In the wake of Hillary's "National Women's Finance Council Summit," a campaign event in which she explicitly appealed to women to vote for her because of her sex [raising $1.5 million along the way], Lowey was a guest on this evening's "Tucker." Host Carlson was prodding the congresswoman to explain just what it is about a woman president that would be different from a man.
View video here.
In the course of the conversation, Lowey made her odd claim. Odder still: Tucker didn't bat an eye at Lowey's boast that sounded like "It Takes a Village" on steroids.
TUCKER CARLSON: I'm not exactly sure I understand the pitch that the Clinton campaign is making. It's saying "Hillary is a woman, women out there should vote for her partly because of that." How will the fact that Hillary Clinton is a woman make her a different president?
NITA LOWEY: A couple of points, Tucker. First of all, if you saw the enthusiasm at this event yesterday and the other event Monday in New York, there must have been 1,000 women at each. They were cheering, they were standing, they were applauding. The idea of a woman president leading this country and repairing the world and focusing on Social Security, focusing on child care, health care, the issues that really matter not just to women, but to families was palpable in that room. People are really enthusiastic.
CARLSON: I believe that.
Tucker went on to press the question of what it is about Hillary's womanhood that would make her a better president. After much bobbing and weaving, Lowey eventually asserted that women are more "collaborative" than men. Somebody tell the writers at "Desperate Housewives."
Maybe we should cut Tucker slack for not focusing on Lowey's "repairing the world" claim. He was trying to nail Lowey down on the gender issue. Even so, faced with a boast of such proportions, couldn't Carlson have found time for follow-up? In any case, what are the implications if Lowey is right about Hillary's ambitions?
My take: Lowey, like this NewsBuster, is Jewish. "Repairing the world" is a well-known term from Judaism, the translation of the Hebrew "tikkun olam." As per Wikipedia:
Tikkun olam is an important concept in Judaism . . . Some Jews, particularly among the Orthodox, believe that performing mitzvot [following the commandments] is a means of tikkun olam, helping to perfect the world, and that the performance of more mitzvot will hasten the coming of the Messiah and the Messianic Age.
Among many non-Orthodox Jews, the phrase tikkun olam has taken on political, as well as religious, significance. It is frequently used as a synonym for social justice, often with the implication that Jews should work toward the development of a fair and equal society with the same zeal with which their ancestors may have followed Jewish religious law. Tikkun magazine, edited by Rabbi Michael Lerner, is an example that reflects this worldview.
In turn, we know that early during the Clinton presidency, Lerner, a former 1960s Berkeley radical, was something of a spirtual advisor to Hillary. As per "Discover the Networks," Lerner's 1997 book, "The Politics of Meaning," was the source of Mrs. Clinton's widely publicized use of that phrase.
I'm guessing that whether consciously or not, Lowey had this in mind with her "repairing the world" line. I think it fits Hillary well. "We're from the government and we're here to repair the world."
