Democratic Congressman Apologizes For Comparing Hazelton Mayor to KKK Leader

The NRCC reports:

Hazleton - U.S. Rep Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) has apologized to Mayor Lou Barletta (R-Hazleton), his opponent for re-election to represent the 11th Congressional District, for comparing him to racist activist David Duke.

"What David Duke was to civil rights, my opponent has done that with immigration," the Washington-based Politico newspaper quoted Mr. Kanjorski as saying. "He's used that issue the same way Duke used the civil rights issue."

The congressman referred to Mr. Barletta's effort to use local law enforcement for a crackdown against illegal immigration in his jurisdiction. A statement last week issued by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) said that Mr. Duke had favorably mentioned the northeast Pennsylvania mayor. The white supremacist's Web site had posted a quote from a racist organization called European Americans United that said, "Getting tough patriots like Lou Barletta elected is absolutely key to staving off four years of sustained attack on our interests."

"It's been two weeks since this endorsement and Lou Barletta has yet to repudiate David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan," DCCC spokesperson Jennifer Crider said.

The Hazleton official promptly asked that Mr. Kanjorski apologize for the suggestion that he sympathizes with the former Klansman or embraces his agenda.

"Securing our nation's borders is a responsibility that our elected leaders in Washington have neglected to uphold," Mr. Barletta said. "To marginalize the frustrations of Pennsylvania voters at Congress' negligence on this issue by drawing parallels to one of America's most infamous disseminators of hate is not befitting of a member of the United States Congress."

"I did not say that you are a racist and did not mean to imply it," the legislator wrote to the mayor last week in apology.

Mr. Kanjorski has said that he believes in the importance of immigration enforcement.

The restrictionist group Americans for Better Immigration grades federal lawmakers on their records on the issue and has given the Democrat - who represents a district including parts of Lackawanna, Columbia, Luzerne, Carbon and Monroe counties - a D+ lifetime rating. It has criticized him particularly for his support of amnesty proposals.

Mr. Barletta isn't the only figure the Politico has recently discussed as having drawn the praise of a fringe element. The newspaper mentioned last week a reputed friendship between Democratic Illinois senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama and two members of the erstwhile anti-American terrorist group the Weather Underground, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Some Obama critics have suggested hypocrisy on the part of the Democrats as they have suggested connections between Republicans and prominent racists while neglecting to repudiate those like Ms. Dohrn and Mr. Ayers.

No word from Senator Robert Byrd on this one.