I first wrote about John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's "Israel Lobby" essay in March 2006, back when they were capitalizing the "l" in lobby. I titled the post discussing their essay "They too dare to speak out" in honor of their succession to the role formerly played by Illinois Rep. Paul Findley. Although not the author of a book like Findley's, former South Dakota Senator James Abourezk is also a kindred spirit.

At the end of August, Abourezk appeared for an interview in Damascus on Hezbollah's Al Manar cable television outlet. The invaluable MEMRI has posted video of the interview here, transcript here. Among Abourezk's insights (noted by Charles Johnson) are that the Arabs who perpetrated 9/11 “cooperated with the Zionists,” the Israel lobby controls Congress, Hamas and Hezbollah are “resistance fighters,” and Americans are all racists. "Among other things," as Charles adds. It is a remarkably disgusting performance.

UPDATE: Jon Schaff writes:

I noticed Scott Johnson blogging on former South Dakota U.S. Senator Jim Abourezk's recent interview with Hizbullah television. We have been covering this at South Dakota Politics. Follow the links listed in chronological order here, here, and here. These posts include our own commentary about Abourezk as well as rebuttals of those who have attempted to defend him. You'll notice that the second link concerns a column by the dean of South Dakota political reporters, Dave Kranz, who is an old Abourezk buddy and basically lets Abourezk use his column to defend himself.

Posted by Scott at 6:28 AM  |    |