So Many Republican Hypocrites, So Little Time

April 25, 2008 | SEND TO A FRIEND | GET EARLY NOTICE OF THE HOTW

Tony Zirkle

Welcome back to the Buzzflash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Tony, Tony, Tony… a Nazi is a Nazi is a Nazi.

Oh Tony, you may be just a contender for a shot at the Republican nomination for U.S. Congressman in the 2nd District in Indiana, but last time you received 30% of the vote in the GOP primary.

So some of your GOP brothers and sisters must support your rather extremist outreach program, such as speaking at a recent Nazi rally:

A congressional candidate is defending his speech to a group celebrating the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, saying he appeared simply because he was asked.

Tony Zirkle, who is seeking the Republican nomination in northern Indiana's 2nd District, stood in front of a painting of Hitler, next to people wearing swastika armbands and with a swastika flag in the background for the speech to the American National Socialist Workers Party in Chicago on Sunday….

He compared his speech to other politicians appearing at Bob Jones University.

George W. Bush, then a candidate for president, was criticized eight years ago for speaking at the South Carolina school, which teaches students that Catholicism is a cult. Also at the time of the speech, the school banned interracial dating, a policy that has since been dropped.

"Some people are going to impute motives and say things that I mean, but many of these people have never even talked to me. So their ability to say what I intended is not very credible," Zirkle said.

He said he did not know much about the neo-Nazi group and that his intention was to talk on his concern about "the targeting of young white women and for pornography and prostitution."

True, it doesn't speak well for the GOP that Bob Jones University has become a pit stop for Republican presidential candidates, but saying one appeared at a Nazi rally was innocent because Zirkle just went because he was asked, well that's either stupidity or hypocrisy. We'll go with the hypocrisy.

That's because Zirkle in the past has apparently advocated for separating blacks and whites in separate states. So it's not just that the Nazis asked him to appear; it's because they have a kindred repulsive philosophy.

The next thing you know David Duke will be campaigning with Zirkle. Maybe he already has.

Zirkle represents the reprehensible underside of the Republican Party, but wants to make it seem that he's just a guy who talks to everybody, even if Adolf Hitler is their idol. For that, Tony Zirkle merits being honored as the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.