Heil-arious

From JOSHUA GREEN at the Atlantic:

An election year already notable for its menagerie of extreme and unusual candidates can add another one: Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio’s 9th District, and a Tea Party favorite, who for years donned a German Waffen SS uniform and participated in Nazi re-enactments.

Iott, whose district lies in Northwest Ohio, was involved with a group that calls itself Wiking, whose members are devoted to re-enacting the exploits of an actual Nazi division, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which fought mainly on the Eastern Front during World War II.

Now, now, kids, let’s not get all bent out of shape. Rich Iott is just a family guy with Republican family values. I’ve found some pictures that will show you what a nice guy ol’ Rich really is. In fact, he’s just like us (well, those of us who are not Christine O’Donnell, who is “you” (if you are not a witch). Before he grabs a shave, Rich takes a nice long bath and enjoys his morning tea while his cat, Rudolf Hiss, looks on.


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Look how proud he is of that Susan B. Anthony List endorsement!

When contacted by The Atlantic, Iott confirmed his involvement with the group over a number of years, but said his interest in Nazi Germany was historical and he does not subscribe to the tenets of Nazism. “No, absolutely not,” he said. “In fact, there’s a disclaimer on the [Wiking] website. And you’ll find that on almost any reenactment website. It’s purely historical interest in World War II.”

Iott, a member of the Ohio Military Reserve, added, “I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things. I mean, they took over most of Europe and Russia, and it really took the combined effort of the free world to defeat them. From a purely historical military point of view, that’s incredible.”

Iott says the group chose the Wiking division in part because it fought on the Eastern Front, mainly against the Russian Army, and not U.S. or British soldiers. The group’s website includes a lengthy history of the Wiking unit, a recruitment video, and footage of goose-stepping German soldiers marching in the Warsaw victory parade after Poland fell in 1939. The website makes scant mention of the atrocities committed by the Waffen SS, and includes only a glancing reference to the “twisted” nature of Nazism. Instead, it emphasizes how the Wiking unit fought Bolshevist Communism:

    Nazi Germany had no problem in recruiting the multitudes of volunteers willing to lay down their lives to ensure a “New and Free Europe”, free of the threat of Communism. […] We salute these idealists; no matter how unsavory the Nazi government was, the front-line soldiers of the Waffen-SS (in particular the foreign volunteers) gave their lives for their loved ones and a basic desire to be free.

Historians of Nazi Germany vehemently dispute this characterization. “These guys don’t know their history,” said Charles W. Sydnor, Jr., a retired history professor and author of “Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death’s Head Division, 1933-45,” which chronicles an SS division. “They have a sanitized, romanticized view of what occurred.” Sydnor added that re-enactments like the Wiking group’s are illegal in Germany and Austria. “If you were to put on an SS uniform in Germany today, you’d be arrested.”

Well, it’s a good thing we’re not in Germany, so that Rich and the little woman can attend Republican social events in all their finery!

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Iott says he does not recall exactly when he joined the Wiking group (his name appears on a unit roster as far back as 2003), but did so with his son “as a father-son bonding thing.” He says his name and pictures were removed from the Wiking website not out of concern that they would harm his political career, but because he quit the group three years ago, after his son lost interest.

Hotsy, totsy, a new-born Nazi! Does anything say father-son bonding like marching around like uniformed mass murderers? Where’s the Father-of-the-Year plaque?


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Asked whether his participation in a Nazi re-enactor’s group might not upset voters, particularly Jewish voters, Iott said he hoped it would not: “They have to take it in context. There’s reenactors out there who do everything. You couldn’t do Civil War re-enacting if somebody didn’t play the role of the Confederates. [This] is something that’s definitely way in the past. … [I hope voters] take it in context and see it for what it is, an interest in World War II history. And that’s strictly all.”

I’m sure it won’t make any difference at all. At least, not with his most ardent supporters. Look how much fun they had with ol’ Rich at a recent campaign stategery session!  (Though I don’t think we’ll be seeing Rich on Dancing with the Tsars anytime soon!)


