Tennessee GOP supportive of Smith

NASHVILLE — Tennessee Republicans gave state GOP Chairwoman Robin Smith of Hixson a standing ovation Saturday as they approved a resolution supporting her in the wake of last week’s furor triggered by her news release attacking Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

The resolution, offered by party Vice Chairman Bob Rial, of Dickson, states the “State Executive Committee is fully supportive of the chairman as she deals with the challenging issues and events that confront the Tennessee Republican Party from time to time.”

“That was completely unexpected,” Mrs. Smith said later, noting she felt she had been “skewered, pierced, shish kebabbed and rotisseried” by news accounts she characterized as “twisted.”

She said the “original issue” remains: “We want to know, Mr. Barack Obama, when are you going to tell us exactly why are you willing to meet with Muslim leaders and compromise with people who want to remove Israel from the map?”

The news release posted on the GOP’s Web site last Monday and sent Monday to some but not all Tennessee news organizations was titled “Anti-Semites for Obama.”

It questioned U.S. Sen. Obama’s support for Israel, citing among other things Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement of the Illinois Democrat. The release also used Sen. Obama’s middle name, “Hussein,” and included a photo of Mr. Obama, who is half Kenyan, wearing traditional Kenyan robes and a turban.

By Wednesday, the news release drew criticisms from likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain’s campaign, which stated the campaign “rejects these sort of tactics.” U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander, RTenn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., asked for it to be removed from the Web site because it could be “easily misinterpreted.”

The references were removed on Wednesday, and the entire release was gone from the Web site by Thursday afternoon.

“I stand by what we put out — just without ‘Hussein’ and the pictures,” Mrs. Smith said.

State Sen. Andy Berke, DChattanooga, who is Jewish and an Obama supporter, said regarding the release that “my first thought is that the politics of personal destruction is the last resort of someone with no positive agenda. Clearly, Sen. Obama has shown himself to be a supporter of Israel, and turning out the press release because problematic people have said good things about someone is not relevant.”

While Sen. Obama’s middle name is Hussein, a Muslim name, he has repeatedly said he is a Christian.

Republican Executive Committee member John Stanbery, of Cleveland, was critical of news coverage, saying reporters find it “appropriate” to ask Sen. Obama “do you wear boxers or do you wear briefs, but it’s inappropriate for us to use the middle name that his mother and his father gave him at his birth.”

E-mail Andy Sher at

asher@timesfreepress.com

IN OTHER ACTION

In other activity at Saturday’s Tennessee Republican Executive Committee meeting:

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., said he continues to weigh a 2010 gubernatorial bid. “We’ll see, we’ll see. I’m looking at a lot of the issues,” Dr. Frist said, noting he is teaching this year at his alma mater, Princeton University.

Executive Committee members narrowly elected Memphis lawyer John Ryder as Republican National Committeeman over Van Hilleary, the former U.S. congressman who was the GOP’s unsuccessful 2002 gubernatorial nominee and ran unsuccessfully in 2006 for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

Members approved delegates and alternative delegates to this summer’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, RTenn., was appointed as an-large delegate for Sen. McCain while state Rep. Eric Watson, R-Cleveland, was appointed as an at-large delegate for Mike Huckabee. Chattanoogan Todd Gardenhire was confirmed as a McCain delegate. Third Congressional District Huckabee delegates are H. Charlie Holder Jr. and Christian Lanier with Lauren Fairbanks as a McCain delegate. Oscar Brock is a McCain alternate delegate.