Associated
Press
Monday, January 25, 1999, 10:40PM EST
© Copyright The Associated Press
COLUMBIA,
S.C. (AP) -- The Anti-Defamation League on Monday called for a
Republican National Committee member from South Carolina to resign
from a conservative group accused of supporting the notion of
white supremacy.
``No
one should be duped into believing they are mainstream conservatives,''
Jay Kaiman, the league's Southeast director, said of the Council
of Conservative Citizens.
The
league Monday called for Buddy Witherspoon of Lexington to resign
from the council. Last week, RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson urged
Republicans to withdraw. He directly appealed to Witherspoon.
Witherspoon,
an orthodontist from Columbia, refused the league's request just
as he refused Nicholson.
He said
the group is made of constituents concerned with conservative
and Southern causes, especially the right to display the Confederate
flag.
The
Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, fights anti-Semitism.
Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga.,
have both distanced themselves from the group and its views after
reports that they spoke at council meetings.