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After all, they realize that ol’ Rich is just a victim.

(CNN) – The Ohio Congressional candidate who has received national attention for a photo where he appears in a Nazi uniform, responded to the reports Saturday in a statement on his website.

Rich Iott, a Republican who is running in Ohio’s 9th district, said in the statement that he has participated in military re-enactments since college and it is a “hobby” he enjoys with his son.
…snip…

But his political opponents were quick to condemn him as a “Nazi enthusiast.”

“It’s an unbelievably disturbing story here about this Nazi enthusiast,” Ryan Rudominer, National Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said. “It’s extremely telling that the NRCC (National Republican Campaign Committee) is recruiting and embracing candidates like this.”

Iott was previously listed as one of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s young gun contenders – a list of up and coming Republicans candidates – but the website no longer includes Iott.

The NRCC did not immediately return a request for comment.

FULL STATEMENT from Rich Iott:“Anyone who knows me would tell you that I am a proud American who loves this country and loves Freedom and those who have died fighting to preserve it. The despicable accusations and distortions of the truth that have been leveled at me, sadly exemplify why people have lost faith in the political process and with the media as well.

“Never, in any of my re-enacting of military history, have I meant any disrespect to anyone who served in our military or anyone who has been affected by the tragedy of war. I have immense respect for veterans who served our country valiantly, particularly those who fought to rid the world of tyranny and aggression by relegating Nazism to the trash heap of history. In fact, my respect for the military and our veterans is one of the reasons I have actively studied military history throughout my life.

“Historical re-enacting is a hobby enjoyed by millions of men – and women – around the world. I have been involved in historical re-enacting from many different eras since I was in college. When my son was old enough to participate, it became a hobby that the two of us could do together and I’m grateful for the father-son bonding we shared as we participated in the events.”

“This election needs to be about issues, not false character attacks. Middle class families are struggling and honest people are out of work, which is why I hope my opponent will join me in condemning these blatant distortions and attacks and pledge to focus on the issues that Ohioans so desperately want Washington to address.”

Oh, Rich Iott, you’re just adorable!


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Here’s Marcy Kaptur’s Act Blue page.

79 Comments

Filed under humor, parody, Poland, politics, Republicans, satire, Scandals, snark, Wordpress Political Blogs

79 responses to “Heil-arious

  1. Mother fuck. Unreal.

    I appreciate the effort you put into this, too, Nonnie. He deserves these images…and more.

    • i was watching real time, and i was thoroughly bored. p.j. o’rourke has to admit that he’s the unfunniest man in the universe and just go away forever, never to appear on tv again. so, there i was, bored out of my skull, disappointed that there would be no new video of little chrissie, but wondering what bill maher meant when he said he had something better. in walks josh greene with this bombshell, and bam i was photoshopping all night, literally. did you see it, melissa? if not, watch the segment here. (i can’t embed mediaite videos)

  2. excellent! i hope before the election you can nail art robinson as hard as maddow did!

  3. Oh, no, he did not just go there. Last time I checked, the Confederates did not murder millions of people in death camps. The Civil War was a war over economy. Slaves were expensive, and the north wanted to outlaw it (not that the north was any less racist than the south mind you, a lot of black people went north and found they were not welcome). If you look at census records from 1850 and 1860, you’ll see that a lot of ordinary people had a lot of money tied up in slaves. Obviously, it’s not right to keep other people as slaves, however from their point of view, they were losing their “investments” and getting no compensation for it. The Civil War might possibly have been avoided if 1.) the government had compensated the land owners for the slaves at market value and 2.) if the north had paid a fair price for cotton, so that the southern farmers could have afforded to pay their help. Anyway, I digress.

    Nazism on the other hand, wanted nothing more than the utter destruction of everyone who was not Aryan. A bit different than keeping slaves after a tradition. Well, a lot different actually.

    Millions of people died fighting these bastards and Iott (I think he left a ‘d’ and an ‘i’ out of his name, it ought to be spelled “Idiott”) thinks it’s acceptable to play dress up as them? So what I want to know is, who’s playing all the Jews they murdered? Maybe they’ll show up at the local synagogue and see who wants to play along?

    With the way things are going, we’re not too far off of another fascist police state. Of course, this time they’re not after Jews, but Muslims on the other hand are fair game in their minds. And just like in Nazi Germany, a lot of Americans are willing to look the other way to save their own skins.

    • i can’t believe people are actually making excuses for this asswipe. other than appearing in a movie or a play, there’s no acceptable excuse for dressing up as a nazi ss officer. period. it’s really as simple as that. if you want to learn about history or teach your child about it, read a frickin’ book. instead, this jackass takes his kid and joins an organization that romanticizes mass murderers. 😯

      this is why it would be so dangerous to have a gop-led congress. the ignorance and obstinance is staggering. they want to get rid of the dept. of education. so kids can be taught history through this kind of shit?

  4. Nonnie-

    But the uniforms are so dashing for a middle aged man, and he’ll already have his Brownshirt ready.

    Rgds,

    Tengrain

    • i hadn’t considered that, tengrain, but you’re right. those belted waists can be quite slimming. 😉

      • > those belted waists can be quite slimming

        Also gay.

        I want to say that I don’t have a problem with living-history re-enactors as such. Romans had a slave-based economy and did such wonderful things as nailing up folks on a tree, yet there’s folks running around in battle-skirts and scutas and nobody says boo.

        However….Nazis….it’s actually hard for me to say I don’t have a problem with it, because I *do* have a visceral problem with it. I feel like I shouldn’t though, b/c of folks like the Sealed Knot, and Civil war reenactors and stuff.

        What I don’t have a problem with having a problem with (does that make sense?) is the sanitization of just who they’re dressing up as. If you’re going full Nazi, then you should be very clear about just what the group you’re dressing up as did. And maybe don’t dress up as a Nazi for, like, private parties and such.

        I don’t know. Am I being a hypocrite for not giving equal hate-time to the Society for Creative Anachronism?

  5. During 2007 and 2008, there was a series of diaries on the Big Orange about conservatives entitled “their reality has lapped our satire.” With the current crop of Tea Partiers, their reality is now miles ahead of whatever we could come up with to mock them. This one guy in particular has now put the whole pack another lap ahead. Way to play right into the worst fears of progressives!

    • the only good thing about these morans (aside from the entertainment value) is that the other rethugs will have to either defend their idiocy or throw them under the bus. a few conservative blogs are defending good ol’ rich by saying that he’s the victim of a smear campaign. 🙄 the blog can get away with it, but what’s eric cantor going to say about this guy taking his son to gallivant around in nazi uniforms? what will candidates in areas with large jewish populations going to say about ol’ rich? of course, they’ll condemn it, but what will that do to candidates in the deep south, where some of their constituents will be cheering good ol’ rich’s nazi fascination?

      • > the only good thing…the other rethugs will have to either defend their idiocy or throw them under the bus.

        Not even that, because the momentary schadenfreude is counter balanced by making the rest of the nuts seem acceptable by comparison.

        What they’re doing, though, is making themselves an unacceptable choice for an increasing slice of anyone in the just-prior-to-voting-age-but-old-enough-to-read-the-internets cohort. Say 14-17.

        I double-dog-dare them to scrape up majorities in 2016 if they keep racheting this kind of thing up.

        Consider it a prediction.

  6. Usnthem

    Don’t be dumb, be a smarty.
    Come and join ze Repub Party!

  7. iott is only the tip of the iceberg – i wouldnt be surprised if angle, paul and everybody’s favorite Eva Braun – sarah palin – all had swastikas in their basement.

    • i don’t know if they have them in their basements, but they have them in their hearts. jews might not be their targets, but feeling and speaking the way they do about muslims, latinos, gays, and the poor show them to have the same mentality as the nazis. they think they are part of a superior race, and everyone else is a problem to be dealt with. i would put jim demint at the top of the list.

      • LOL, I’d bet some of them have tattoos of swastikas, maybe Palin has one on her ass.

        Seriously though, you’re absolutely right, about them having it in their hearts. Their mentality is just like the Nazi’s, hating on groups of people. Did you hear a staffer in Saxby Chambliss’ office (Georgia) wrote a nasty comment at Joe My God’s blog a couple of weeks ago calling for the death of all gays (and not in such kind words either). They say the staffer was “removed” but refused to name the person or elaborate on where the staffer was “removed” to.

        • the scary thing is that they don’t even realize how much their nasty rhetoric echoes that of the nazis.

          i do remember the post the chambliss staffer left at joe’s blog. i was hoping someone would figure out exactly who it was and out him as the hateful asswipe he is.

  8. Uhhhh …

    I really wanted to ride in here and say that re-enactment groups aren’t quite the same as actually supporting Nazis. I almost joined a re-enactment group when I was in college in North Carolina.

    But hailing the Wafen-SS as fighting for freedom?

    Really?

    My defense is aborted. Hitler vs. Stalin was not about freedom, it was about which of those tyrants got to put his heel on the throat of the rest of the world.

    • when reenactments are put on as a way of teaching history, there’s nothing wrong with them. however, when all they do is skew history, that’s another matter altogether, especially when they glorify people who were mass murderers. when you say that it’s your way of bonding with your son, that’s just scary.

      • Yeah, the more time I spend looking over this site, the more I’m aware that not all re-enactment groups are the same.

        These guys are Nazis hiding behind the mask of re-enactors. Very, very scary stuff.

        Welcome to today’s Republican Party.

        • he was given an opportunity to apologize, and instead, he tried to change the subject by spewing his stupid talking points. my question is that where the hell are the other goopers to denounce this asswipe? widdle ewic cantor only did it, because he was forced to.

  9. Rudolf Hiss… Almost spit my morning coffee laughing so hard. Very well done.

  10. jeb

    You really couldn’t make this shit up, could you?

    So, he’s not approving of the Nazi’s or the Waffen SS but he’s doing historical reenactments and he admires the fact that they stood up to the Soviets. My question is – if these are all like minded people – who plays the Soviets in these reenactments? If he’s such a fan of historical reenactments and they’re shorthanded one day, will he don the commisars uniform for the other side prominently and proudly displaying his hammer and sickle in the interest of father/son bonding and historical preservation?

    I too loved Rudolf Hiss and if he doesn’t really have a cat with that name, he should. Actually he needs to quietly crawl back into the hole from whence he came because anyone who apologizes for or justifies the Nazis is beyond despicable.

    • would anyone really want to make this up? you would think that people who do historical reenactments would do a lot of research to make sure they have everything correct. i thought that was the point of reenactments, but what do i know? instead, they put vaseline over the lens to make everything all warm and fuzzy. it’s as though the rewriters of the texas history textbooks wrote the script for these asswipes.

      i think a better lesson for the younger iott would have been to play a jew instead of an ss officer. let him learn what living in fear and intolerance really feels like. it would make him a better person. at the very least, better than his father.

      • jeb

        I doubt those guys would let him do it Nonnie. Anyone who’d participate in this fascist wetdream probably believes the holocaust didn’t really happen.

        • remember when bill maher lost his show on abc, because he dared to say that the perpetrators of 9/11 were evil, but they weren’t cowards? remember the outrage? where’s the outrage now? bill maher never went so far to say that any of their actions were admirable, and he still got slammed. this asswipe and his little friends are singing the praises of mass murderers and making excuses for them.

          • Yes … on a show called “Politically Incorrect,” apparently it was inappropriate to point out that it’s hard to see how a coward could deliberately fly a plane into a building. He’s right, it does seem like it takes some guts.

            I’ve been known to bring that up in conversations with people defending Imus and Dr. Laura for their racism. They’re opposed to PC, but only when it applies to them.

            • as it turned out, most of the scumbags didn’t know that they were going to die that day. they most likely thought they were just going to highjack the planes. the pilots had to know, but not the others. that aside, some people seem to pick their outrages very strategically.

  11. multitudes of volunteers willing to lay down their lives to ensure a “New and Free Europe”

    They probably meant to say “to ensure a Jew-free Europe”.

    Iott’s trying to slither in all directions at once, but there’s no way to deny what kind of group this was. Nobody’s that naïve.

    Great pics.

    • i can’t believe he’s still refusing to apologize, and he thinks marcy kaptur should come out and decry the unfairness of everyone picking on poor ol’ rich for this. so far, the only rethug i’ve found who has said that he no longer supports iott is widdle ewic cantor. of course, as the rethuglican token jew, he had no choice.

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  13. jean-philippe

    I thought “don’t get photographed in an SS uniform” was in the book “how to get elected”…

    • hello jean-philippe,

      welcome to the raisin! 😀

      i believe that is the first thing in the book on how to get elected, but i don’t think good ol’ rich knows how to read. we know he can’t read history books.

  14. I HATE OBAMA

    THE AUTHOR OF THIS BLOG IS ONE SICK MOTHER FUCKER (NOW POLITICALLY CORRECT TO SAY)
    IT IS MY BELIEF YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHAT IS GOING ON HERE IN OHIO…MUCH LESS HERE IN TOLEDO.
    HALF OF THE FAGGOT DEMOCRATS BELIEVE THEY ARE GOD’S GIFT TO HUMANITY…WHEN IN REALITY I WOULD NOT LET THEM SUCK MY DICK…THE ARE LIBLE TO GIVE ME SOME STD.
    SO ASSHOLE THE NEXT TIME YOU WANT TO FUCK WITH SOMEONE DO YOUR FUCKING HOMEWORK AND TELL THE TRUTH…THERE IS FAGGOTS OUT THERE THAT WOULD BELIEVE IN LITTLE GREEN MEN.

    • motherfucker is one word. liable has an A in it. you don’t say there is faggots, you should say are. as for your dick, most democrats do not walk around with magnifying glasses and tweezers, so your tiny member is quite safe.

      don’t bother to comment here again, as i will delete any further bullshit from you. you’re stupid, hateful, and bigoted, and you are not welcome here.

      p.s. fuck you.

      • I second that “fuck you!” The fucker.

        P.S. You can tell I’m a Democrat cuz I spell good…mostly. 😀

        P.S.S. Those caps betray the white OLDNESS behind the venom. Caps help him see what he’s writing, but do nothing for his winkie 😦

      • jeb

        An excellent retort madam. You’ve sufficiently pointed out the multitude of errors in the post. But if I may, I believe that proper etiquette dictates that the correct response is not “p.s. fuck you” but should in fact be p.s. fuck you very much.

        Oh, and I might add, the poster’s handle is breathtaking in it’s originality. I’ll be up for days trying to divine it’s deep meaning.

        • why, thank you, jeb. i feel that, if someone is going to criticize you out of the blue, they should at least be respectful enough to do so with proper grammar and spelling.

          i would have added ‘very much’ to fuck you, but that might have indicated that i gave a shit about anything the troll said. he wasn’t neither entertaining nor intelligent enough for that.

    • I’m torn between two responses:

      (1) Some comments are so stupid as to be self-rebutting.

      This is a perfect illustration.

      (2) Elric, is that you?

      • i’m sorry you had to see this, wken. i really try to be reasonable and measured when i respond to trolls, but this one was so hateful that i didn’t think he deserved a respectful response.

        • Oh, I think it was very kind of you to correct his spelling. Really, if you’re going to spew profanity around in lieu of worthwhile responses, you should at least spell it remotely correctly.

          I think that your response was fine … considering what you were answering.

          Trolls aren’t really people, after all.

