More about Pete McCloskey and Holocaust denial

JFYI, here's McCloskey's IHR address:
Machinations of the Anti-Defamation League
Whether McCloskey, along the way, makes some good points is a non-issue - they're overshadowed by his remarks, such as:

And a very brave editor, John Peter Zenger -- maybe the David McCalden or the Mark Weber of his time...

When people finally learn the truth, they turn against those who have been lying to them. And I think that if the movement of which you people are the cutting edge can retain dispassion in the face of outrages, setbacks and humiliations, the truth can ultimately prevail.

You are doing something worse than criticizing the government of the United States; you're threatening the security of the state of Israel. And the Jewish community is dedicated to preserve that state, and to destroy those who speak against it. Good luck!

It's for you to decide whether he has a thing for neo-Nazis, or is just naive enough to greet any anti-Zionist out there, no matter how odious.

Nevertheless, he does not seem to be a Holocaust denier:

I want to make a polite suggestion. So many of my friends and relations personally saw the Nazi death camps during the last days of World War II that I myself am convinced that there was a deliberate policy of extermination of Jews, Poles, gypsies, and homosexuals by the Nazi leadership. Numbers of the specific events can be challenged, but it is my personal view that the IHR would be far more effective if it were to concede that a holocaust did occur and focus on the ADL’s distortions of truth. Andy Killgore’s and Dick Curtiss’ publication would be an ideal example to follow.


Paul N. McCloskey, Jr.
Redwood City, Calif.

McCloskey and the Memory Hole

I despise the man like I despise sewage, but I have to give kudos to Robert Novak for publishing the following in a recent column:

Holocaust politics

Former Rep. Pete McCloskey, the liberal Republican attempting a comeback congressional campaign in California, faces charges of association with an organization accused of Holocaust denial.

At a 2000 conference of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), McCloskey was quoted in a transcript of his speech to the group as referring to "the so-called Holocaust." Mark Weber, the institute's director, told this column that McCloskey was granted a request to remove from the IHR's Web site an expression of "esteem" for the organization's "mission." The Web site offers for sale books questioning the Holocaust.

The fact is that Pete McCloskey has had an long association with the IHR and its neo-Nazi leader, Mark Weber. This is something his potential constituency should know, so if you live in CD-11, spread the word.