I’ve talked in the past about how the RINO phenomenon in combination with the team politics concept would seem to lead to the inevitable transmutation of the GOP from a center-right political party to a far-right party embracing positions that can only hope to be described as eccentric – and are more likely to be most accurately described as fallacious and ridiculous. CNN has the story:
Rep. Lou Barletta, an immigration hardliner running in a crowded US Senate primary in Pennsylvania, came in contact over the years with fringe organizations and individuals with views far outside the mainstream of American politics, a CNN KFile review of his public appearances over the past decade reveals.
Prior to serving in Congress for the last seven years, Barletta was the mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he enacted tough measures to crack down on illegal immigration, including an act that allowed the city to impose fines on landlords who rented to undocumented immigrants and deny permits to businesses who employed them (the ordinance was struck down in federal court).
So he’s solid right-winger? Not so fast.
As mayor, Barletta did an interview with a fringe publication that promotes Holocaust denial and headlined a rally where a political activist and musician who has questioned the Holocaust and promoted conspiracies about the September 11, 2001 attacks also spoke and performed. As a congressman, Barletta appeared on a panel put on by the controversial Youth for Western Civilization and spoke at an event hosted by a journal that pushes extreme anti-immigrant views.
Now he’s a Representative, and wants to be a Senator:
Barletta’s positions on immigration and his associations with some of the more extreme elements of the anti-illegal immigration movement will face intense scrutiny in the coming months, particularly if he wins the six-candidate GOP primary to face incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. A race between the two would in part be a referendum on Trump’s immigration policies and rhetoric in a state Trump won by a narrow margin.
Of course:
“Of course Lou was not aware of these individuals’ background,” a spokesperson for Barletta’s campaign said.
Wny not?
Food for thought. Under color of a political party that still pretends to be part of the American mainstream, some guy who talks to Holocaust-denial publications and either exhibits xenophobic tendencies or plays to those of his constituents is reaching for the stars. Makes me wonder how many current GOP Senators have the same tendencies.
