WEXLER LEAVES CONGRESS, WASHINGTON WONDERING WHY
Ron Kampeas

Baltimore Jewish Times
imes/news/jt/national_news/wexler_leaves_congress_ washington_wondering_why/15116
Oct 20 2009

The "fire-breathing liberal" has sucked the air out of the room.

A soft-spoken retirement announcement by the usually outspoken
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) has left Democrats, Republicans,
Jews and non-Jews expressing reactions that ranged from baffled
to… baffled.

"We were stunned," said one source close to the congressional
leadership. Figures in the pro-Israel community expressed similar
sentiments.

What makes the move even more perplexing is that Wexler, who dubbed
himself the "fire-breathing liberal" in his manifesto published last
year, is ending a very public political career that has had a virtually
unimpeded upward swing to become a think-tank diplomat–the kind of
figure who does his best work behind the scenes without taking credit.

Wexler, 48, will lead the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic
Cooperation, a group co-founded by S. Daniel Abraham, the Slim-Fast
diet food magnate whom Wexler named in his book as a "close friend"
and the funder of Wexler’s Middle East travel in the past.

The group has existed since 1993 and was prominent during the heyday
of the Oslo peace process launched that year, but it has been moribund
since the death in 2002 of its co-founder, former Utah congressman
Wayne Owens.

"Taking over as president of the Center for Middle East Peace offers
me an unparalleled opportunity to work on behalf of Middle East peace
for an important and influential non-profit institute," Wexler said
in a statement. "After much discussion with my family, I have decided
that I cannot pass up on this opportunity."

The problem with his explanation is that the congressman, who was
unavailable for an interview, already is in a position to exert
considerable influence on Middle East policy.

As chairman of the Europe subcommittee of the U.S. House of
Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Wexler lobbied European
nations to join in isolating Iran isolation and helped sustain
Israel’s role as a NATO satellite country. He was effective, too,
in bringing Turkey into the process as a Mideast broker.

Wexler was the first major Jewish political figure to join the
Obama campaign, in 2007, just after the then-senator had declared
his candidacy. Obama’s political mastermind, David Axelrod–now a
senior White House adviser–advised his candidate to woo Wexler
as the iconoclast likeliest to break Hillary Rodham Clinton’s
then-stranglehold on Jewish support.

With a stand-up comic’s hands-in-the-pocket, cards-on-the-table
demeanor, Wexler ventured during the campaign into redoubts of Jewish
support for Clinton such as Ohio. Thrown into a grind of twice-daily
appearances, Wexler would loosen up the audience with jokes about
how refreshing it was to address voters about a half-century younger
than the average age in his Florida constituency before launching
into a vigorous defense of Obama’s emphasis on diplomacy to rebuild
America’s reputation abroad.

"When that new day of trans-Atlantic relations emerges, Israel too
will be a great beneficiary," he told a crowd in Cleveland.

Some voters who were skeptical about Obama before Wexler’s presentation
said afterward that he won them over.

Much was made in the weeks before last year’s election of the supposed
reluctance of Florida’s elderly Jews to back a black candidate whose
middle name was Hussein. Obama won Florida handily, and the problems
likely were overstated, but Wexler earned credit for tirelessly
working the state’s retirement homes, where he is beloved.

Wexler has commanded respect from Jewish liberals and centrists by
combining support for robust U.S. diplomacy in pursuit of a two-state
solution with a strong defense of Israel’s response to Hamas rocket
attacks, steering clear of criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s policies and arguing that Obama needs to do a better job
of selling his policies directly to the Israeli public.

So why would Wexler give up such precious political capital?

In the absence of a more detailed explanation, journalists and
policymakers who thought they knew Wexler could only speculate: He was
positioning himself for an Obama administration peace-brokering role.

After 14 years he had tired of the congressional grind. The most
common reason proffered was that he needs the money (the lawmaker
has three children who attend a pricey Jewish day school).

Wexler, reached by The Associated Press, said nothing exciting was up.

"I am not under any investigation. My marriage is intact. My health
is good and, thank God, the health of my family is good," he said. "I
am leaving to become the president of the Center for Middle East Peace.

It may not be as sexy as some other things, but this is what I’m
doing."

The only episode approaching a scandal in recent years reinforces
the notion that Wexler is eager for a change: An opponent discovered
in 2008 that the Delray Beach residence Wexler listed as his was in
fact his in-laws’.

This, it turns out, was not illegal, but in the course of the reporting
it became clear that Wexler prefers his Washington-area community in
suburban Potomac, Md., where he and his family attend Beth Sholom,
an Orthodox synagogue.

Wexler is perhaps one of the most unabashed Jews in Congress; he
does not hide his affiliations. His wife, Laurie, has worked for the
American Jewish Committee. Stumping in the tiniest of far-flung towns
during Obama’s campaign, he had an unerring scent for whatever local
deli was selling Jewish–or at least Jewish-style–fare.

In his book, he gleefully joined his liberalism and his advocacy for
Israel into pugnaciousness.

Wexler describes in his book a contentious Abraham-funded visit to
Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations three weeks after the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks and his growing impatience with Arab leaders who tried to
persuade him that the U.S.-Israel alliance was to blame for terrorism.