Labor & Employment Law

Boehner to Rally with Republican Candidate Photographed in Nazi Uniform

By Mike Hall

Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner will be keeping company this weekend with an Ohio Republican congressional candidate whose main claim to fame is participation as a Nazi SS Officer in World War II reenactments.

Boehner is scheduled to join Rich Iott in a rally Sunday in Toledo. Iott is running against Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D).

Criticism swirled around Iott when the photos surfaced earlier this month. He said he was simply taking part in an historical reenactment and did not mean to offend anyone.  ?They have to take it context,? he told The Atlantic?s Joshua Green.

Rabbi Moshe Saks, of the Congregation B’nai Israel in Sylvania, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo, told Green:

Any kind of reenactment or glorification of Nazi Germany, to us, would be something unacceptable and certainly in poor taste, if not offensive. I think the reaction here will be very negative. And not just among the Jewish community, but the broader community.

Boehner was one person who wasn?t offended. Says Sam Stein on Huffington Post:

Boehner, through it all, stood by his fellow Ohioan. The House Minority Leader didn’t seek a return of the campaign funds he had sent to Iott. The campaign swing on Saturday is, however, a step towards an even fuller embrace of Iott’s candidacy.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 28, 2010 (boomark / email).