J.D. HAYWORTH: CHANNELING ANTI-SEMITES ... AGAIN

Talking Points Memo brings us this clip of J.D. Hayworth, a radio talk-show host and former GOP congressman from Arizona, arguing that our current economic situation has nothing to do with eight years of George W. Bush and quite a bit to do with two "sneaky" gentlemen who just so happen to be of the Jewish persuasion:



HAYWORTH: ...I'll tell you what was bad: the sneak attack on our economy, the dress rehearsal that was the debacle of IndyBank, when Chuck Schumer helped get that started, and the guy in the background, George Soros, manipulating all the currency....

Yup -- a Jewish senator and a Jewish "currency manipulator" made all this happen. (Hayworth alludes to the recent C-SPAN appearance by Congressman Paul Kanjorski, which, as I noted a while back, has been cited as evidence of a possible Soros plot even though Kanjorski never mentioned Soros's name.)

But as we learned in 2006, Hayworth doesn't seem to be particularly worried about appearing anti-Semitic:

A flap has erupted in Arizona over a Scottsdale congressman's recent book slamming illegal immigration, in which he praised thoughts by automaker Henry Ford on "Americanization" that are regarded by historians as anti-Jewish.

In his new book, "Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and the War on Terror," Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth espoused Ford's ideas on the early 20th-century concept of "Americanization" and touted them as a model for integrating new immigrants into American society. In turn, the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix took the lawmaker to task in an editorial, describing Ford’s vision as antisemitic.

In the 1920s, Ford's Dearborn Publishing Company released "The International Jew," a conspiratorial, four-volume work that portrays Jews as scheming to assert world domination. In it, Ford lays out the theory that Judaism and "Americanism" are inherently at odds with one another.

... In his chapter on the merits of assimilating immigrants into American society, Hayworth quotes from a 1914 New York Times article in which Ford said: "These men of many nations must be taught American ways, the English language, and the right way to live." In his book, Hayworth wrote, "Talk like that today and our liberal elites will brand you a cultural imperialist, or worse. But if you ask me, Ford had a better idea."

... Hayworth further stoked the debate over his passage on Ford when he declined to distance himself from the book's language and accused the Jewish News of playing party politics. In a letter to the Jewish News, Hayworth called the newspaper's attack "a politically motivated hit job" ...

Later, Hayworth, in an attempt at damage control, sent a surrogate to a synagogue in Scottsdale, Arizona, who made matters worse by claiming that Hayworth was "a more observant Jew" than the members of the congregation. After this remark was criticized, another Haywood surrogate reacted to the criticism by saying, "No wonder there are anti-Semites."

Remind me again: Why do people like Hayworth even have a place in mainstream discourse?