Iowa GOP offers mixed reaction to ‘Obama is a Muslim’ comment

Iowa Republicans were split Tuesday on a senior party official accusing the president of being a secret Muslim, with some offering wholehearted support while others called the statements a distraction from real issues. At least one critic called the official a “Democratic Manchurian candidate” designed to sabotage the party from within.

Kim Lehman (photo by Dave Davidson, www.TEApublican.com)

Kim Lehman, one of three Iowans on the Republican National Committee, said first on her Twitter account and then in several media interviews that she believed President Barack Obama has admitted he is a Muslim. The statement garnered national attention, as Lehman was the first member of the RNC to publicly support the conspiracy theory.

Sandy Greiner, a GOP candidate for the state Senate and president of the conservative nonprofit American Future Fund, told The Des Moines Register that she respects the point of view of those who believe the president is lying about being a Christian.

“… I would say there are a lot of people out there that have time to do a lot more reading and research who disagree on taking his word for it, and I respect their point of view,” said Greiner, who was defeated by Lehman for the position on the RNC back in 2008.

Ted Sporer, a former chair of the Republican Party of Polk County and veteran political strategist, wrote on his blog Tuesday that Lehman “continues to fill the biggest of gaps in the Republican Party leadership.” Part of leadership is addressing problems, Sporer said, and “Barack Obama’s cultural and religious heritage is among the biggest of problems endangering the American people.”

Not everyone was so supportive of Lehman.

“After the most recent distraction, many Iowa Republicans think Kim Lehman is a Democratic Manchurian candidate intent on damaging the Republican Party from the inside,” said Jeff Patch, a long time Iowa GOP strategist who now works in Washington, D.C. “The role of a Republican National Committeewoman is to help grow the party at the grassroots, not to Tweet nonsense about Barack Obama’s Muslim roots.”

Jeff Coffman, treasurer of the Republican Party of Muscatine County, told the Register that Lehman’s untrue belief that the president is a secret Muslim is pretty unusual in his part of the state, saying “I’d have no reason to dispute that he’s a Christian and I don’t think it makes any difference anyway. It’s like the issue brought up by some Republicans about his birth certificate. To me, it’s immaterial. He’s the president. He was born in the United States, in Hawaii, and I’m not sure why we keep bringing these two issues up as a party.”

Micheal Libbie, a marketing and public relations specialist, addressed Lehman personally on his online radio show Tuesday during a discussion of business branding and branding problems.

“Mrs. Lehman, you are out of touch, you are mean-spirited, you are venomous and you are horrible for the GOP brand here in Iowa,” he said.

Agreeing to “take the president at his word” that he’s a Christian was the most frequent reply to the news of Lehman’s comments. Republican gubernatorial hopeful Terry Branstad was the first Iowan to offer that opinion, but he was followed Tuesday by House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen and GOP state central committee member Wes Enos. Graham Gillette, who runs a public affairs/communications firm and occasionally blogs for The Des Moines Register, told The Iowa Independent this response was simply “fence sitting.”

“The primary question for Republican Party officials is whether or not Ms. Lehman’s comments are appropriate at all,” he said. “They are deflecting the issue by commenting on whether they take the president’s word on his faith.  By doing so, they hint that maybe his word is suspect and that Lehman may be correct in questioning the president’s faith in the first place. Lehman said she thought the president’s past comments ‘just had a sense of embracing or aligning with the Muslims.’ It is fair to ask Republican officials whether they believe the president is aligned with Muslims and, if so, what being so aligned means.”

Ultimately, Gillette said, the question is whether Americans have the right to make Obama profess or renounce a religious doctrine before allowing him to do his job.

Jeff Angelo, a former Republican state Senator from Creston, said he’s known and liked Lehman for many years, and while he personally disagrees with her on this topic, he thinks its a symptom of today’s politics.

“Our political dialogue today is all about making extreme statements,” he said. “That’s how you get on TV, that’s how you keep getting asked for interviews. It’s about being outrageous, and I think voters tune it out. They are getting the view that partisan politics is all about saying these outrageous things, which is why I think there are more independents today than ever before.”

As to whether Lehman’s recent comments — which include a statement last week that a federal judge overturning a ban on same-sex marriage in California justified revolution — would hurt the party, Angelo said they will most likely only add to the “white noise that our political dialogue has become.”