CHALLENGER TO GRAHAM ALLEGEDLY HAS LONGSTANDING WHITE SUPREMACIST TIES
Outside of South Carolina political insiders, few people would recognize the name Buddy Witherspoon. Few people would know that he is a dentist from Columbia and has served as the state’s RNC national committeeman since 1996 (it’s likely even fewer people have any idea what an RNC committeeman does, if anything).
And so it’s not exactly shocking that few people know he will be challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham in the GOP primary next year — which could be a big problem for state Republicans.
It’s a problem because having someone like Witherspoon considered a serious contender for a U.S. Senate seat could be incredibly embarrassing for the party. Nevermind the fact that he has absolutely no legislative experience whatsoever. Nevermind the fact that, compared to his opponent, Witherspoon’s current bank account and name recognition make him about as well prepared as Britney Spears at a custody hearing.
How about the fact that he has alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan and is a card-carrying member of the extreme right wing Council of Conservative Citizens? From a Jan. 21, 1999 article in The State, appropriately titled, “GOP asks Witherspoon to resign ‘racist’ group”:
His association with the group, they maintained, means more bad publicity for the party at a time it’s trying to expand its base.
“The last thing our party needs in trying to make inroads into the black community is to have one of our state leaders aligning himself with this organization,” said Charleston County GOP Chairman Mark Hartley. “This doesn’t put the party in a good light.” [...]
On Tuesday, RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson appealed to Witherspoon to quit the council because “it appears this group does hold racist views.”
Witherspoon, an orthodontist who is a member of the council, told Nicholson on Tuesday he had no intention of resigning. He insisted the group holds no racist views, but is simply an advocate for conservative causes, especially the right to display the Confederate flag in the South.
But state GOP Chairman Henry McMaster portrayed the organization as “a militant group with racial overtones. It is not the kind of group that most Republicans would want to be associated with. I would not join such a group.” [LEE BANDY - The State]
The group appears to hold racist views? A quick visit to their blog/website took a matter of seconds to prove that true. Today’s top post “discussing” the “UN Best Places to Live Index” contained only two brief sentences:
UN lists majority white Ireland, Norway, Australia, Canada, and Ireland as the five best places in the world to live. Says the 22 worst places to live are all in Sub-Sahara Africa.
The rest of the website follows pretty much the same pattern, including a statement of principles that proudly declares, “We oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called ‘affirmative action’ and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.”
It should come as no surprise then that other sources are beginning to pick up on Witherspoon’s record. An exhaustive in-depth post on the subject which appeared Sunday on Blogcritics Magazine detailed even more alleged “white supremacist ties.”
Marcus Epstein is founder of the Robert A. Taft Club, denounced by the SPLC as an extremist organization. Epstein hosted Witherspoon’s first fundraiser. He is a regular contributor to the racist VDARE, owned by Peter Brimelow who has National Socialist ties. He also contributes to the racist publication American Renaissance, which is edited by Jared Taylor, another noted extremist with National Socialist ties. Epstein has also appeared on The Political Cesspool, a white supremacist radio program hosted by James Edwards. The Political Cesspool, like the other organizations, also proudly admits to hosting a plethora of KKK, white supremacists and Neo-Nazi “personalities”.
And they found something else too:
There is one absolutely fascinating aspect in all of the efforts to separate Lindsey Graham from his Senate seat. Most if not all proponents of the movement are avid supporters of GOP Presidential hopeful Ron Paul. There is an undisguised close association with the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. There is also a very close association with organizations tied to anti-immigration godfather, John Tanton. There is one other absolutely fascinating aspect to all of this. If you do a little investigating, Americans Have Had Enough is based out of South Carolina, but one of the leaders is a Coloradoan named Jacque Ponder. Ponder works directly with Congressman Tom Tancredo.
Ha, Ron Paul supporters! There’s a shocker.
So what does this mean for his hopes of defeating Graham? I’m inclined to agree with FITSNews that, assuming Witherspoon can somehow overcome his racist ties, he’ll still barely be treading water.
Witherspoon, while he may be able to escape the accusations of racism, doesn’t appear to be such an opponent. His campaign is poised to be the classic “one-trick political pony,” hammering away on the immigration issue but offering little else of substance.
One thing is for sure, whether it’s the Graham camp’s well-organized assault on Witherspoon’s credibility or Witherspoon backers promising to “fight fire with fire,” this race promises to be hugely entertaining as whackos on both the right and the left will no doubt pull out the heavy artillery.
