It's Your Fault We Called You Hitler!

WSJ Opinion Journal/Best of the Web ^ | 1/6/2004 | James Taranto

[ArcLight]

The far-left group MoveOn.org has been holding a contest for anti-Bush television ads, and it's come under fire for a pair of ads posted to its Web site that compared the president to Hitler. Now MoveOn founder Wes Boyd has issued a statement. While he acknowledges that "we agree that the two ads in question were in poor taste and deeply regret that they slipped through our screening process," he says the real blame lies with the Republicans for drawing attention to them:

The Republican National Committee and its chairman have falsely accused MoveOn.org of sponsoring ads on its website which compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. The claim is deliberately and maliciously misleading. . . . None of these was our ad, nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund.

There's a theme here, isn't there? First we have these ads comparing Bush to Hitler, which show a childish ignorance of history. They seem to be based on the syllogism: Bush is bad, Hitler was bad, therefore Bush was Hitler. (The S factor indeed.) The ads get posted to the MoveOn Web site because of a now-acknowledged lack of adult supervision--and then, rather than simply accept responsibility for this rather grievous error, Boyd lashes out at Republicans, as if his incompetence and his members' stupidity and viciousness were their fault.

This is politics as it might be conducted by 12-year-old boys. No wonder MoveOn types have latched onto Howard Dean, known for such juvenile utterances as "I am somewhat of a street fighter. If someone punches me I am apt to chase them down and I need to be restrained by the people who know better and have been in the game longer than I have." Is the Democratic primary race a political campaign or is it "Lord of the Flies"?

[bruin66]

The ads get posted to the MoveOn Web site because of a now-acknowledged lack of adult supervision...

Is that another way of saying "no contolling legal authority?"

[Tall_Texan]

Is the Democratic primary race a political campaign or is it "Lord of the Flies"?

I'm not sure it's mature enough for Lord of the Flies. It might pass for National Lampoon's Animal House however.

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[EggsAckley]

LOL @ the image of "Lord of the Flies."

[Dog]

.) The ads get posted to the MoveOn Web site because of a now-acknowledged lack of adult supervision--and then, rather than simply accept responsibility for this rather grievous error,

This is outrageous!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Here are some more vile ads from MoveOn.org -

BUSH IN 30 SECONDS

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

While he acknowledges that "we agree that the two ads in question were in poor taste and deeply regret that they slipped through our screening process," he says the real blame lies with the Republicans for drawing attention to them

Based on the articles I've seen here, I think both the ADL and the Wiesenthal Center beat the RNC to the punch. At best it was a tie.

[Peach]

The Rats playbook: I didn't say what I said. I didn't do what I did. Even when caught red-handed, they deny, deny, deny.

Dean does it. Clinton did/does it. I'm sick of it and them.

[Happy2BMe]

".. he says the real blame lies with the Republicans for drawing attention to them."

This sounds like something the Democrat liar lawyers were saying about Bush "stealing" the election in the 2000 election in Florida.

. . the blame lies with the Repbulicans.

I have a dream that one day the Democrats will stop lying.

[richardtavor]

To add to your tag line: We captured Iraq quicker than Janet Reno captured the Branch Davidian compound (and with fewer casualties)

[Peach]

Definitely. Good one...may use it in the future:-)

[Jackson Brown]

The Republican National Committee and its chairman have falsely accused MoveOn.org of sponsoring ads on its website which compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. The claim is deliberately and maliciously misleading. . . . None of these was our ad, nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund.

This denial of responsibility is pure BS. They sponsored the contest and ran these two ads on their web site. In the Internet age, this constitutes publishing them -- even if only for "consideration". Just because they didn't pay to run them on TV does not mean they are not their ads. They are responsible for the content of their web site no matter how they talk about "slipping through their screening process"...period!

They had to view the ad -- and -- then do all the stuff necessary for the ad to appear on their web site...it is not like a forum where a moderator missed deleting something some outside party uploaded.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Must do this on every MoveOn thread, and you can't stop me (sticking tongue out and going thppffffft)...

http://www.politicalhumor.com

[JusPasenThru]

Could it be that MoveOn is invoking quantum principles? According to the "Schroeder's cat" model, an event both happened or not happened at the same time until an observer "openned the box", so to speak. In likewise fashion, MoveOn may have posted vicious material and they didn't at the same time, and it was the fault of the observer, in this case the Republican Party, that the event happened.

Or it could be that MoveOn are a bunch of stupid effers.

[Dan Evans]

What a bunch of weenies. When National Review put the Clintons on their cover dressed in Mao jackets you didn't see all kinds of waffling and backpedaling from the NR staff.

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP - dimoRAT ALERT

[brooklin]

I thought that if you saw the ad, you didn't know where it was going.If you knew where it was going, then you didn't see the ad.

[Ditto]

"I am somewhat of a street fighter."

I'm betting that this Park Ave, prep school boy was never in a fight in his life.

[MeekOneGOP]

I have a dream that one day the Democrats will stop lying.

Don't hold your breath on that one ! :O)

Speaking of MoveOn.org ...

The Soros Threat

The Capitalist Threat
(1997 article by Soros)

FR Search for Keyword Soros

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