Casey, Shapiro call for McCain to condemn Holocaust e-mail

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Scranton) and state Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery County) demanded Saturday that John McCain condemn an e-mail from several high-profile state Republicans saying Jewish citizens needed to vote against Barack Obama to help stop a second Holocaust.

The e-mail, reportedly sent this week to 75,000 voters in Pennsylvania, blasts the Democratic presidential nominee for his inexperience and associations with ACORN and Bill Ayers and asks if "America, Israel and the Jewish community can rely on someone as dangerously inexperienced as Barack Obama."

"In the 5,796 years of our people, there has never been a more important time for us to take pro-active measures in order to stop a second Holocaust," the e-mail wrote.

It later said: "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year!"

Shapiro, who is Jewish, called the e-mail "absolutely abominable" 

"This is a new low," he said. "It offends every single memory of the ones who perished in the Holocaust and those who survived the Holocaust.

"John McCain needs to stand up and condemn these words," Shapiro said.

Casey added if McCain and his campaign do not repudiate, "People will conclude they condone them."

The e-mail has already led the state Republican Party to fire strategist Bryan Rudnick, who reportedly helped draft the e-mail but didn't sign his name on it.

The e-mail, however, was signed by Sandra Newman, a former state Supreme Court justice and chairwoman of state GOP's Fair Elections Task Force. She has been one of the GOP's most vocal critics of ACORN, consistently alleging the community-organizing group and Obama are trying to steal the election.

Neither Casey nor Shapiro called for Newman to be fired, but each said she needs to answer questions about her involvement.

"Anyone involved with this has a lot of explaining to do," Casey said. "They have to be held accountable"

State GOP spokesman Mike Barley had no further comment when contacted by PolitickerPA.com. On Friday, he told The New York Times, "There are points that could have been amde and he touched on some of them, but (Rudnick) definitely went a little bit farther than the facts would support."

Shapiro and Casey, who spoke to reporters on a conference call organized by the Obama campaign, said the e-mail was symptomatic of an increasingly dishonorable campaign.

"I've never seen anything as dirty and misleading as we've seen this year from the McCain campaign" and groups linked to them, Casey said.