When anti-Semitism is fashionable

There’s no question in Russ Weiner’s mind that were he a Democrat, what
happened to him this weekend would be front-page news in every paper in
the country. But since he is a conservative Republican, it appears the
press has decided to turn a blind eye to the vandalizing of his campaign
posters with hate language.

Weiner is running for the California state Assembly against incumbent
Kerry Mazzoni. The contested district covers Marin County and a large
part of Sonoma County, both bordering the San Francisco Bay north of San
Francisco.

In the small hours of Saturday morning, someone with a spray can of red
paint went through the district and systematically defaced 30 of
Weiner’s campaign posters which featured his portrait. Swastikas were
placed in the middle of his forehead, horns painted on his forehead,
small Satan-like beards and mustaches were added.

Many of the signs were scrawled with “F— Jews” and similar
anti-Semitic slogans — or worse.

The Weiner for Assembly staff learned of the vandalism about 9 am
Saturday, just as volunteers were arriving at headquarters for a
precinct blitz, campaign manager Barbara Howey told WorldNetDaily.

The police notified them by telephone to report the defacing of a poster
in San Rafael. Then other posters were reported vandalized. Volunteers
were dispatched to check the extent of the damage.

“They (the vandals) hit each one from Sausalito up to the Sonoma County
line,” says Howey. “Every sign between Sausalito and Novato. We had
about 50 up, and about 30 were defaced. These are big posters. They drew
a swastika on his forehead and wrote really vile words.”

So far there’s been little or no interest shown by the press, though the
story has appeared on television and radio.

“The Marin Independent-Journal ran a small paragraph next to the
obituaries,” says Howey. “But nothing else. We’re outraged that the
local papers haven’t picked up on this.”

Weiner agrees.

“It seems that it’s acceptable to hate Republicans,” he observes. “It’s
OK because Republicans are bad and Democrats are good.

“If I were a member of some protected group, it would have been the
biggest event in the political history of this area,” he continued. “But
because I’m a heterosexual white male, who’s Republican and Jewish,
people think no one would ever do anything like this against him — they
want to pretend this never happened and that anti-Semitism doesn’t
exist.

“I can guarantee that if I were a Democrat this would have been on the
front page of every paper. Maybe I’m wrong, but I challenge them to
prove it otherwise,” he said.

Weiner said that he spoke with one reporter who frankly told him that
“We don’t want to offend our readers by publishing those photos.”

Weiner also noted that this incident is just the latest in a long line
of attacks on his posters.

“We originally had a hundred (posters), but a lot were stolen or ripped
down,” he recalled. “This has been going on since the beginning of the
campaign. I was frustrated by it, but I took it in stride. Now — this
is different. I see a swastika on my forehead, and there’s one that’s
really bad. It’s like the worst kind of thing from Nazi Germany in the
1930s. It says ‘I hate Jews,’ with bloody paint running down my face.”

Weiner’s father is Michael Savage, a conservative talk-show host on KSFO in San Francisco. He, too, would like to know why there’s been no reporting of this example of anti-semitic vandalism.

“They (the press) are always screaming about hate crimes, but it seems
they’re only concerned when they happen to Democrats. Why is such a hate
crime against a conservative Republican being ignored?” Savage asks
rhetorically.

“Simple question,” he says. “The answer’s in the question.”

The Anti-Defamation League has offered a $5,000 reward for information
leading to the apprehension and conviction of the perpetrators of what
it views as an obvious hate crime.