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In 1997, when Fortune magazine asked members of Congress and their staffs to list the most powerful lobbies in Washington, AIPAC came in second behind AARP but ahead of heavyweight lobbies like the AFL-CIO and the NRA.14 A National Journal study in March 2005 reached a similar conclusion, placing AIPAC in second place (tied with AARP) in Washington’s “muscle rankings.”15 Former Congressman Mervyn Dymally (D-CA) once called AIPAC “without question the most effective lobby in Congress,” and the former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Lee Hamilton, who served in Congress for thirty-four years, said in 1991, “There’s no lobby group that matches it … They’re in a class by themselves.”16
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John J. Mearsheimer (The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy)