Republicans and lobbyists would like nothing more than to shine a light on Rep. Omar’s unfortunate word choice while leaving her broader point about our broken political system in the dark.

Probably more apropos to say that she’s learning the hard way that politicians own every word they utter.

In fact, they’re downright giddy about the opportunity to use Rep. Omar as a wedge to divide Americans‒with President Trump wasting no time in calling for Rep. Omar to resign.

A bit overwrought, I agree. After all, whenever you get a group of 435 citizens who talk for a living together, you’re going to get more than a few stupid utterances.

Given President Trump’s own anti-Semitic tweets and those of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the GOP’s sudden righteous anger seems all too disingenuous.

See comment about “owning every word they utter” above.

Could it be that Rep. Omar, as one of only two Muslim women is Congress, is being unfairly singled out by Republicans for attack?

Uh…..no.

After all, they were labeling her anti-Semitic well before this latest tweet.

That’s because she had given them reasons to so label her.

At the same time that we shouldn’t play into tropes of anti-Semitism, we mustn’t fall for the trap of Islamophobia. Even while we disagree about policy, we must respect everyone’s religion and should value every citizen’s full participation in our political process.

Yes.Wouldn’t that be nice if everyone would get back to that?

The specific matter with Omar is that her statements and tweets regarding Israel are a mix of (a) legitimate and factual policy criticism and (b) warmed-over anti-Israel regional propaganda, the kind (unsurprisingly) that is recent immigrants from the region spread about incessantly.

She need to learn to separate fact from fiction, and she needs to do it quickly.