Rep. John R. Rarick of Louisiana, cited by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith last Nov. as “a Congressional mouthpiece” for right-wing extremists, has since then “inserted some 25 pages of anti-Jewish and anti-ADL harangues” into the Congressional Record, according to Arnold Forster, general counsel of the League. Rarick’s response to ADL’s documented report, Forster said, “is further proof of the accuracy of the League’s findings.”
The League had charged the Congressman with bringing to the floor of the House and to the Congressional Record “blatant white racism and a stark brand of anti-Semitism unheard in Congress for many years.” The ADL report said that Rarick’s insertions in the Record “total hundreds of pages and have cost American taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.”
Noting that Rarick’s new insertions–eight and one half pages on Dec. 6, nine pages on Dec. 7, and seven pages on Dec. 15–include “page after page of direct quotations from an anti-Jewish propaganda diatribe published years ago by the late Jack Tenney,” Forster said that Rarick “not only falls to deny any of the League’s charges, but uses the same type of articles and speeches in his defense that the League based its original charges upon.”
The quotations from Tenney, whom Forster described as “a well-known California anti-Semite” and former State Senator, are taken from his 1953 pamphlet. “Zion’s Fifth Column” –one of many anti-Jewish Tenney writings from the 1950’s. Tenney, according to the League, was for a number of years a close ally and associate of Gerald Smith, described by the agency as “one of the most notorious of America’s professional Jew-baiters.” This was in the Dec. 6 Record.
The next day, Rarick entered into the Record a nine-page tirade against the League reprinted from a 1965 newsletter of the right-wing Church League of America. This was followed on Dec. 16 by a seven-page series of reprints of anti-ADL articles. Included among them was a piece by Richard Cotten, a “notorious broadcaster of extreme right-wing views often including outright anti-Semitism.” The League declared that Rarick “continues to give new currency on Capitol Hill to discredited voices of unreason.”
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
