Pennsylvania GOP disavows email likening Obama vote to rise of Hitler

26 October 2008

US-Pennsylvania Republicans are disavowing an e-mail sent to Jewish voters that likens a vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to events that led up to the Holocaust.

"Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008," the e-mail reads. "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!"

A copy of the e-mail, provided by Democratic officials, says it was Paid for by the Republican Federal Committee of PA - Victory 2008.

It warns "Fellow Jewish Voters of the danger of a second Holocaust due to the threats to Israel from its neighbors" and touts Republican presidential candidate John McCain's qualifications over those of Obama.

State Republican officials disavowed the e-mail and said the strategist who helped draft it had been fired.

"The Republican Party of Pennsylvania did not authorize that e-mail," Michael Barley, communications director for the state party, told The Associated Press on Saturday evening.

Barley said a correction would be sent out to everyone who received it.

The e-mail was sent Thursday morning to 75,000 Jewish voters.

The McCain campaign also repudiated the e-mail. Spokesman Peter Feldman said Saturday night that McCain rejects politics that degrade our civics.

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.

The e-mail also accuses Obama of teaching members of the community group ACORN to commit voter registration fraud during his years as a community activist.

Democratic Sen. Robert Casey said the e-mail was part of "a smear campaign that was among the worst he had seen in his state."

The email appears to refer to the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany. (Click here for the full report)

According to The New York Times, the email was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Republican Party's "Victory 2008" committee, and "was signed by several prominent McCain supporters in the state: Mitchell L. Morgan, a top fund-raiser; Hon. Sandra Schwartz Newman, a member of Mr. McCain's national task-force monitoring Election Day voting, and I. Michael Coslov, a steel industry executive."

The report goes on to say that the leaders of the state party have "repudiated" the email, which also refers to William Ayers and the ACORN organization. The report also quotes the party leaders as saying that the strategist who helped write the email has been fired.

Meanwhile, The Forward reports that Obama's campaign "is refusing to participate in debates with representatives of a Republican Jewish group that is behind an advertising blitz attacking the Democratic nominee."

The report states that the campaign has "instructed its representatives not to participate in forums with representatives of the Republican Jewish Coalition. So far, Obama campaign representatives in California and Pennsylvania have canceled their appearances at previously scheduled debates in front of Jewish audiences."

The Forward says that former California congressman Mel Levine, now an advisor to Obama on the Middle East, earlier this month dropped out of a debate with the RJC head in California, Larry Greenfield, which was set to be held a Jewish community center in Los Angeles.

In Pennsylvania, state representative Josh Shapiro reportedly also canceled his appearance at a debate scheduled for this coming Sunday at a synagogue in Dresher against Scott Feigelstein, the RJC regional director.

According to the report, the Obama campaign "has been making efforts to replace its campaign representatives with supporters who can address the Jewish community but are not officially tied to the campaign."

Note:

As to the link concerning the full report, apparently someone is up to some sort of game, because sometimes the link works and then another may see a lovely white blank page; this just further questions, the significance for the Jewish voter or for any voter for that matter.

Furthermore, the US campaign with Barack Obama and John McCain has been throttled with questionable practices, to what some may term outright felony (High) crimes.