The bottom line is that we as Republicans, we as South Carolinians, we as Americans and we as human beings don’t need this. Our future should not be about replicating the bigotry or hatred of our past. Our future should be about working toward positive solutions to the problems that threaten to tear us apart, be it illegal immigration or something else. If we give this guy the time of day, we will seriously regret it.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 12:32 pm and is filed under U.S. Congress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This article sucks 15 ways to Sunday. Come on! Puffing up Grahamesty is going to be harder than this.
[...] So check out The Scoop’s piece on Buddy Witherspoon. Come back here later and we will tell you why we support Lindsey Graham’s re-election to the US Senate. [...]
Tim,
How’s that Hank Williams Jr. song go?
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s really not cool to be a bigot anymore. Sorry man, let me hand you your hat… there’s the door.
I will let the various inaccuracies and distortions get handled by others, but I would like to correct some inaccuracies about myself.
First of all I never hosted a fundraiser for Buddy Witherspoon, so this whole attempt to use me in your web of “guilt by associations” is completely pointless.
Secondly of all, I have never written for American Renaissance.
As for the Robert Taft Club, which I founded, it is a perfectly mainstream group. Anyone who has attended our meetings will see that it is mainly people from mainstream conservative organizations socializing and listening to prominent thinkers that have included heads of think tanks, best selling authors, professors, Congressmen etc. I encourage any of your readers to go to roberttaft.org and judge for themselves.
VDARE is a website that deals frankly with immigration. I have never heard of anyone even accusing it of having “National Socialist Ties.” As my name suggests, I’m Jewish as are a number of other VDARE columnists– a bit odd for a “National Socialist.” The site is the product of Peter Brimelow who used to be a senior editor at National Review and Forbes. I beleive he came up with the quip “A racist is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal” which seems particularly appropriate here. Again, I urge your readers to go to vdare.com and judge for themselves
The final accusation is that I have been a guest on the Political Cesspool which has also had some disreputable guests such as David Duke. Generally if someone wants to interview me on their show, I will agree to do so. I do not check to see who else has been a guest. David Duke has been a guest on NBC, does that mean I can’t be interviewed by them for being accused of racist. I am responsible for what I say, not for what other guests on the show may have said. If I recall correctly, when I was a guest I spoke about how open borders would ruin the GOP, which again seems relevant to this campaign.
Instead of actually attacking anything that I have written or said as being “racist” all you are doing is attacking me for associations (some of which don’t exist) of supposed racists. The same is being done with Buddy. You are trying to tar him not based on the issues, but because you say he attended a fundraiser (which he didn’t) by me and I’m supposedly tied to a bunch of racists, which I’m not.
Finally, while we are attacking people for connections–I’d obviously point to Graham’s association with the racist anti-white hate group La Raza (the Race) where he accepted an award and attacked opponents of amnesty as “bigots” (hmm.) who he said he’d “shut up.”
I suggest that every reader look at the sources the Palmetto Scoop uses.
The main “exhaustive” article was merely reprinted by blogcritics. It was originally at “The Pink Flamingo” http://thepinkflamingo.blogharbor.com/blog If you can read through all the garbage, you will see that it is a leftist Republican blog trying to make the GOP support the gay, pro-abortion, and open borders agenda, which is why it naturally likes Graham.
Next the ADL, who launched an exhaustive attack on the Religious Right who spends the majority of its time attacking the Christian Right as bigots. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=643063&contrassID=25&subContrassID=0&listSrc=Y&startIndex=3&firstTime=N
Then the Southern Poverty Law Center an openly left wing mouthpiece which is coming close to calling the Sons of Confederate Veterans a hate group, and attacks virtually every single Republican and conservative they can. One of their great “victories” was suing the State of Alabama to make it take down the 10 commandments from their courtrooms. http://www.splcenter.org/center/splcreport/article.jsp?aid=12
That Lindsay Graham needs to use such left wing shills to do his dirty work, shows who is the real bigot.
Appears that while no longer a ‘member’ per se, Witherspoon still hangs out with the Council of Conservative Citizens crowd. Check out the front page of their website. Seems Witherspoon has some interesting friends pumping up his campaign.
Buddy Witherspoon Speaking Tour
http://heritagelost.wordpress.com/
again the choice is a racist or a biggot? Is that the best South Carolina can do? I certainly hope NOT
[...] interesting is that Witherspoon responded to the accusations of racism and bigotry brought up by Rick Quinn’s blog and Will Folks, further showing the importance of new media in today’s political [...]
