IT’S A TRENT LOTT MOMENT FOR THE DEMOCRATS:

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, March 10, 2003; 3:22 PM

Jewish organizations condemned Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) today for delivering what they said were anti-Semitic remarks at an anti-war forum in Reston, in which he suggested that American Jews are responsible for pushing the country to war with Iraq and that Jewish leaders could prevent war if they wanted. . . .

Moran has labored to emerge from a string of personal financial problems and ethics controversies over his acceptance of loans from parties with interests before him. Jewish activists said the episode threatened to make Moran the Democratic Party’s Trent Lott, referring to the former Senate majority leader from Mississippi who was deposed this winter for saying that the country would have been better off electing a segregationist for president in 1948.

Moran’s relationship with pro-Israel organizations and American Jewish leaders has steadily worsened in recent years over his pro-Palestinian stands in the Middle East conflict, interpretation of Israeli history and acceptance of campaign cash from individuals sympathetic to the terrorist organization Hamas or under investigation for terrorist ties.

Then there’s this guy. No question about it. Anti-semitism is on the rise.

At least Democrats are distancing themselves from Moran:

State Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax), an 11-year incumbent from Reston, said Moran’s remarks were “inexcusable and intolerable.”

“For the congressman to scapegoat and blame the Jewish community for the impending war is intolerable. Whether we suport or oppose the war, we must respect all religious communities,” Howell said. “There is no question that responsible Democratic leaders should distance themselves from him.”

At the very least.

UPDATE: Ted Barlow distinguishes this from the Lott case, though not in a way that helps Moran.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Armed Liberal has more on Moran. He’s not happy. Neither is Dan Gelfand.