Posted on 05/19/2004 10:09:19 PM PDT by freedom44
COLUMBIA, S.C. - U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings is defending statements he made in a newspaper opinion article he wrote that President Bush went to war with Iraq to protect Israel and appease American Jews.
The South Carolina Democrat would not grant an interview with The (Columbia) State on Tuesday, but his office released a letter the retiring senator sent to a constituent as a statement. In his letter, Hollings wrote that he could provide quotes from Jewish leaders both in the United States and Israel to support his position.
He said characterizations of his comments as "anti-Jewish stereotyping or scapegoating is ridiculous."
In his column that appeared in three South Carolina newspapers earlier this month, Hollings wrote: "With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country? The answer: President Bush's policy to secure Israel."
He said Bush "came to office with one thought - re-election. Bush felt tax cuts would hold his crowd together, and spreading democracy in the Mideast to secure Israel would take the Jewish vote from the Democrats."
Abraham Foxman, president of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote Hollings asking him to retract his comments. "This is reminiscent of age-old, anti-Semitic canards about a Jewish conspiracy to control and manipulate government," Foxman wrote.
It isn't the first time Hollings' comments have drawn criticism. In 38 years in the U.S. Senate, he has apologized for remarks that offended various religious and ethnic groups, including Jews, blacks and Japanese. For some, the comments could be seen as another case of Hollings being Hollings.
"To them, we say one doesn't take bigotry in stride," Foxman said. "He is one out of 100 (senators). These are 100 of the most prominent people in the country. To hear such crudeness, such ugliness, such classical anti-Semitism. It's sad."
U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint, who is running for the Republican nomination to replace Hollings, wrote a rebuttal opinion column calling Hollings' comments bizarre.
"I don't know how anyone sitting in all those briefings for all those years could possibly bring it down to the motive for going into Iraq having anything to do with a focus on our friendship with Israel," DeMint said. "It's something Congress voted heavily in favor of doing."
Hollings voted in 2002 to give Bush permission to attack Iraq but later said he was misled and that the war is a mistake.
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When will black and Jewish Democrats realize that the pictures of Martin Luther King on the closet door don't excuse the hoods and sheets inside it.
Hollings is a pathetic bigot. Sounds very KKK. But he's a Democrat bigot, so no consequences for him. The last time I heard him answer a question, he struck me as hateful and senile.
And to the Jewish community at large; even more importantly, you should know them by now.
Ditto on all that, plus he is a retiring US Senator. Basically he's ten feet tall and bulletproof. I won't miss his FogHorn Leghorn delivery a bit.
His great rebutal (sarcasm) reminds me of the argument of the cheating husband who denies infidelity when his wife catches him with the other woman, "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?".
Hollings is a fool and an embarrassment to the state. He gives creedance to the reference to the region between the Va. state line and the Fla. state line as "that vast intellectual desert of the United States." He is pure cracker.
"When will black and Jewish Democrats realize that the pictures of Martin Luther King on the closet door don't excuse the hoods and sheets inside it."
QUOTE OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!
If he was a Republican, he'd have been history long ago. I think he needs medication and retirement.
Hollings, of course, is an idiot.
However, I have no problem in supporting Israel's need for security. The intervention in Iraq should eventually lead to resolving the Palestine/Israel issue.
Israel is one of our few no-questions-asked allies.
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