Taitz on MSNBC. Photo: YouTube

The Republican Jewish Coalition hosted lead “birther” Orly Taitz on Sunday as a “special guest,” along with former Sen. Norm Coleman and Rep. Michele Bachmann. Last month, Bachmann attended a lunch with Taitz and posed for a photo with the former dentist and lawyer who has filed numerous unsuccessful lawsuits alleging President Obama is not an American citizen.

“I believe [Obama] is the most dangerous thing one can imagine, in that he represents radical communism and radical Islam,” Taitz said late last year. “He was born and raised in radical Islam, all of his associations are with radical Islam, and he was groomed in the environment of the dirty Chicago mafia. Can there be anything scarier than that?”

TPM verified with the Republican Jewish Coalition that Taitz was a “special guest” of the event.

Coleman, who took a job with the Republican Jewish Coalition while the Minnesota Senate recount was underway in 2009, says he doesn’t endorse the “birthers” or Taitz’s message.

“There were 600 people at that dinner. I hardly saw her,” Coleman said. “I may have said hello to her, but that’s hardly an endorsement. I think the birthers are way over the edge, but this is America. People have a lot of ideas.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition is the same organization that recently hired former Sen. Norm Coleman. Bachmann’s appearance on Feb.1 is part of a whirlwind of national events for Bachmann in February. Next up: she’s keynoting the Take Back Washington North Dakota event in Bismarck this Friday night.

Here’s a transcript of some of her remarks at the RJC event:

I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.

Right now in my own private Bible time, I am working through Isaiah . . . and there is continually a coming back to what God gave to Israel initially, which was the Torah and the Ten Commandments, and I have a wonderful quote from John Adams that if you will indulge me [while I find it] . . . [from his February 16, 1809 letter to François Adriaan van der Kemp]:

I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.

. . . So that is a very long way to answer your question, but I believe that an explicit statement from us about our support for Israel as tied to American security, we would do well to do that.

Here’s the video (via HuffPo), shot outside the Sabes Jewish Community Center:

Photo: RJC/ Ziv Koren

The Republican Jewish Coalition already pays a fee to Norm Coleman for his services as a consultant. Tonight they’re also paying fealty to Coleman for his (past) services as a (former) U.S. Senator, with an event in Minneapolis they’re calling “An Evening to Honor Senator Norm Coleman.” (Via MPP)

Here are the details:

The RJC Minnesota Chapter invites you to join us for
An Evening to Honor Senator Norm Coleman

Sunday, May 17
5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Sabes Jewish Community Center
Barry Family Campus
4330 South Cedar Lake Road
Minneapolis, MN 55416

Kosher meal served

$10 for current paid members and leaders
$20 for E-team members and guests

To RSVP, please contact Mr. Mark Miller at
612-333-3185, or e-mail at Mille399@tc.umn.edu.
Minnesota Chapter individual membership dues are $50
Minnesota couple membership dues are $75
National Leadership opportunities begin at $1000

That seems to suggest that the money raised will go to the RJC rather than Coleman’s recount committee, although Federal Election Commission records show that at least one donor has given the Coleman committee $5,000 via the RJC.

“E-team members” are apparently people who’ve merely signed up to receive the RJC emails.

“An Evening to Honor Senator Norm Coleman” isn’t on the official calendar of the Jewish community center where it’s supposed to take place. However, another event is scheduled for 4 p.m., just before the Coleman affair.

That’s ”Preschool of Rock” (flyer pdf), at which organizers are giving away inflatable guitars to the first 100 kids, meaning that if fewer than 100 show up there will be leftover inflatable guitars for E-team members and others arriving to honor Norm “Tenacious N” Coleman.

A suggested musical selection: AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top,” from the ending credits of the movie “School of Rock”:

Ready for a steak ... and a job.

Norm Coleman went out for a steak dinner in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 after the State Canvassing Board declared that his challenger, Al Franken, had received 225 more votes in the recount of Minnesota’s Senate election. But it turns out he wasn’t just crying in his steak. Coleman’s companions that night were Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), and Republican lobbyist (and RJC board member) Wayne Berman. Now comes news that Coleman has taken a paid consulting position with the RJC.

“The senator needs to earn a living while the contest is going on,” said Coleman spokesman Mark Drake. “I think our supporters recognize that Sen. Coleman is not a millionaire.” Drake insisted the move doesn’t mean Coleman is downhearted about his chances for success in a potentially expensive election contest he filed that begins in earnest before a three-judge panel on Monday.

Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party was quick off the mark to point out that the RJC has cut checks for Coleman before: specifically, chipping in to cover travel costs on seven trips, including Coleman’s first as a U.S. senator in 2003.