anthony Weiner (Queens/Brooklyn) all voted against it.

UPDATE: Another congressional staffer, putting this story in context, noted that every Democratic congress member in the state voted against Real ID, except for Mike McNulty, who voted for it, and Maurice Hinchey who was absent.

Jason Horowitz has a story on Hillary Clinton's Obama-inspired outreach to officials and donors, including Eliot Engel's description of what she laid out as her winning presidential scenario.

Matthew Schuerman writes about the mayor's evolved position on corporate welfare.

Niall Stanage reports on the celebrations in some quarters over John Bolton's demise. There's some particularly brutal stuff in there from Colin Powell's chief of staff, who clashed repeatedly with Bolton at the State Department.

Michael Calderone looks at the way that the New York Times has become the beneficiary of a leak bonanza from the Bush administration. And Mike DeBonis provides a glimpse of Johnny Apple's memorial service yesterday.

Joe Conason applauds Robert Gates for delivering a blunt assessment of the war in Iraq, but predicts that it won't change anything.

And Steve Kornacki says that Mitt Romney is faking it.

-- Josh Benson

Isac is getting us into trouble today.

The mayor's office says that the only time the Mayor met with the KJ leaders was at a governmental meeting where he in no way made or lobbied for a Congressional endorsement.

Stu Loeser sent us over this exchange from City Hall today.

Reporter: One of the tight congressional races in New York involves Sue Kelly. Have you campaigned for her?

Mayor: It involves who?

Reporter: Sue Kelly.

Mayor: Yes, I've campaigned for Sue Kelly. She's been there when we've needed her and I think she's been a good congressperson and deserves to get reelected. I thought she's done a good job. She'd been there a number of times when this city has had issues in Washington and she's tried to come through as much as she can. Yes, sir?

Some readers have had other interesting reactioins to the KJ item I posted earlier.

Here's one email:

"You report today from Isac that KJ has endorsed Hall is not 100% accurate, what KJ plans to do is let a rumor roll that they endorsed Hall, and on the day of election tell all there voters to vote for Sue Kelly. They are playing a trick here, to avoid embarrassment in case Hall wins."

And another:

"You have the wrong Eliot delivering the KJ vote to Hall. It was Congressman Eliot Engel. Check with your sources inside KJ."

If anybody has more information on what really happened, let us know.

--Jason Horowitz

Bill Clinton celebrates his birthday, all weekend long.

On Saturday Hillary Clinton, David Paterson, Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel will join Andrea Stewart-Cousins for a rally at the Yonkers YWCA Auditorium.

John Faso campaigns upstate, making a stop at the 5th Annual Liverpool Village Halloween Festival.

Eric Massa attends a house party.

At 2 p.m. on Saturday there will a gubernatorial debate for third party candidates taking place at Katra, located at 217 Bowery, between Prince and Rivington Streets [added].

On Saturday and Sunday Democracy for New York carpools to campaign for Jimmy Dahroug for state senate in Suffolk County.

On Monday Christine Quinn and Randi Weingarten will be featured on a Drum Major Institute panel on pre-school education.

—Nicole Brydson

With Condoleezza Rice pressing for a cease-fire and a particularly high weekly toll in civilian casualties, we asked Congressman Eliot Engel -- one of the more vocal politicians urging strong support for Israel's actions on "the frontline of terror" -- whether his attitude had evolved at all since the beginning of hostilities.

Here was Engel's emailed reponse to our question:

"I believe there should be a cease-fire but only after it can be guaranteed that Hezbollah will not be able to threaten Israel from South Lebanon. The international forces should be deployed to keep Hezbollah out of Southern Lebanon."

Sounds like a yes, sort of.

--Jason Horowitz

“We will stand for Israel because Israel stands for American values as well as Israeli ones,&r  read more »

In a pro-Israel rally yesterday outside the Permanent Mission of Syria to the U.N., Observer contributor John Koblin reports, Anthony Weiner and Eliot Engel both singled out Syria for enabling Hezbollah's recent missile attacks.

Weiner began his speech to the crowd of more than 100 demonstrators by citing a Damascus connection to the missiles that struck Israel over the weekend, while Engel urged the international community to "isolate Syria."

Rabbi Avi Weiss, who organized the event, explained that the choice of Syrian Mission as the day's venue mostly came down to simple logistics: he had actually wanted to stage the event outside the Iranian consulate, but it was too far from the Israeli Permanent Mission, where the rally ended.

A much larger demonstration in support of Israel is scheduled today for 12:00 outside the U.N.

-- Josh Benson

When Representative Eliot Engel rose to address his House colleagues during the debate over the Chin  read more »

Hours before that surreal moment when President Clinton appeared before a joint session of Congress  read more »