foolmenot.comThe value in posting this is only for your information. The Muskegon Chronic-call is not laid back in it’s Howard Deanish approach to political reporting; this piece is no exception!
I did though want to pass on this tid-bit of information about the Michigan Democratic Party Chair, Mark Brewer, as a one-time ACLU lawyer… I wanted to make sure you all know about that-- it helps to understand where people are coming from when they speak. It also helps to understand someone who has once represented the Ku Klux Klan and now Michigan Democrats… No pun intended!
Full article follows…
Muskegon Chronicle
Friday, February 17, 2006
By Steven Harmon
CHRONICLE NEWS SERVICE
As an ACLU lawyer, Mark Brewer once defended the Ku Klux Klan's right to speak, but the Democratic State Party chairman now is asking Michigan Republicans to muzzle conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
Brewer called on Republicans to disavow Coulter's most recent controversial comments, twice calling Arabs "ragheads," and demanded that gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and others keep her from making upcoming Michigan stops on her speaking circuit, including Grand Rapids next month.
But Republicans lashed back, saying Brewer should be the last person to call for silencing anyone.
"This coming from a guy who represented the KKK; I think that says a lot about his credibility," said John Truscott, a spokesman for the DeVos campaign. "We don't support that type of language. And I think people have seen that Dick DeVos condones and promotes civil discourse."
DeVos is scheduled to be in Detroit for another function March 16, so he will not attend the Kent County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, where Coulter is to give the keynote address, Truscott said.
Coulter's Grand Rapids appearance has provoked outrage from liberals, but Republicans are sticking by her. More than 1,000 tickets have been sold, and the GOP is expecting to sell out the DeVos Place Steelcase Ballroom with another 500 by the end of the month, said party co-chairman Karl Hascall.
"Mark Brewer can run his own event, and we can run ours," Hascall said. "Ann Coulter is an entertainer who does political commentary. She uses extreme statements to get her point across. I wouldn't go around calling Arabs ragheads but, in certain contexts, such as comedy, that's accepted."
At the Feb. 10 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., speaking of Iranian leaders, Coulter said, "What if they start having one of these bipolar episodes with nuclear weapons? I think our motto should be, post-9/11, 'Raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences."'
Brewer said Coulter's not a comedian, "she's a paid political pundit." And he agreed with her right to speak, but said it was up to Republicans to "send a message they disapprove of her ethnic slurs."
"The KKK wasn't being invited to a Democratic Party function," Brewer said of his 1994 case defending the group. "That was for the right of the KKK to speak in a public place. If Ann Coulter wants to speak in a public place, that's fine. But it's very different from being invited to raise money for a political party."
State Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis touched off Brewer's criticism when he enthusiastically praised Coulter's Feb. 10 speech.
In his Feb. 11 state party blog, Anuzis said, "So, did Ann Coulter 'rock' the conference? ... We sat, stood, applauded, sat, stood, applauded. you get the picture. She was motivational, funny, sarcastic and Ann Coulter at her best."
Anuzis said he wasn't condoning her ethnic slur, calling it "distasteful. My point was that she has the presence and style that fires people up. She excited the troops, threw them a lot of red meat. That's part of her role, her schtick as a commentator."
But Lana Boldi, a former Kent County Democratic Party chairwoman, said Coulter's appearance reflects badly on Republicans.
"If they consider her a serious political thinker, that's the travesty," she said.