Ken Brock, the Chief-of-staff for Sen. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, apologized for a misguided word he used in talking to a newspaper columnist about an opponent of his boss for the Democratic nomination for the 7th Congressional District seat, and despite the person he made the remark about accepting the apology, that’s good enough for Republicans.
In an opinion column in the Battle Creek Enquirer by Susan Demas that ran on Friday before the long Labor Day holiday weekend, Demas paraphrased and said Brock said:
“Democratic state Sen. Mark Schauer is psyched to take him on, vowing to amass $3 million by next year. His chief of staff, Ken Brock, seemed to channel the odiousness of Karl Rove earlier this month, bragging that only Schauer can raise that kind of money, unlike "liberal, Jewish trial lawyer" David Nacht or "lazy" Jim Berryman, for whom Brock twice worked.”
The GOP propaganda machine immediately took off to spin this slip of one word that Brock used to describe the problems Nacht might have in raising money in the 7th District, and because of the long weekend only counter balance to that that spin and lie were bloggers like myself. They called Brock anti-Semitic, talked about 1940’s Germany and called for Schauer to fire Brock. Basically, it was just one more attack on Schauer as the right-wingers realize what a good candidate he will be.
Because there are so few rightwing blogs, the attack showed up on something called “rightmichigan.com. The blog and the few people who comment there attacked Schauer and Brock all weekend. However, the story on the apology also ran in the newspaper on the same Friday, but it took so-called Rightmichigan.com all weekend to acknowledge the apology. The drones teed off on the original story reporting the remark all weekend, but the apology story did not get posted until Tuesday.
It seems a little over the top to condemn someone and calling for their dismissal for an employee allegedly saying one word taken according to a columnist who paraphrased it with no idea of the contest or even when it was said. I have no idea how it was said, and I would like to hear the entire quote. I guess if you take a walk in a Republicans shoes, calling someone a trail lawyer and a liberal is the ultimate insult, but I have a lot of respect of trial lawyers and liberals. To me, being a Jewish trail lawyer is a good thing, not a bad thing. It also seems so ironic to me that people who count Ann Coulter as their hero and spokesperson would condemn a guy, or anyone, for one misguided word. This is a case of rightwing grasping at straws to find something to bash Schauer over the head with. It shows what kind of dirt and attacks they will stoop to in their campaign against Schauer, and this is just a glimpse of what we can expect all the way up to next November.
I called for Brock to apologize to Nacht both publicly and privately, and he did that as soon as the paper hit the newsstands.
“Brock said today he already had apologized to Nacht, and he has no intentions of resigning his post over the comment.
“The moment I saw it in the paper, I knew I had to call him,” he said. “I knew I was wrong the moment I said those words. I was further saddened they were printed in the paper, and I apologize to anyone else who may have been offended.”
Nacht also immediately accepted it.
“Nacht said he knows Brock isn’t anti-Semitic. He said he believes Brock was using religion, profession and political orientation in a political analysis, not as a personal attack.
“It’s a tricky thing to talk about a candidate’s religion in an analytical way without being accused of being prejudiced,” Nacht said. “I don’t think my work as a lawyer nor my religion would have been a barrier to my being elected. So I disagree with the substantive aspect of the comment that it was something negative, but I think he was trying to legitimately point out weaknesses in my campaign.”
You would think this would be enough for right-wingers like those on Wrongmichigan.com, but it’s not about the truth or doing the right thing it’s simply about finding something to attack Schauer with.
