The fireworks that erupted at the end of Thursday’s post-election Tea Party panel hosted by the Loyal Opposition at The Union League of Philadelphia has resulted in the excommunication of two prominent Tea Partyers by Loyal Opposition head Kevin Kelly.
“I am hereby severing any relationship or partnership I have with Bob Guzzardi and Robert Sklaroff,” Kelly said in a broadcast email statement. “I will not work with them on any political endeavor from today forward. They are no longer welcome at Loyal Opposition events.”
Guzzardi heads LibertyIndex.Com while Dr. Sklaroff is a noted Philadelphia oncologist.
Sklaroff, Thursday, blasted Kelly and Freind for actions relating to the controversy involving military re-enactor Rich Iott who was the unsuccessful GOP candidate in the Ohio 9th District congressional race. Iott wears Nazi-SS uniforms as part of war re-enactments.
This brought Sklaroff harsh rebukes from Kelly and from panelist Jennifer Stefano, who felt that Sklaroff was demanding that history be censored.
When the shouting ended, Kelly promised to talk with “Doctor Bob” and further discuss his concerns.
The promise, however, appears to be rescinded apparently in reaction to comments Sklaroff posted at the article on this site Early A.M. Tea Party Was SRO.
The controversy began when The Atlantic published this article in early October relating to the Tea-Party endorsed Iott.
Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip and a Jew, then condemned Iott.
Some came to Iott’s defense including Freind, who in this article, called Cantor a “garden-variety political hack” and said what Iott was doing wasn’t any different than actors depicting the Nazis in The Sound of Music.
It soon became revealed, however, that the organization to which Iott belonged, Wiking, which depicted the 5.SS Wiking Division had a website — since changed — saying the members of the SS “gave their lives for their loved ones and a basic desire to be free.”
Dr. Sklaroff, who is Jewish, was, and remains, seriously upset that a Republican candidate would be associated with an organization that would have such a view.
For the record, Dr. Sklaroff has said he has no objection to military re-enactors wearing Nazi uniforms, even those of the SS, as part of accurate historical depictions.
This is an accurate portrayal of the surprising reaction from a putative leader who apparently is pouting…rather than addressing the specifics of the issue at-hand.
Such avoidance-behavior reflects the inability to admit that, perhaps, one has erred; here, what’s missing is a clear statement that apologizes for any insensitivity regarding the Shoah.
This problem now permeates Iott [who remained mute after the CNN interview, during the rest of his campaign], Freind [who cannot even amend his original article by adding basic facts to the equation…and then assessing their impact on his opinions] and Kelly [who aspires to lead a PAC which would be funded by $10 monthly, but whose judgment must increasingly be subject to question, the longer he supplants reason with arrogance].
His sudden decision to excommunicate both myself and Guzzardi [whose only “sin” was to blog in concert with my viewpoint] reveals a level of autocratic conduct that is not becoming of a leader, let alone a self-appointed leader of the Tea Party Movement.
Many people are suddenly emerging nationally, aspiring to “organize” the various Tea Party entities; they threaten to divert this Movement from its grass-roots foundation and must be resisted.
That one would be led by two people who would, themselves (even after having been provided information that undermines their snap-judgments) condemn Eric Cantor for refusing to accommodate a congressional candidate who inappropriately partied in his Nazi-SS uniform…THIS is reprehensible.
And failing to prioritize resolution of this problem threatens the artifice that has otherwise been created to reform the Philly-GOP…so sad.
Free Speech is grand but political insensitivity is just plain stupid.
BUT the real tragedy is that this Tea Party has chosen to permit such active stupidity and divisive behaviour is just what Progressives pray for –