What Committee was that, Senator?

By Ethel C. Fenig

On his if-it's-Wednesday-this-must-be-Israel photo op tour, Barack Obama seems to have forgotten about life back home in the US of A; about what he said and about his responsibilities as Senator.

“Just this past week, we passed out of the out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee - which is my committee - a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon,” Obama said at a press conference in Sderot, Israel.

But that isn't his committee; he is chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on European Affairs. But that position seems to be forgettable because as chairman he rarely had meetings of any substance.

However, in his defense it must be stated he admitted:

“I could fall asleep now standing up,” after Netanyahu asked him how his whirlwind trip to the Middle East and Europe is going.

And

An Obama spokesman tells CNN “it was his bill, not his committee,” referring to the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act that the Illinois senator sponsored and introduced in May 2007. The measure was then referred to the Banking Committee, and passed a vote of 19-2 on July 17.

Thank you spokesman for clarifying; now please inform the Senator of his committee assignment. And maybe he will call a meeting to tell the other members how he spent his summer vacation.