          • thank you, wken. i really do try to watch the profanity, but there are times when i feel i have no choice.

            p.s. there’s a story about religion up now that needs your expertise.

    • jeb

      Should we do our “fucking homework” like you obviously spent very little time doing throughout your life? Once we do so, will we be qualified to scream at the top of our lungs and imply that anyone who disagrees with us is not a heterosexual and then describe their preferred sex acts in obsessive detail as a way of emphasizing our political beliefs and views?

      The dry cleaners called, your brown shirts are ready to be picked up. Give the little green men our regards while you’re there.

      • if the little green men actually landed and saw this asswipe, even though they had no understanding of our lifeforms or language or culture, i think they’d still say that’s one stupid motherfucker!

    • Always with the d*ck with these people.

  15. big shout-out to all the raisinettes! i can always count on you to have my back. jerry will be happy that you put this troll in his place in his absence.

  16. Paul Luscher

    Well, at least he’s showing his true colors…Red,white, and black….

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  18. Sure seems like the hackencruz brings out the comments! Does this idiot realize that the “forces of the free word” include doing the devil deal with Stalin? Outside of a movie sound stage, the only people wearing SS gear are male homosexuals with a strong sadistic fantasy and this is rare. Do these re-enactors have any SD units? But really, play acting for a goper in full Shultzstaffel garb is as natural as a dixiecrat in rebel gray. I can’t say much about THE TROLL that hasn’t been said (good work raisins). He’s just frustrated cause he ain’t getting any and know deep down that democrat girls put out. On the statistical side (just doing my job) I believe this is the most comments on a single posting. And congrats to Nonnie, the ticker has gone over a third of a million!

    • the raisinettes are awesome when a troll scurries out from under the baseboard. you might be correct about the number of comments. i think this is the record. see, this is why i love it when you’re around, jerry (other than the fact that your comments always make me laugh), you keep track of all the things i forget to take notice of. 😀

  19. Just doing my job Ma’am. Official Archivist/Historian is my most important job title these days, much more prominent than “worker” fixing sisters floors, walls, and plugs at the ranch. Like she said the other day: “People work their asses off all their lives to get enough money to live in a place like this. And here we are, not the fanciest place, but we’re here now and can enjoy the place” She’s right. I think millionaires live on the top of the big hill behind us. Which brings us back to…..Chapter 10…finds our hero Tex West smugly sailing north thinking he has licked the radiator demon once and for all. The demon, sensing this, lets Tex get out of civilization about 30 miles into the Mojave Desert on a remote 2 lane road and does his evil work! Our hero, not perturbed, just pulls out a blanket and sits on the shady side waiting for the block to cool, listening to unseen fighters screaming from Edwards AFB nearby and watching gagles of cars, usually five or six at a time scream by at high speed. There will be no quarter given here, this is SOUTHERN California! Tex ponders wether to just position the van, open the side doors up and start up a business right there on the side of the road: Big Tex Collectable Guitar & H O Train Hobby Center” Got enough inventory to last a month or two or at least till the local TV guys send a crew out to do a feature piece on crazy people who live in the desert. Not wanting publicity, our hero thinks getting the red tool box out might be more expedient. Clogged overflow line to the retention tank for the coolant is the diagnosis and Tex, being a clever dick, fixes the problem, refills the radiator, picks up the tools and soon sights the wonderfull Sierra range coming into view on his left. Another hour and we spy Mount Whitney, tallest mount in the 48. Everything works! Life is good. As darkness falls this Friday, a series of little towns go by, each with a vibrant Main Street with lots of little stores and old time movie marques that make it seem like you’re back in the forties! Tex climbs a really long steep grade to a mountaintop and sleeps above the clouds, awakening at dawn freezing his nuts off. Wow, look at that view! Snow capped peaks all around you! Smooth sailing from now on. Little does Tex realize he’s got SIX more passes to crest and a pesky river bottom. Join us next time for the climbing excitement of…Chapter Eleven:…Crapout at Carson….

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