Posted on 10/09/2010 7:26:13 AM PDT by tlb
Rich Iott, the Tea Party-supported GOP nominee for Congress in Ohio's 9th District, is part of a group that likes to don German Waffen SS uniforms and participate Nazi re-enactments, Atlantic journalist Josh Green revealed on Real Time with Bill Maher.
The group, called Wiking, acts out exploits from the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, an actual Nazi division, which fought on the Eastern Front during World War II .
Iott, who confirms his involvement with the group, denies any belief in the principles of Nazism.
"It's purely historical interest in World War II," he told the Atlantic.
Iott can't remember when he joined the group, although his name appears on a group roster from 2003. He says he participated in the group with his son "as a father-son bonding thing."
While Iott neglects to address Jewish voters he might have offended, he does address veterans in an e-mail to the Atlantic: "Never, in any of my reenacting of military history, have I meant any disrespect to anyone who served in our military or anyone who has been affected by the tragedy of war. In fact, I have immense respect for veterans who served our country valiantly, and my respect of the military and our veterans is one of the reasons I have actively studied military history throughout my life."
Incidentally, there is no longer any mention of Iott -- also a member of the NRCC's Young Guns Program -- on the Wiking website and all photographs of the Congressional candidate have been removed.
I have immense respect for veterans who served our country valiantly, and my respect of the military and our veterans is one of the reasons I have actively studied military history throughout my life.”
Short sighted morons...
True, the German goverment army recuited(drafted) from all areas that they controlled.
Is he ahead in the polls?
It's WAR re-enactment. Someone has to be the "good" guys, an someone the "bad".
I hope some lessons are learned from this nonsense.
Come on, it’s just re-enacting a historical time and a hobby. We have plenty of guys in Wisconsin that wear grey in Civil War re-enactments and they were not and are not going to be slave owners.
Leftists actively embrace fascism and implement fascism in America.
If you want to see German fascism in America, join the democrat party or any eco-fascist “environmental” group.
The entire federal bureaucracy is infested with fascists, cheered on by the Goebbel’s propagandists in the so-called “media.”
The US Interior Department is one example of a federal bureaucracy filled with fascists. It carries out a mandate to control private property for the common good, as defined by the bureaucracy. Controlling private property is one of the primary tenets of fascism. This fascist mandate cannot be found in the original legislation that formed Interior. Interior is a rogue department illegally operating outside the bounds of Constitutional law.
Interior illegally implemented the UN’s Biodiversity Treaty after the US Senate rejected it in 1994. That action alone is reason to bring the leadership of Interior before a court of law to answer charges of sedition.
The order to implement this illegal treaty came from the treasonous President Clinton. Clinton was the most fascist president since FDR, and the stink of fascism can be found in numerous illegal executive orders Clinton signed. Impeaching him for the blue dress was not the right target. Congress had the opportunity to expose the fascist cabal to America, but refused to do so.
If leftists want to talk about who are the fascists in this country, I’m willing to join that discussion.
Whats th excitement?
Bill Maher dresses as a man every day - now that is pretending.
And someone has to be the winning congressional candidate. The winning congressional candidate is the one who doesn’t get photographed in a Nazi uniform.
Agreed. The caterwauling on this is disappointing.
His name is not Lott. His name is Iott.
Pavlov smiles....
You have been conditioned well...
Funny...Mel brooks was honored at the kennedy center for dressing up as Hitler...
OR THIS!!!
Now, THEEEESE we should worry about!
UHHH, I think Waffen SS were.
So, they were recreating the Second World War, dressed as Germans and allies.
It’s kind of like when we were kids and played cowboys and Indians.
After all, somebody has to be politically incorrect and play cowboy, or there wouldn’t be any fun!
How politically correct of you.
Let's talk facts:
(1) If a voter sees a candidate dressed up in a Nazi uniform, he will not wait for an explanation or an excuse. He will move on in 90% of cases. That's reality.
(2) Most people think that reenactors are weird. This is because so many of them are. I am not a reenactor, but I am a Friend of the National Military Park at Gettysburg and I know hundreds of reenactors. They're a lovable but eccentric bunch.
(3) This reenactment group is far more sinister than the usual harmless reenactment group. Iott's group specializes in reenacting warfare on the Russian front by dressing as members of the SS. Most American WWII reenactors reenact engagements in which American troops were involved, like the Bulge. The bad guys normally dress in German Army uniforms, not SS uniforms with elaborate Nazi insignia. Iott's group calls itself "Wiking" the name of an SS unit and they reenact engagements in which no US troops were involved. Reenactors do not name their groups after the people they perceive as bad guys, but the people that they perceive as good guys. The more that is learned about this group, the more disturbing the details will be.
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