Fred Grandy, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa and a former actor who played Gopher on “The Love Boat,” is scheduled to be the featured speaker for the Chevy Chase Women’s Republican Club on Sept. 24.
Grandy recently left his job as a morning radio talk show host for WMAL in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Grandy has said that he was forced out, but WMAL said that he left on his own.
The club, which is private and membership-based, often invites prominent Republicans to speak at club functions.
Still, liberals in the area are voicing concern over the club’s choice of speaker.
A blog post on MarylandJuice.com sounded an online alarm Friday, and Democrat SaqibAli, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 2007 to 2011 representing Gaithersburg and Germantown, spoke to Chevy Chase Patch about the matter earlier this week.
“Clearly, Republicans are too embarrassed to expose it to public scrutiny,” Ali wrote in an email. “Using phrases like ‘Shariah-compliant’ to refer to American Muslims is bigotry. Complaining that American Muslims are in government is bigotry.”
Ali added: “Why are Republicans inviting bigots to address their meetings?”
Patch tried to reach out to the communications chair of the Chevy Chase Women’s Republican Club for a comment via email but had not received an answer at the time of this article’s publication.
Regarding the club’s choice of speaker, Montgomery County Republican Central Committee Chairman MarkUncapher said that “complaining that a program on ‘Islamic extremism’ is an attack on all of Islam makes the same mistake critics unfairly accuse Fred Grandy of.”
He added: “‘Islamic extremism’ and Islam are not interchangeable terms.”
Ali said that he is hoping that when the public knows of this event, it will put pressure on the club to cancel with Grandy.
“If I’m unsuccessful at this effort [to get the event canceled],” Ali said, “I will certainly be there with picketers. ... I will not let Montgomery County become a home for hate.”
Stay tuned to Chevy Chase Patch for more information.