The Comparison That Ends the Conversation -JUSTIFY IT!

WO ^ | 6/22/05 | Mark Leibovich

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Someone should post a sign in the Senate cloakroom or wherever Important People Who Should Know Better will see it. The sign would warn politicians against comparing anything to the Nazis or Hitler or the Holocaust. These comparisons are not a good idea. Repeat : Not a good idea. It will only bring a massive headache, as Sen. Richard Durbin has learned (he'll take that Tylenol IV drip now, thanks).

Durbin became the latest politician who couldn't make his point without comparing the matter at hand -- the alleged mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- with the methods of the Nazis (and those of Pol Pot and the Soviet gulags, too).

It prompted yet another episode in what has become a familiar Kabuki in American political discourse: Someone invokes the behavior of Nazis in some non-genocidal context. This is followed by an outcry (in which members of the opposing party are "saddened"), condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League, futile attempts by the speaker to "clarify" his remarks, repeated calls for him to apologize and, inevitably, some acknowledgment of regret, often tearful.

Durbin's saga began June 14 on the Senate floor when he read from an FBI memo that described the ordeal of a prisoner at Guantanamo who was allegedly chained to the floor, forced to listen to loud rap music and subjected to extreme heat and bitter cold, among other unpleasantness...

All of this is consistent with the escalation of political rhetoric in general, says Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown and an expert on political discourse. She mentions the Senate debate over filibusters, in which the "nuclear option" loomed. And conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, who rails against "feminazis." "It's all part of the same verbal inflation," Tannen says, adding that feminists generally refrain from torturing people...

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

And Lott?

[ClearCase_guy]

Why can't they just use the word "tyranny"? It's perfectly appropriate, it's well understood, and it keeps the focus on inappropriate use of government power -- which is what people usually mean when they say "Nazi" anyway.

"Nazi" should be used to describe anti-semitic Germans of the early and mid-20th century, who killed millions of people. Any other use of the word is just asking for trouble.

[DameAutour]

adding that feminists generally refrain from torturing people...

Millions of innocent babies would say otherwise, if they hadn't been murdered.