Prominent Republicans Invoke the Holocaust to Win Jewish Votes in Pa
This is the week that John McCain and the Republicans will be throwing the kitchen sink at Barack Obama and the Democrats. It has reached a new low. An email that was sent to Jewish voters invoked fears of the Holocaust to stampede them away from Obama at the polls next week.
According to JTA, a global Jewish news service:
The e-mail, after extolling McCain's record and questioning U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's commitment to Israel -- as well as his associations with William Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- says that "Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008. Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year."
The letter, which might have gone out to as many as 75,000 Jewish voters, was signed by three prominent Jewish Republicans, including former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice Sandra Schultz Newman, and Philadelphia Federation of Greater Philadelphia former chairman I. Michael Coslov.
Democratic U.S. senator Bob Casey and Montgomery County Democratic state Rep. Josh Shapiro demanded Saturday that McCain speak to this outrage, as he has promised repeatedly on national television he would do if someone was doing things in his name that were not in keeping with his own point of view.
While McCain and the national campaign have yet to speak on the letter, when news of it hit the local media and MSNBC over the weekend, the Pennsylvania McCain campaign disavowed it.
"This individual never worked for our campaign and that sort of rhetoric has no place in it," said Paul Lindsay, a McCain-Palin spokesman.
According to various media sources, the author of the letter is a Jewish Republican political operative named Bryan G. Rudnick, president and CEO of Alliance Strategies Group (ASG) in Boca Raton, FLA. which his ZoomInfo.com bio identifies as a company which engages in "strategic planning, political consulting, and communications, with an emphasis on public relations and crisis management."
The AP reached Rudnick over the weekend, and reported:
Political consultant Bryan Rudnick was identified as the person responsible for it. Rudnick, reached Saturday night, confirmed that he no longer works for the party, which employed him a few weeks ago as a consultant to do outreach to Jewish voters."I had authorization from party officials" to send the e-mail, Rudnick said, but he declined to say who had signed off on it. "I'm not looking to drag anyone else through the mud, so I'm not naming names right now," he said.
Rudnick claimed he was a consultant for the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania, but no Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents within the last 90 days for the verify this. He was fired recently after a $5 million ad campaign for Let Freedom Ring that ran in mid-October in Georgia apparently backfired as well.
His client list, according to ASG's website, includes the Minutemen Project, the group that watches the border with Mexico, and Katherine Harris, the former U.S. Congresswoman and Florida Secretary of State who presided over the election fiasco in 2001.
A blogger named "Mrs Pantsteppon" at Talking Points Memo (TPM) researched Rudnick and has found:
"ASG handled a $5 million ad campaign for Let Freedom Ring that ran in mid-October. Let Freedom Ring is a rabid right wing 501(c)(4) almost entirely funded by John Templeton, son of the founder of Templeton Funds, who lives in West Chester PA.Templeton, a major contributor to Swift Boat Vets, also contributed $800k to the College Republican National Committee within the last six months."
Rudnick claims to have "founded and served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Citizens for Marriage, a ballot committee organized to support the passage of the Massachusetts Protection of Marriage Amendment." He is a graduate of Valley Forge Military Academy and Brandeis. He lists notably the American Association of Political Consultants and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, as organizations to which he belongs.
The McCain campaign has been struggling to change polling numbers that suggest that Jewish voters now tend to favor Mr. Obama. The operative, who was described by the source as "too extreme" to be picked up by the local McCain camp in South Florida, has worked as a political operative for groups within the Republican Party.
Using a carpet-bagger operative is nothing new in politics. It allows the local campaign to disavow, while still reaping the benefit of engaging in the slimy scare tactics.
It would seem highly unlikely that the operative, who is a paid political consultant, was operating on his own. The reaction to his handiwork was mixed.
JTA reports:
In the Philadelphia Jewish community, there appeared to be much consternation over the fact that Coslov signed on to the letter. Coslov is widely assumed to become the next federation president.Some community leaders who are active Democrats called the letter "despicable." Republican partisans tended to brush it off as "politics as usual."
The Guardian reports that the email also threw in the kitchen sink catch-all of voter fraud;
The e-mail also alleged that presidential candidate Barack Obama taught members of a community group "to commit voter registration fraud."
The letter continued to beat the drum on Ayers and ACORN as well, working the Attwater/Rove theory that a lie told repeatedly takes on the air of truth.
The letter has caused reaction world-wide from here to the UK to Israel, but has barely made a dent in the American mainstream media.
I am told that the Republican operative who conducted the smear campaign is back in Florida. The question is: Where will he go next? As quickly as guys like this are "fired" they often find themselves back in another state in the dirty tricks game working business-as-usual.
Until the McCain campaign publicly repudiates the action, and the author, they are as liable for it as if John McCain or Sarah Palin wrote it themselves, in my opinion.
