AZ-05: What Not To Say In A Synagogue

It's bad enough when you're listed as one of the worst Congressmen in America on issues facing the Jewish-American community. So you compound it by sending campaign surrogates that say this?

Unable to defend his repeated praise of Henry Ford's anti-Semitic "Americanization" program, U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth bailed on a scheduled campaign appearance Tuesday evening [Source: Arizona Republic, Oct. 17, 2006] only to send in his place surrogates who repeatedly lectured the audience at Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale and proclaimed that Hayworth "is a more observant Jew" than those present (he isn't Jewish -ed).

The comment by Jonathan Tratt, a spokesman for the Hayworth campaign, drew loud and angry boos and caused nearly three-quarters of the crowd of more than 200 to walk out in disgust. After the walkout, another Hayworth surrogate, Irit Tratt, stood on the Temple's bimah as she told members of the audience who gathered to ask questions, "No wonder there are anti-Semites."

I've seen JD Hayworth on plenty of the shouting head shows, and he's a grade-A bully. Voters don't really like being insulted to this degree, I'm guessing.

In case you're scoring at home, Republican spokesmen have been convicted of rape (Mike Tyson) and murder (Don King); show up in photographs with David Duke; and understand why people would be anti-Semitic.

By the way, I went to see what those members of the conservosphere who always accuse "the Left" of being anti-Semitic themselves had to say about this development.

Crickets.