E-mails to Jews link Obama, Third Reich

E-mail campaign continues the nastiest of nasty electoral tactics.

Published October 28, 2008 12:53PM (EDT)

At this point, no campaign attack or nasty tactic should really surprise us. We've seen the Britney/Paris ad. We've heard the Ayers/terrorism robo-calls. We've suffered through lectures about socialism from the governor of the state that receives more per capita from Washington than any other. And yesterday came the inevitable Rev. Jeremiah Wright television ad.

Now comes word of e-mails, sent by some entity called the Republican Committee of PA to 75,000 Jews in Pennsylvania and warning that "Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision ... Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year!"

Jake Tapper of ABC has more:

"The Republican Party of Pennsylvania did not authorize that e-mail," Michael Barley, communications director for the state party, asserted to The Associated Press.

Who authorized it?

"I'm not looking to drag anyone else through the mud, so I'm not naming names right now," Rudnick said

Yes, why drag anyone ELSE through the mud?

But Political consultant Bryan Rudnick -- hired by the PA GOP as a consultant to do outreach to Jewish voters -- told the AP, however, that, "I had authorization from party officials" to send the e-mail.


By Thomas Schaller

Thomas F. Schaller is professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the author of "Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South." Follow him @schaller67.

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2008 Elections John Mccain R-ariz.