Koch: Paul is 'perfect candidate for bigots'

Ed Koch, the former New York City mayor who remains influential with Jewish voters and whom President Barack Obama worked to woo, is blasting Ron Paul in his latest column.

"Ron Paul is the perfect candidate for the bigots in this country. He is not like the racists who paraded in white sheets or the David Dukes who stated their allegiance to the ideas of Hitler," he writes. "No, he is the affable avuncular relative with a twinkle in his eye and voice that doesn't ever sound shrill, but more like that of your kindly and occasionally crotchety uncle. He doesn't have to wear an armband or use a stretched arm salute, and you can be sure he regrets the revelation of the earlier hate writings in his newsletters."

He adds, "It is incredible that a Republican candidate for president in the year 2012, supported by white supremacists, Jew haters and gay bashers, is a front-runner in the upcoming Iowa caucus. The U.S. did itself proud in 2008 by electing an African-American for president. Our better angels prevailed four years ago in not allowing race to dominate our decision-making. Notwithstanding that Ron Paul is in the lead in Iowa, I believe Republicans will do what is morally right and reject him, and select one of the other Republican candidates."

As the controversy over newsletters bearing his name seems to be gaining some traction in a state with an Israel-sympathetic evangelical population, Paul gave an interview to the Israeli news outlet Ha'aretz insisting he is not anti-Semitic:

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who is leading the polls in advance of next Tuesday’s Republican caucuses in Iowa, denies allegations that he has promoted anti-Semitism, saying that this would be “a betrayal of my own intellectual heritage.” “Any kind of racism or anti-Semitism is incompatible with my philosophy,” Paul said in an interview with Haaretz, conducted by email. “Ludwig von Mises, the great economist whose writing helped inspire my political career, was a Jew who was forced to leave his native Austria to escape the Nazis. Mises wrote about the folly of seeing people as part of groups rather than as individuals,” Paul said.