LATimes Supports Holocaust Revisionist

Here's a weird story, via the Volokh Conspiracy. The LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle are not known for its support of Republicans, so when they endorsed Pete McCloskey for Congress, it stuck out. The Times called McCloskey "the best thing that could happen for the district, the state, the nation and possibly the Republican Party," failing to note one other notable aspect to McCloskey: He is a Holocaust revisionist who thinks that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust was far less than 6,000,000. From Volokh:

McCloskey said at the time [2000], "I don't know whether you are right or wrong about the Holocaust," and referred to the "so-called Holocaust."

According to the San Jose Mercury-News,

McCloskey said Friday that he has never questioned the existence of the Holocaust, and the 2000 quote referred to a debate over the number of people killed.

Okay, then.

Note that McCloskey's speech to the IHR was covered by the L.A. Times at the time.

The IHR is the Institute for Historical View, a leader in the faux history of Holocaust denial. There are a number of interesting comments on the thread, with this one possibly the most eye-opening of them all:

I used to respect Pete McCloskey. I don't know what's happened to him. Here's the quote from the LA Times story:

(Holocaust denier David) Irving's appearance was the highlight of a conference of some of the world's best-known Holocaust revisionists, who met at a secret location in Irvine to promote their demands for new investigations to prove there was no mass extermination of European Jews during World War II.

Joining their ranks was former Republican Rep. Pete McCloskey, who is bringing a class-action lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith that seeks damages for the Jewish organization's alleged illegal spying on U.S. citizens critical of Israel and of the former apartheid regime in South Africa.

"I came because I respect the thesis of this organization," McCloskey said at the gathering, "that thesis being that there should be a reexamination of whatever governments say or politicians say or political entities say."

The thesis of the organization is that the Holocaust is a Jewish conspiracy to gain sympathy and power by claiming falsely that about six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. It is not a thesis worthy of respect. It is not a thesis endorsed solely by governments or political entities either.

Read through some of the thread if you have the time. It is interesting to note that the Times and Chronicle both endorsed a Republican, a rarity for either of them - and he happens to be a known Holocaust denier. Food for thought.