Out in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, incumbent Republican J.D. Hayworth couldn’t make it to a scheduled campaign event at Temple Beth Israel. So he sent a couple of surrogates:
“Unable to defend his repeated praise of Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic “Americanization” program, U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth bailed on a scheduled campaign appearance Tuesday evening only to send in his place surrogates who repeatedly lectured the audience at Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale and proclaimed that Hayworth “is a more observant Jew” than those present. [Source: Arizona Republic, Oct. 17, 2006]
The comment by Jonathan Tratt, a spokesman for the Hayworth campaign, drew loud and angry boos and caused nearly three-quarters of the crowd of more than 200 to walk out in disgust. After the walkout, another Hayworth surrogate, Irit Tratt, stood on the Temple’s bimah as she told members of the audience who gathered to ask questions, “No wonder there are anti-Semites.”
They just can’t help themselves, can they? Here’s hoping that the district’s voters will, with Harry Mitchell.
(Hmm. Do you think this hurts George Allen’s feelings?)