Will the RNC Elect a Chair Who Befriends Hate Group Leaders?

There are a lot of folks running to be the next leader of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Current RNC Chair Michael Steele wants the job again. Former Missouri GOP chairwoman Ann Wagner is running. So are former deputy RNC chairwoman Maria Cino, and Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Reince Priebus.

There's also a fifth candidate purposely running with a lower profile, in hopes of waging a quiet campaign for the position that will show he's a leader who knows how to get stuff done. That would be Saul Anuzis, the former Michigan GOP Chairman. But don't let Anuzis' quiet profile catch you off guard. Turns out that Anuzis has some close ties to a fiercely anti-gay, anti-immigrant, white supremacist hate group leader who Anuzis once touted as the future of the Republican Party.

That hate group leader would be Kyle Bristow, who as a student at Michigan State University was the leader of a group known as Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). The group would soon become one of the more radical groups in the country, with Bristow and YAF known for some of the following: (a) hosting a Quran desecration contest, where participants would come up with 'creative' ways to deface the book; (b) hosting an event called "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day"; (c) posting "Gays Spread AIDS" fliers all across campus; (d) holding an official position that "homosexuality kills people almost to a degree worse than cigarettes," and; (e) inviting Holocaust deniers to give speeches at Holocaust memorials.

Yet in the wake of all of this, how did Saul Anuzis describe Kyle Bristow and his work?

"This is exactly the type of young kid we want out there," Anuzis said. "I’ve known Kyle for years and I can tell you I have never heard him say a racist or bigoted or sexist thing, ever."

The type of kid Anuzis wants out there is one who would legitimize Holocaust deniers, call homosexuality a disease, purposely destroy copies of the Quran with glee, and host games about detaining immigrants? That's really the type of profile Anuzis wants to welcome into the Republican Party?

In December, Anuzis was confronted by the Michigan Messenger about his affiliation with Kyle Bristow (who, incidentally, recently published a book called White Apocalypse that argues Europeans originally discovered North America, but were slaughtered off by Amerindians). Anuzis demurred and refused to condemn Bristow, or acknowledge his praiseworthy comments from a few years ago. And that's a colossal missed opportunity, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Heidi Beirich.

"Anuzis was defending Kyle long after he’d done very racist things and those things had been made brutally public in the Michigan press,” she said. "If it weren’t for Anuzis’ strong backing of Bristow’s racist acts, he may well not have progressed to the full blown hatemonger he is today. Anuzis helped build Bristow’s career. And now he isn’t even willing to denounce Bristow’s genocidal novel. That’s a bit cowardly, I’d say.”

Ironically, today Anuzis (as well as every candidate running for the RNC Chair position) denounced the principle of marriage equality, saying that same-sex couples are a threat to the United States. Tragically ironic that Anuzis can condemn loving and committed same-sex couples, but can't condemn a man who buddies up to Holocaust deniers, belittles people of color, and believes gay people are diseased. Maybe it's time to let Anuzis know that Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike expect better from him.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons