Power napkin

Washington Monthly, July-August, 2005 by Charles Peters

In a recent issue of The New Yorker, Jeffrey Goldberg compared the power of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to that of the AARP and the National Rifle Association. If that strikes you as incredible, consider a conversation he had with an AIPAC insider in which Goldberg asked if AIPAC's influence had diminished.

"A half smile appeared on his face, and he pushed a napkin across the table. 'You see this napkin?' he said. 'In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin.'"