Mehlman takes shots at Dean (greeting Jewish group "My Fellow Christians")

[truthpusher]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05161/519567.stm

GOP chairman Mehlman takes shots at Dem counterpart Dean

Democrats' Dean a lightning rod after remarks about Republicans
Friday, June 10, 2005

By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Behind schedule after a delayed flight, Ken Mehlman last night rushed into a room at the ornate Duquesne Club, Downtown, to address a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

"First of all, let me say to my fellow Christians, it's good to be here," the Republican national chairman said, cheerfully fanning the partisan flame ignited by his opposite number's comment earlier in the week that Republicans were "pretty much a white, Christian party.''

(snip)

Mehlman's appearance was one of a series of outreach efforts that he and the RNC have pursued with groups outside the traditional Republican constituencies. The outrage they mustered at Dean's comment notwithstanding, Weinroth and others acknowledged that the preponderance of Jewish voters, with a tradition of allegiance to the Democratic Party, remained a challenge for Republicans.

Surveying the crowd of about 60, Weinroth joked, "We didn't know that there were that many Jewish Republicans."

But both he and Mehlman said that political affinity was ripe for change.

"We are at a very historic moment in terms of the party, but also our community," said Mehlman, who is Jewish himself.

An unapologetic Dean was on Capitol Hill in Washington yesterday, rebutting the criticisms of his remarks that have come from Republicans and even some members of his own party.

(snip)

Mehlman, who appeared at the Duquesne Club on his way to addressing a fund-raising dinner of the Allegheny County Republican Party, used both occasions to denounce Democratic stands on all of those issues.

"They're a party that just says, 'no,' " he maintained, just before speaking to the county party crowd of about 500 at the William Penn Hotel, Downtown. "They're so consumed by their own anger that they aren't saying what they are for."

Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05161/519567.stm