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.
I assume you mean political assasination. I am not a fan of Schmidt myself. She is a bit of a loose cannon, and not reflective or thoughtful from what I have seen, nor effective. But she speaks her mind, candidly. That would be grand, if only her mind where a bit more, well whatever. I make this statement not as an ideological one. Some troglos I admire, including Senator Coburn and McClintock in California. I admire politicians who enhance rather than detract from an intelligent debate in the public square, and effectively influence it.
Shirley MacLaine, the moonbat, is Jackie's godmother.
Where the hell did this stuff come from? 1984?
Is McEwen really your white knight? That would be quite odd. Hasn't he found some alternative productive line of work yet?
She should become a Libertarian.
Check this out!
There's a difference between stating an intelligent opinion about where the drinking age should be, and stating, "I hate that woman" and booing Elizabeth Dole at a Republican convention. Obviously all Republican delegates should boo and express their hate at all speakers they have a different opinion with.
And it was dumb to mention Hitler, because it gives ammunition to the enemy. But all she said if you look at it closely is that Young Republicans look too serious.
Of course, it's only wrong to compare others to Hitler when it's Howard Dean or Paul Hackett who does it. If Mean Jean wanted to say that some Republicans should loosen up, why not just say that? Why does she have to compare them to the Hitler youth?
Lots of crusaders for never-gonna-win candidates around FR lately.
I have some theories:
(a) A lot of trolls have come out of the woodwork campaigning against Republican incumbents. They post smear articles (though none as bizarre as this) and claim to be on a Quixotic quest for a nobody candidate.
(b) A Murtha fan.
I never mentioned anything about McEwen. And in last year's special election I voted for neither McEwen nor Schmidt.
OK. His name came up.
My comments were with respect to the mental stability of the originator of this thread, as his posts demonstrate a notable lack thereof. No one is calling Rep. Schmidt the best or most effective member of Congress, only that her lone opponent is a failed gadfly who needlessly lost, through his own actions (as being one of the biggest check-kiters of the early '90s), a safe GOP seat that was won by the 'Rat standard-bearer for Governor this year (whom, if he wins, will owe Mr. McEwen a considerable debt of gratitude for putting him on the road to victory).
Were the aforementioned poster to back a more ethical and respectable candidate instead of an obsessed-to-win loser, he might be on to something. As it stands, he comes on here regularly to attack the Congresswoman in an irrational and pathological manner, posting half-truths and innuendoes (and now, old garbage like this) to try to bolster the candidacy of a damaged individual that could cost us this seat in November, and I feel that the woman is at least deserving of a modest amount of respect and defense.
Is this media payback for her lambasting of Murtha?
I think I like "Mean" Jean better all the time.
You know you're over the target if you're getting flak. ;o)
The subject poster has now distanced itself from McEwen. Cheers.
Assuming you aren't a troll, you're the worst kind of activist. You get all worked up about one candidate, believing the sun rises and sets with him, and when he loses (miserably) in the primary, you burn all of your bridges behind you.
Here were the outcomes of the special election:
Jean Schmidt 31.37%
Bob McEwen 25.53%
Tom Brinkman 20.40%
Pat DeWine 11.97%
(This kind of split tells us why Hackett even placed in the election, BTW.)
So, whomever you support, you support not only a loser, but someone who couldn't even make the top 2.
Torie, don't get me wrong. Though I didn't vote for McEwen or Schmidt last time and I'm not close to either, in this year's 2-way race I'll vote for McEwen this time.
It comes down to the issues. Jean Schmidt was a reliable supporter of Bob Taft and all his tax hikes, while Bob McEwen was a reliable supporter of Ronald Reagan and his tax cuts. In a race between a Taft Republican and a Reagan Republican, I'll support the Reagan Republican anytime.
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