Posted on 10/09/2010 11:04:59 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Rich Iott, the House Republican nominee in Ohio’s 9th district, belongs to a group that reenacts World War II battles as a Nazi SS division.
Iott confirmed to The Atlantic that he has been a member of the group, called Wiking, for years but that his participation stems from his interest in history.
"In fact, there's a disclaimer on the [Wiking] website,” he told The Atlantic, which first reported his membership. “And you'll find that on almost any reenactment website. It's purely historical interest in World War II."
Iott is seen in photos dressed up in a Nazi military uniform. The group says its name come from the 5th Panzer Division Wiking, which was an armored tank division that included foreigners and mainly fought against Russians on the Eastern Front. A recruiting video on the Wiking site, shows members of the group marching, shooting rifles and performing drills as if they’re German soldiers.
Iott is challenging 14-term Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D), who represents a northern Ohio district that includes Toledo. Iott, a former president and CEO of a supermarket chain, is a member of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Young Guns program, which promotes promising GOP challengers in this year’s House races.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) criticized Iott’s membership in the group and Republican leaders for backing him.
“It sends a chilling message to all Americans, especially to veterans and to those of the Jewish faith that John Boehner and the Republican leadership in Washington would actively seek out a candidate like this and embrace him,” said Ryan Rudominer, a DCCC spokesman.
Iott, who serves as a colonel in the Ohio Military Reserve, told The Atlantic that he found the German war effort in World War II “incredible” from “a purely historical military point of view.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
And I played the Wicked Witch of the West in middle school. Guess I shouldn’t run for public office, as there are photos of me practicing black magic and abusing a little girl and her dog.
There really needs to be better vetting of candidates. Opportunities will be missed in a number of races this year because of sloppiness.
Is this guy a veteran or not? His military service isn’t outlined very well in his biography.
So I guess those guys who dress up as Confederates to re-enact Civil War battles should not run for office. Same for those who wear British red for Revolutionary War re-enactments . . .
He wasn’t in middle school. He was a grown man wearing a Nazi uniform. He can give all the explanations he wants, but the voters simply will not care.
I’ll start reading those demo-stupid-ic barf-O-grams right after they start looking into the Dung-Beetle-in-Chief’s background.
Nice try, libs.
Love the best you can do.
Bring it on.
The guy also dressed up as an American WWI and WWII soldier and a Civil War soldier. This is a hit job, pure and simple. Its shameful even by the low standards of the MSM. They are deliberately creating an image that is not true. The guy likes military history, not Nazism.
What if it were a gay NAZI troupe because the real NAZIs had snazzy uniform designers?
There’s a difference between a child playing a witch and a grown man dressing in an SS uniform.
And why do they have to play the role of the Nazis? Weren’t the achievements of American units at places like Omaha, Bastogne and Anzio also “impressive from a purely historical standpoint”?
This can only hurt him in the race.
Indeed. I sympathize with people having a great interest in WWII and a certain admiration of the German war machine. But if you ever want to run for pubic office, you just can't be photographed running around in Waffen SS uniforms.
I am not sure if this was a competitive seat anyway, but this kind of thing will seriously hurt whatever chances we had.
Did the Confederates or George III’s troops systematically try to exterminate an entire people? Most American voters can absorb a guy dressed like Robert E. Lee or Cornwallis, but not wearing the exact same insignia as Josef Mengele.
I saw a movie once without a nazi reference
How about if one was in the Musical called The Sound of Music? People play Nazis in that. Sounds like the libs forgot what it’s like to be on stage. Pity, history is what history is, what are they going to ask for next? Replace swastikas on a stage or film actor’s costume with a letter X?
The problem is that the group named itself after the Nazi unit they emulated. You don’t name your group after the bad guys. Confederate reenactors do not call their group “Sherman’s Marchers.”
Lives in his mom’s basement?
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