Follow Brian Ross on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mlnsports
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
People ask how the nazi party took over the commonsense and decency of a nation. Now, look around at what is going on in this country, and i do not mean just the repugs but all the things in play, including black water mercenaries being emeshed in some local police departments and the US army being put into place as domestic "peace keepers" aka police. This is what the constitution said MUST NEVER happen. We have spent 8 years blowing off outrageous behavior by the bush crew AND the dems as just dumb, stupid etc. stuff and look where we are.We can not afford to blow off all this rapidly building hate behavior as stupidity. If you can not come up with any intelligent reasons for the government (repugs AND dems) , to not at lease demand that the mcpalin group curve their hate-mongering and to MSM covering these things up, then you must recognize we have a major hate movement underfoot. We know that this is NOT what obama is saying, but some powers want to get the concepts out there and they are using the whole election scam to do it. Why is the gov't systematically preparing for "civil unrest"? Get informed, get active. Recognize that change comes not from a vote or thru one person, but only thru THE PEOPLE. Change your lassez faire attitude and together WE can change this nation, but WE got to do the work!
Only one problem Mac & Pal. I think our Jewish friends may know about the anti-semitic speaker with Jews for Jesus that spoke at Sar.ah's church.
Mac, it may be time to wave the white flag.
The bottomless cesspool that keeps on giving! They are so desperate that now I am truly concerned that they will pull some really horrible s--t. No scruples, no dignity, no truth.
Godwin's Law:
Obama wins.
'"This individual never worked for our campaign and that sort of rhetoric has no place in it," said Paul Lindsay, a McCain-Palin spokesman.'
But John McCain DID suggest, in 2 debates, that a vote for Obama would just about invite a a Holocaust in Israel brought about by a nuclear-powered Iran. Who do these people think they're fooling? Do they believe we have no memories at all? And here's a point only muttered about even in the left-wing blogs - Sarah Palin's admiration for W. Pegler, combined with her attachment to the ultra-right wing Alaska Independence Party and her radical right church, telss us only one thing - that she is a deep-fried anti-semite of the first degree. Disgusting hypocrits.
Hypocrits!! in the same post where you call say Palin's "radical right church tells us only one thing - that she is a deep-fried anti-semite" - You are familiar with Trinity and their support of Louis Farrakhan right?
Trinity church did not support Farrakhan. The newspaper run by Rev. Wright's daughter and is totally separate from the church gave an award to Farrakhan, so you are the hypocrit for not researching.
GOP = Hate, Hypocrisy and Hegemony
a friend of my (but not for much longer) questioned my jewish faith because i would not take to watch his copy of obsession that was passed around recently. he does not realize the john hagees' of the world are not interested in the safety of the jews just because they are pro isreal. there's a difference in being pro jewish and pro isreal.
these people want a war with iran to hasten the end times. not to protect the jews because, in a nut shell, they believe that the jews will either convert or die..
a good site that you can send your jewish friends who are falling for this is 'www.jewsonfirst.com'
i sent him the link.
If McCain wins, the America we knew is gone forever.
Every day there's something new and disgusting
that the McCain campaign is throwing out there.
Mr. McCain needs to totally retire. He has lost
his mind.
God help us all! Is there NO cesspool these people will not sink into?
See Jane Devin's Profile
I keep thinking that I couldn't possibly be more amazed, offended, or stunned by the dirt being thrown by the Republicans, and then something like this happens. I can only hope that the 75,000 who received this piece of trash will be as outraged as I am and take it out in the voting booth.
Perhaps a reminder to Jewish voters would be helpful:
Republicans wanted a non-agression treaty with Hitler. It was liberals and socialists who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight the fascists in Spain.
Congressional republicans fought every effort FDR made to help Britain hold off Hitler.
I hope the Jewish community in Philadelphia and the rest of Pa. are as outraged by this as I am.
Not only does it suggests that Obama is akin to Hitler, it suggests the rest of us are willing participants.
Want to avoid warning signs of another Holocaust? Don't vote for right wingers.
Listen to a Palin rally video, where people work their rage up while she stands up there making no sense at all, and tell me if that doesn't look just a little bit familiar.
Apropos to the invocation of the Shoa (aka Holocaust) is this correction to the article, if I may:
"working the Attwater/Rove theory that a lie told repeatedly takes on the air of truth. "
It's not a theory by Attwater or Rove... this quote predates them both:
""If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. " -- Joseph Goebbels.
The rest of the quote is:
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Very interesting. I have a feeling that it probably pre-dates the Nazis, but nonetheless a very fascinating comment. Thank you!
This is a disgusting and the idea that Johnny has not put his foot down about it just speaks volumes for who he is as a human being. It makes you believe that people out there don't have a conscience.
Well this is just digusting- to think not only calling Obama an UnAmerican Terrorist but now to align him with the likes of Hitler???!!!
John McCain has officially gone off the reservation. Fortunately Obama has support of 80% of Jewish voters in recent polls, and I doubt they would fall for something as blatently fear based as that!
It is to his own demise that he started down this hateful fear monger road and now it will lead to making Obama our next President- because American's are tired of being scared!
Republicans tell you, it's UNAMERICAN to question your leadership and your country...
Democrats tell you, the most AMERICAN thing you can do is question your leadership- thats the right we have that seperates us from the rest of the world!
They try to scare people with the fact that Democrats would have the majority- what they fail to mention is that Republicans had the majority for the last 8 out of 10 years, with a Republican President 6 years out of the 8...and what exactly have they accomplished??
So maybe- just maybe- a Democratic Majority wouldn't be such a bad idea??
Obama/Biden 08- This time I want a SMART President in the White House!
If McCain wins, what does that say about the state of our nation, then?
"The worth of the State in the long run is the worth of the individuals composing it" John Stuart Mills
Sad to say.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
