SC, NATIONAL LEADERS RESPOND TO CHAIRMENS’ DEFENSE OF DEMINT

Less than 24 hours after The Palmetto Scoop first shed light on an anti-Semitic statement in a guest editorial by two South Carolina Republican Party chairmen, leaders from across the state and country responded with almost unanimous criticism.

In the editorial, Bamberg County GOP Chairman Edwin Merwin and Orangeburg County GOP Chairman James Ulmer wrote, “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 two chairmen said, was akin to U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint’s opposition to Congressional earmarks.

The comment went entirely unnoticed until TPS 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.”

One of South Carolina’s two Jewish state legislators, Sen. Joel Lourie (D-Richland), weighed in Tuesday.

“The words of these key Republican leaders are disgusting, unconscionable and represent prejudice in its purest form,” wrote Laurie (above left) in a statement.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dwight Drake (above middle) echoed Laurie’s anger.

“There is no place for that kind of discourse among fair-minded people, and it’s another black eye for our state at a time when we can scarcely afford it,” Drake said. “I am glad to see that both Ulmer and Merwin have expressed apologies for their statements, and well they should, for both the slight to South Carolina’s Jewish community and the embarrassment it’s bringing our state.”

DeMint and State GOP Chairman Karen Floyd also condemned Ulmer and Merwin’s editorial.

But for all the negative responses to Ulmer and Merwin’s comments, there was one defender.

Florida State House candidate Yomin Postelnik, who is Jewish, wrote a column of his own saying that Ulmer and Merwin did nothing wrong.

“My first thought was they meant to be complimentary,” Postelnik (above right) said. “I don’t think the wording was highly sensitive at all.”

Postelnik also said he could “understand someone reading it and associating those words with a negative context. But to me the intent was very clear. The way that anyone can become wealthy is through being frugal.”

But critics point out that anyone can be frugal, and describing that person as Jewish only sought to play on a long-held ethnic stereotype.