For years Rich Iott, Republican Tea Party nominee for Congress from Ohio’s 9th District, liked to play dress-up as a member of the Third Reich’s Waffen SS in Nazi reenactments.

Iott says it was perfectly harmless fun, and he is not a Nazi.

When contacted by The Atlantic, Iott confirmed his involvement with the group over a number of years, but said his interest in Nazi Germany was historical and he does not subscribe to the tenets of Nazism. “No, absolutely not,” he said. “In fact, there’s a disclaimer on the [Wiking] website. And you’ll find that on almost any reenactment website. It’s purely historical interest in World War II.”

Iott, a member of the Ohio Military Reserve, added, “I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things. I mean, they took over most of Europe and Russia, and it really took the combined effort of the free world to defeat them. From a purely historical military point of view, that’s incredible.”

Several right wing bloggers are currently engaged in a full-throated defense of Iott, of course, because this kind of thing really isn’t a problem for them.