Dr.Witherspoon has openly stated that his association with the CofCC was because of it’s role in defending the Confederate flag and protesting it’s removal from the State Capitol. Any attempt to paint Dr. Witherspoon as a racist is the sad attempt of those covering for Lindsey Graham’s abominable stances on immigration, judges, and his poor judgment in standing side by side with Ted Kennedy. Let’s elect a true conservative that will make South Carolina proud.
Marcus’s post is perfect. What’s more, is that all of the links described in this article have bogus sources. The worst of them is the attempted connection to the KKK and crazy behavior with a white sheet and pillow case. That was some fantasy from a website called Radio Left, which appears to be too extreme for Al Franken.
I mean, really, nobody’s trying to be a bigot and proud. The era of the angry politician is surprisingly ending with John McCain.
All I’m saying is to, come on, check your sources a little a better, and at least make an effort not to mimic Al Sharpton. Actually, he’s kind of cool sometimes. Who else can go around acting that stupid and crazy and still be taken seriously?
And, no, actually, Witherspoon has never been a member of the CCC. Lindsey could probably benefit from rubbing noses with them a little, though.
Tim,
You may want to study up on the logical fallacy Argumentum ad Hominem, because it seems to comprise the majority of your arguments.
Bartleby defines it as, “appealing to personal considerations rather than to logic or reason,” and it basically goes like this:
Even a fool like Al Sharpton or the people at Radio Left can make a good point. Just because they were the “source” doesn’t mean their information was incorrect.
Did you read the Radio Left stuff? It’s obviously inflammatory. Even the CCC will tell you that Witherspoon has never been a member. The KKK and white sheets stuff is so far out there that I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you won’t stand by that part.
Buddy made a $25 donation after speaking to the CCC a long time ago. But so has almost every other Republican leader. Sanford, Bush, and countless other Republicans have spoken to the NAACP and were much more friendly than $25.
Not to drag this out too much, but it’s just weird to brand a friend as something that is totally foreign to him.
By your logic, should we believe the insane rants that appear on serious leftist magazine websites, like The Nation and The New Republic? They are convinced that W has had a lobotomy and America is populated and controlled by redneck fundamentalists.
I know, sometimes we can wish they were right.
[...] it, he’s chosen to take the Bill Clinton approach and deny, deny, deny. The Palmetto Scoop wrote Tuesday that Witherspoon has alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan and is a card-carrying member of the white [...]
“Just because they were the “source” doesn’t mean their information was incorrect.”
They have no proof… If I claim Graham is tied to MS-13 (a violent Latino gang), and there probably was a member listening at that speech of his at La Raza (a racist Latino organisation that wants the Southwest to secede from the US - how much more extreme can you get than Spanish for “The Race?”), and then The Shot (which I regularly read) quotes me, does that make it true? I have no idea if Graham is really tied to MS-13, though he certainly seems to like Mexicans in that notorious speech of his.
Speaking of the speech, I’m willing to bet Graham won’t be able to recover from it. What’s his approval rating now? Is it still in the 30s and slightly higher among Democrats? That speech is going to be broadcast throughout South Carolina before the primary. And Graham’s horrible voting record… what’s his selling point - that he wants to bomb Iraqis? The war is losing popularity, and Graham’s finished. I have no idea why bombing Iraqis is popular, but even that won’t save your boss, Graham.
And back to Witherspoon, you must realise you’re smearing an innocent man. Most every Southerner whose ancestors passed down stories of Northern total war and exploitation loves that flag. That Witherspoon defended it doesn’t make him a racist and you know it. That flag is extremely popular in South Carolina; when governor Beasley opposed it, he lost his job. Witherspoon’s great sin then is that he’s a patriotic South Carolinian who defended what the majority of the state wished to be defended.
[...] The CCC is upset because the guys at the Scoop called them out for what they are – racist whackos. Sure, the blog is operated out of Rick Quinn’s office, and he’s tight with the bachelor senator, but one seriously doubts this is any part of Graham’s campaign strategy. [...]
“A racist is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal”
Disparage, berate & beguile. It’s the liberal way. So easily taken to by amnesty & NAFTA supportes.
Hey all you Buddy supporters. How’d that work out for you? You didn’t really expect to get anywhere with this loser, did you?
No posts in 6 days? What’s the matter Adam, still strung out from Lindsey’s victory party?
Better watch out for that Bob Conley guy though; reading about him isn’t triggering my “lesser of two evils” sense nearly as much as I expected.