By DHinMI
After Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn insinuated that activist judges were the underlying cause of attacks on jurists and their families, I wondered if ADL president Abe Foxman would jump up to decry Cornyn the way he had--unfairly in my mind--castigated WV Democratic Senator Robert Byrd for making an analogy to the parliamentary process by which the Nazis consolidated their political control of Germany in 1933. I didn't really think Foxman would get involved in the Cornyn affair, but I was pleased to see Foxman criticize Bill Frist for participating in the Family Research Council's Injustice Sunday. With the latest incidents of invoking Nazis, I suspect Foxman will need to order more official stationery to keep up with the demand for condemnations of inapt or offensive invocations of Hitler, Nazis and the Holocaust:
Rhetorical shots continued to fly yesterday as the Senate completed a second day of debate over Priscilla R. Owen, President Bush's controversial pick for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The fight between Republicans and Democrats inflamed passions to the point where Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the third ranking Republican, drew parallels between the "hubris" of Democrats and that of German dictator Adolf Hitler...
Santorum and other Republicans charged that the Democrats' use of the filibuster to block judicial nominees had radically altered the traditions of the Senate and that their plan to bar filibusters of judicial nominees would merely restore the traditions of the last 200 years.
Santorum said the suggestion that Republicans were trying to break the rules was "remarkable hubris."
"The audacity of some members to stand up and say 'How dare you break this rule' -- it's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying 'I'm in Paris, how dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city. It's mine.' This is no more the rule of the Senate than it was the rule of the Senate before not to filibuster. It was an understanding and agreement, and it has been abused."
In early March, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W. Va., linked the threat by Republicans to use the majority to bar judicial filibusters to the Nazi's use of majority power to push through their agenda in the 1930s.
Santorum called on Byrd to retract his remarks at that time, stating that the words lessened "the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate" and that he should ask for pardon.
Santorum issued his own clarification yesterday evening, stating that the reference to Hitler was "meant to dramatize the principle of an argument, not to characterize my Democratic colleagues."
"My point was that it is preposterous for someone to trample a well-established principle, and then accuse his opponents of acting unlawfully when they try to reestablish that principle," Santorum said. "Nevertheless, it was a mistake and I meant no offense."
What a hypocritical jerk; of course he meant offense. He
just didn't mean offense to anyone who's not a Democrat. Santorum is
also a jackass for not realizing that he would have to retract his
comparison, because he himself seized the opportunity to attack the "sweet old man"
over Byrd's apt (if maladroit) comparison to a process used by Nazis.
Why wouldn't he expect a backlash against himself for an inapt comparison of Democrats to Adolph Hitler? Probably his own "remarkable hubris."
Santorum wasn't the only politico tainted by a stupid comparison to
Nazis this week. The same day that the Detroit Free Press exposed yet
morning extravagant spending by Detroit's "hip-hop mayor"
Kwame Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick's father equated media reports embarrassing to his son with the anti-Semitic
propaganda of the Nazis:
Bernard Kilpatrick made the remarks Tuesday during an unscheduled and unscripted speech at a rally kicking off the mayor's re-election campaign. He mentioned a rumor that the mayor held a wild party at the city-owned Manoogian Mansion that has been much investigated, but never proven.
He linked the spread of the rumor to Nazi propaganda blaming Jews for Germany's problems.
"They had a big lie in Europe. A guy by the name of Goering said that the Jews was responsible for all the misery that the Germans was having. One lie! And that lie caught on," he said. "And before it was all over, 6 million of them died. Off of one big lie."
There are several lessons to this screw up. For instance, keep a
candidate's parents away from a microphone unless you give then a
script and they give you a commitment to stick to it. And don't make
ridiculous and repugnant comparisons to tough media investigations to
the worst genocide in recorded history. The Detroit Free Press'
editorial page summed things up nicely:
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appears ready to run for re-election against the media, calling them unfair, prying, harassing and so on. That's his prerogative.
But Bernard Kilpatrick's comparison of his son's media treatment to the Holocaust was offensive historical hyperbole. Bernard Kilpatrick apologized Wednesday for the remarks, as he should have. Unfortunately, hurtful words can never fully be taken back. Just ask Mexican President Vicente Fox, who insulted African Americans last week and then scrambled to do damage control.
The mayor must learn to distance himself from reckless and irresponsible statements made by those in his inner circle and stop whining that reporters are picking on him. He can complain, with some justification, about media coverage of the city. But the mayor pretty much made his own mess by big-timing it at the city's expense
Kicking off his campaign on Tuesday, Kilpatrick would have been wiser to simply speak for himself than to call upon his parents to defend his performance of the past three and a half years.
The mayor's father compared the rumor that his son held a wild party at the city-owned Manoogian Mansion in 2002 to the Nazis' blaming of the Jews for Germany's problems. "That lie caught on," Bernard Kilpatrick told hundreds of supporters. "And before it was all over, 6 million of them died."
Get real. The media may not be perfect, but since when is aggressive reporting on a public servant in the same league as genocide? Bernard Kilpatrick's ill-chosen remarks are an insult to the memory of all those who died under Nazi brutality.
Kilpatrick's mother, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, joined in the defense of her son by saying, "Don't let too many people talk about y'all's boy."
Truth be told, Kilpatrick has too often acted like a spoiled child who thinks he's entitled to whatever he wants and sulks when he doesn't get it.
Detroit faces enormous problems, including cuts in federal and state aid. It would be stupid to blame the mayor for all the city's woes. It's equally silly for him to blame the media for all his problems. Comparing the mayor's media problem with the murder of 6 million Jews is beyond silly. It's contemptible.
As this pivotal campaign moves forward, Kilpatrick and his supporters must do better if they want to regain the city's trust.
Hopefully Santorum will receive similarly tough criticism,
especially since he's such a damn hypocrite for doing worse than what
he attacked Byrd for just a couple months back. Now, I wonder if Abe
Foxman is working on a press release critical of Republican Rick
Santorum?
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