Posted on 03/08/2006 8:01:25 PM PST by conservative_2001
As a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1984, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) expressed her contempt for a future colleague and allegedly likened young Republican activists to Hitler, according to an interview published by the local paper at the time.
While shadowing Schmidt at the convention, The Cincinnati Enquirer reporter initially described Schmidt as a “woman who will speak her mind whenever she pleases.”
Schmidt, who was 32 at the time, provided evidence for this assessment during her time with the reporter, who quoted her taking issue with future Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), who was then President Reagan’s transportation secretary. During her tenure at Transportation, Dole wanted to impose a nationwide drinking age of 21.
“I hate that woman,” she told the reporter. “I just can’t stand her. Anyone who wants to force an increase in the drinking age to 21. … She can send our boys off to fight wars when they’re 17 and 18 but won’t let them drink till they’re 21.”
She added, “That stinks.”
The article also details her “booing” during a Dole appearance at the convention.
A spokeswoman for Dole, chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, declined to comment for this report.
Barry Bennett, Schmidt’s chief of staff, said, “The conservatives and the moderates didn’t get along very well in the 1980s. You can’t take a remark in the heat of a campaign out of context. That’s not fair.”
Bennett added that Schmidt was a Reagan supporter when the article was written.
Later in the article, while expressing her opinions about young Republican activists, she said, “They look like young Hitlers to me. … They’re so grim and deadly serious about the cause.”
“How are we going to attract mainstream kids to our party, kids who like to have fun and don’t take themselves so seriously?” she asked.
Bennett disputed that Schmidt made the comment, explaining that her twin sister, Jennifer Black, who was also mentioned in the paragraph, made the remark.
When asked to comment about her sister’s supposed remark, Bennett replied, “I don’t work for her sister.”
Michael Harlow, a spokesman for former Rep. Bob McEwen (R-Ohio), who is challenging Schmidt in the May primary, said, “It is disappointing to hear the contempt Mrs. Schmidt holds for Senator Dole, a woman who Bob McEwen and most Americans hold in very high esteem.”
He added: “Also, the hardworking activists she called ‘Hitlers’ were instrumental in our successful efforts to gain the majority for just the second time in 70 years.”
Schmidt defeated McEwen in an 11-candidate primary in July in a special election to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who became the U.S. trade representative.
James P. Urling, chairman of the Cincinnati-based Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), a group founded by another former Schmidt opponent, Tom Brinkman, said, “Jean Schmidt has a history of nasty barbs aimed at values we all hold dear.”
Schmidt faces a primary in May against McEwen as well as a general election in November. Brinkman has since dubbed Schmidt “Mean Jean” and has called her a “pathological liar.”
Bennett responded by calling Brinkman “the king of outrageous comments” and "a fringe player in politics in Cincinnati."
Schmidt’s unabashed candor became national news and the butt of a joke on "Saturday Night Live" in November. She had made negative remarks about 17th-term Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) after he called for Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq. Schmidt later withdrew her words.
On Tuesday, Schmidt removed a claim on her website that Reps. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) had endorsed her in the Republican primary this year after Tancredo and Chabot’s office said it was not true.
No problemo.
That's all I wanted to know.
It was one article, you didn't have to post it twice.
But the blog posts in the second were revealing.
So, when Schmidt wins the primary, will you start supporting the Democrat?
Out of nothing but curiosity, what do you think of John Murtha?
Well, her comments about the drinking age, and the Dole's are spot on. One cannot like Reagan and the Dole's at the same time. The Dole's are the antithesis of the Reagan wing of the party.
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You nailed it. Well said.
No. I'm finished discussing this with out of state people.
Given the last name of the author of this piece, I wonder if the author has a dog in this hunt?
No, she's just the one doing the reporting...
Then you'd better ask JimRob to kill your account. This is a national (nay, international) forum, and if you don't like American citizens commenting on who you want to send to the Congress that will make laws for all of us, then you'd better get back to spamming that Cincinnati blog the other Schmidt-hater linked to.
As I said in one of my posts, Dennis does have a daughter Jackie, but his daughter would be around 20 and I can't believe that The Hill would hire a 20-year-old as a full-time writer.
The original quotes came from a 1984 Cincinnati Enquirer article. The Enquirer endorsed Schmidt in 2005, so I don't think they're involved in a conspiracy against her. The Hill is a high quality newspaper that gives a ton of information about Capitol Hill politics. If anyone thinks the Hill is biased against them, they need to remove their tin foil hats.
As for the author, even if this was Dennis' daughter and she was as bad as he was, I'm not sure she'd spend her time to help a candidate who's as conservative as Steve Chabot. If Jackie wanted to fill Congress with liberals, she wouldn't be helping someone as conservative as Bob McEwen. There's plenty of Republican incumbents vulnerable to Democratic challengers. And this conveniently ignores the fact that reporters have editors who assign and review stories before publication.
McEwen faced questions about the bounced checks he had written on the House bank. Buchert ran campaign commercials citing McEwen's checks, the expenses of his Congressional office, and his campaign finance disclosures, while noting Portman was "the handpicked choice of the downtown money crowd" and was "a registered foreign agent for the biggest Democrat lobbying firm in Washington," labeling Portman and McEwen "Prince Rob and Bouncing Bob."[48] McEwen, who had taken a hard-line on his checks in 1992, relented in the campaign. Martin Gottlieb wrote, "McEwen says now that his problem was a form of excessive pride. He says he used to 'demand perfection' of himself." McEwen also said, "I felt I could never admit a mistake. . . . I am very, very sorry. I should have watched it more carefully. . . . I have learned a great deal." [49] Les Spaeth, chairman of the Warren County Republican Party and former Warren County Auditor, said, "People very much disliked the check overdraft thing, but I think they don't see it as happening again. I think it's past. He made a mistake and he got caught. But that's overridden by the service he's given, particularly to our county." [50]
She claimed Chabot endorsed her? How dumb does she think the voters are?
I mean anyone can google the cake incident.
Oh boy. Now Jean Schmidt lied on her resume. 700 WLW news radio reported she is claiming two bachelor's degrees and only earned one. She has since scrubbed her web site, but you can still read it in the League of Women Voter's Smart Voter guide from 6/14/2005...
The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that her Chief of Staff stated she DID earn the degree but just didn't collect it...
Anyone buying that story?
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