Today, the Republican presidential candidates address the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington, DC. As I posted yesterday, now is an essential time to pressure them to stand and be counted. Either they have the courage to condemn Ann Coulter or they do not. If they fail to condemn her, renounce her support for Republicans, and demand that all Republican candidates and party committees stop using her for fundraisers -- the Jewish community will know once and for all that the GOP candidates don't really care about us.
Today, two strong Democratic voices have come out and demanded that GOP presidential candidates condemn Ann Coulter's comments about Jews:
Chairman Howard Dean and Senator Frank Lautenberg.
(A NOTE: we are still collecting names for our petition to the tv networks asking them to stop booking Coulter as a guest at http://www.njdc.org/...)
Senator Lautenberg's statement said:
"The Republican presidential candidates must condemn Ann Coulter’s divisive rhetoric. The longer the Republican candidates stay silent on these hateful remarks, the more they empower Ann Coulter to spread her intolerance to the GOP faithful."
And, Chairman Dean's statement said:
"Ann Coulter's brand of hateful, intolerant rhetoric has no place in America's national discourse. The Republican Party and its presidential candidates ought to denounce Coulter and refuse to participate in or support events at which she is a speaker. Coulter's prejudiced rant is only the latest example in a pattern of hate speech that has also targeted Gays, Latinos, African Americans, and Muslims, among others, in the past. Americans may disagree from time to time, but at our core we are a tolerant nation. Anyone seeking to lead our nation should stand up and denounce intolerance and hatred as un-American. As the Republican Presidential candidates prepare to address the RJC, they owe it to the American people to use the opportunity to take a stand on this critical matter."