He’s been a U.S. Senate candidate — if you can even really call him that — for less than three weeks now in an election that’s more than six months away, but former RNC National Committeeman Buddy Witherspoon is already embroiled in a mess that threatens to sink his fledgling campaign. And rather than deal with 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 supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), from which he was asked to resign by numerous national and state party officials. But on Wednesday, he vehemently denied those charges, telling the Spartanburg Herald Journal that it was “absurd” to suggest he was ever a member of such a group.
Some political Web sites on Tuesday claimed that Witherspoon had ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens as recently as 1999. The organization has been branded a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League and says in its mission statement that it opposes “all efforts to mix the races of mankind.”
The group’s Web site posted Witherspoon’s campaign schedule.
“Those claims are totally absurd,” Witherspoon said. “It’s unfortunate that just because you disagree with an individual and stand up to the plate that this sort of thing happens. I’ve been to one meeting years ago where I introduced a U.S. congressman, and that was it.” [CHRISTINE BOUSH - Herald Journal]
But in 1999, Witherspoon was quoted in the Washington Post as saying he belonged to the group, which the story said was created from the ashes of the segregationist White Citizens Councils, the John Birch Society and activists in the presidential campaigns of then-Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace.
In South Carolina, Republican National Committeeman Buddy Witherspoon is a member of the group. It was at his invitation that Barr addressed a national council meeting in Charleston last year.
Witherspoon said: “I’m a member. I’m not that active, I don’t go to all the things.” He described the organization as a regular conservative advocacy group. “They have always been people I have had no problem with,” he said. “Everything to me is fine from what I see and hear.” [THOMAS B. EDSALL - Washington Post]
Yes, a “regular conservative advocacy group” that claims it’s mission is to “oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, 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.”
Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the kind of advocacy South Carolinians want from their U.S. Senator.
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Photo: Buddy Witherspoon. Courtesy of Spartanburg Herald Journal.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 3:16 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.
I asked Witherspoon about the Washington Post citation, and he says it’s bogus—just like all of these accusations. Would be great for the Jena case, though—where racism is worse than murder. Oh, I forgot… they announced the verdict today, and it wasn’t in favor of Jesse Jackson. Maybe you can tell us… How bad does it suck to have to defend amnesty?
Wait… so Witherspoon said the Washington Post (Thomas B. Edsall) just made the quote up? Because that’s a pretty serious accusation.
If he really stands by that claim, have him e-mail me a statement (editor@palmettoscoop.com) with the details and I’ll post it unedited.
First off, I’m not a member of CofCC.
1. Isn’t it possible that the CofCC’s Statement of Principles have been changed since Witherspoon was associated with the group?
2. Isn’t it possible that Witherspoon wasn’t aware of the nature of the CofCC when he was associated? It sounds like others weren’t.
3. Isn’t it possible that Witherspoon was friendly with the organisation because of their common cause, defending the battle flag, without his actually joining? If the CofCC and Witherspoon both deny this, then clearly it’s not true: Witherspoon was clearly not a member.
Everyone I’ve spoken with who knows Witherspoon says he’s not a racist…
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Isn’t this deflecting Graham’s own racist ties to La Raza?
Witherspoon will clearly defend America’s borders, Graham won’t. That Witherspoon attended a CofCC meeting some years ago will not keep me from voting for him, and I doubt it will bother most others in SC. We want Graham gone!
To play devil’s advocate, because I’m just as curious about this as y’all: Why wouldn’t he just say that instead of denying his association altogether?
He clearly said he was a member in 1999, and until there’s reason to believe that the Washington Post just made up the quote, then he’s going to have to do more than deny everything.
If the group has drastically changed their principles since he was a member — which is highly unlikely given that they grew from the White Citizen’s Councils — then he should just say that. But he isn’t.
Instead, he’s trying to distance himself. He’s doing that because he knows that it was wrong of him to be a member in such a group.
[...] of Capitol Hill, is already discrediting him as “too controversial” due to his membership in the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. Witherspoon, a Columbia dentist, looks like a credible challenger on [...]
If you consider the Duke Lacrosse players’ case, the Knoxville Massacre, and countless other black or Hispanic on white crimes that are never reported in the mass media, why shouldn’t whites have an organization that advocates for their survival and interests? Do you like affirmative action and uncontrolled immigration? I don’t. Jeff Rock Hill and a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens
[...] can you tell from the opening of the ad that Witherspoon is/was a member of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens? Thankfully, most South Carolinians [...]
Hahahaha…more bogus about Witherspoon? Grahamnesty will stop at nothing! The author of this is a liar. No case can be made to support his candidate so he resorts to these tired old tactics.