Political Tidbits: Biden vs. Begin, Lieberman and Cantor buzz, new pro-Obama Jewish effort

• Commentary editor John Podhoretz has two posts up (here and here) about Joe Biden’s testy 1982 exchange in the Senate with Menachem Begin and the young senator’s reported threat to cut off aid to Israel over settlements (of course, you don’t even have to go that far back to find Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein and Dick Cheney working to lift sanctions aimed at Iran).
• The Republican Jewish Coalition has a statement out highlighting the Begin incident – and several pro-Israel resolutions and letters that Biden failed to back.
• Douglas Bloomfield argues in the Jerusalem Post that Joe Biden is more in sync with Jewish voters than Joe Lieberman is.
• Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House, is in Denver: “I’m part of the John McCain truth squad here in Denver.” And, by the way, his kids “think it’s cool” that he’s in the middle of the Veep buzz.
• Without much hard evidence, New York Magazine dubs Joe Lieberman … “Joe Vengeance.” And left-wing blogger Richard Silverstein says he’d be a bad Veep.
• The New York Post: Rudy Giuliani rips Obama on Israel. Politico: Obama campaign responds (and plays the house card).
• Speaking of Politico … Ben Smith, one of our favorites (and TNR’s rookie of the year), has a story on a new pro-Obama Jewish outfit.
• The Forward reports that the Obama campaign has tapped a new Arab outreach director.
• Paul Starobin of the National Journal: “Obama’s A Mensch, Not Yet Mishbucha.”
• The Washington Times profiles a Jewish grandmother who loves Obama so much, she is paying to volunteer for him.
• The Miami Herald reports on a Republican non-Jew named Israel running for sheriff in Broward County: “In Pembroke Pines, Israel’s supporters handed out small Israeli flags and urged voters to ‘support Israel,’ hoping it would give them a boost with the hundreds of Jewish voters in Century Village.”