SENATOR: ‘THEY APOLOGIZED AS THEY SHOULD HAVE’

The U.S. Senator at the center of an unwelcome media storm over an anti-Semitic statement made by two South Carolina GOP County chairmen is speaking out.

Sen. Jim DeMint Tuesday formally denounced James Ulmer and Edwin Merwin, the chairmen of the Republican Party in Orangeburg and Bamberg counties, for a guest editorial published Sunday in a South Carolina newspaper.

“I just read the op-ed last night and the comments were thoughtless and hurtful,” DeMint said in a statement to CNN Tuesday. “The chairmen have apologized as they should have.”

In the editorial, Ulmer and Merwin said, “There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves.” That statement, the chairmen said, was akin to DeMint’s opposition to Congressional earmarks.

The comment went largely unnoticed until The Palmetto Scoop covered it Monday, noting that “it’s people like Ulmer and Merwin that make many folks fear for the future of the once Grand Ole Party.”