and Jewish communities and kept away from the Middle East. "There is a very weak bridge between the Muslim and Jewish community in the United States and we need to strengthen that bridge," said Imam Ahmed El Khaldy of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "There are so many things we could discuss. Instead, to talk about opinion in the Middle East won´t build that bridge." Lieberman, who earned polite applause for his criticism of how the Bush administration has handled minorities since the Sept. 11 attacks, said he thought his audience deserved an unvarnished telling of his opinions. "I thought it was important to stress what we have in common as Americans," he told reporters. "I was not going to pander or waffle to please a crowd." He wasn´t perturbed             Maggie testified that although she and her husband live in North Dakota, a great

distance from Rebecca and her children in Mills County, they had always been involved in the

children’s lives and had a close relationship with them.2 She stated that she and Larry made frequent

visits to Texas to help Kevin and Rebecca when they were moving and making home repairs,




       2
          During the first years of their marriage before they moved to Texas, Kevin and Rebecca
lived close to his parents, first in North Dakota and later in Minnesota.

            