Let me know when Chavez starts rounding up Americans, putting them into cattle cars, and sending them to death camps.
Hitler wasn't known for demonizing the Jews, he was known for exterminating them, to the tune of 6 million.
Frankly, it (IMHO) makes Rumsfeld look ignorant of 20th century history.
Again, Rusfeld used the word "rise." He compared Chavez to Hitler's RISE.
And, yes, Hitler demonized Jews long before he acted against them. The date of Kristalnacht....November 1938....was the official beginning of the pogrom.
The issue is similar tactics and behavior during the "rise."
Chavez is doing what Hitler did in 1933 and 1934, using his democratic election to consolidate power, persecute opponents etc. Try the V-Crisis website for some perspective on this. There will be elections in Venezuela later this year. They will look a lot less free than the previous ones moving in the direction of a one party election which is what happened to elections in Germany in the 1933-34 period. Its a good comparison for Rumsfeld to make. Hitler was a lot more than the Holocaust, although its his most notorious act. There's an old book called "Berlin Diary" by William L. Shirer, not to mention his large book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." Both books give perspective on the tactics and philosophy of Hitler and the Nazis that are replicated all over the world today from Islamofascist countries to the mainstream media in the United States to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
No Rumsfeld just like to evoke Godwin's Law :-)