The disproportionate character assault aimed at Paul Ryan after his RNC speech (which, incidentally, bore a striking resemblance to the backlash against Niall Ferguson’s anti-Obama Newsweek essay) is driven by one thing: sheer terror from the Democrats that Ryan is going to break through to independent voters.
But the attacks just got a lot uglier this morning. The SF Gate blog reports that California’s Democratic Party Chair John Burton likened Ryan to Joseph Goebbels at a breakfast for the Democratic National convention (h/t Burns & Haberman):
“They lie and they don’t care if people think they lie… Joseph Goebbels — it’s the big lie, you keep repeating it,” Burton said Monday before the Blake Hotel breakfast. He said Ryan told “a bold-faced lie and he doesn’t care that it was a lie. That was Goebbels, the big lie.”
Reminded that Brown drew heat for comparing the messaging of Meg Whitman’s 2010 GOP gubernatorial campaign to Goebbels, he said sarcastically, “[Bleep] that’s right, she won the election!
Burton shrugged at Brown getting in trouble. “He won it big. Goddam he was in trouble.”
Not only did Burton compare Ryan to the Nazi leader, he shrugged it off and refused to back down when confronted about his language — quipping that Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown won an election after comparing his opponent, Meg Whitman, to Goebbels in 2010.
What was Ryan’s “Big Lie,” according to Burton? His comment about a Janesville plant closing down was, as I wrote last week, perfectly accurate. Burton may think Ryan remark was unfair to Obama, but that still doesn’t reach the threshold of a “lie.” And to compare it to Goebbels’ Big Lie — the Nazi attempt to justify the Holocaust — is just disgraceful and should be condemned by both parties.
The National Jewish Democratic Council has been one of the first groups to criticize inappropriate Nazi references when they come from GOP politicians. We’ll see what the group has to say about this incident (and whether the ADL and AJC weigh in as well).
I guess we need to remind the democrats is you’re going to call people Nazi’s at least keep in mind that the Nazi’s from Germany were the National Socialist party.
Up until now I dismissed Democrats calling Paul Ryan a liar as routine projection by Democrats. n nBut now that they are resorting to off-the-wall Nazis accusations, it is apparent they cannot make a coherent argument worth beans, and are losing it both figuratively and literally. (It is equivalent to conceding.) n
Since I have been following elections I have seen a slow degradation in the manner in which they are conducted. This administration has sunk to new and sustained depths and I am doubtful that they will ever return to a semblance of decency.
The democratic party lost it's civility a long time ago.
There we go again about lies. Who cares about lies in politics? It's a free country and we can say what we want — don't have to be true. nLike the man said, we're not going "to be dictated by fact checkers." nNo Sir. We make up our own facts as we go along. And guess what? People don't mind. Heck, they're giving us high fives. nSo keep the truth to yourselves. nWho asked you anyway?
Which is odd because I'm reading Edwin Black's "IBM and the Holocaust" now. It contains verbatim memos and speeches of the Third Reich in the period 1933-39. Many of them sound eerily like Democrats, at least from an economic, diplomatic and social perspective albeit w/o the singleminded Jew hatred.
This should put Tod Lindberg's essay in this month's Commentary into perspective. In the article (The Politics of Incivility) he seems to pointedly refuse to address such outbursts as this, perhaps because it would strain his thesis to do so. Politics on the Left is ugly, but for the most part they've gotten away with it. Burton is right, after all. Liberals certainly don't care when one of their own behaves boorishly. Heck, they see this type of thing as speaking truth to power.
This repulsive talk by a Democrat will go, if not unreported, without media hoopla. Why? The msm actually believes it. We just have to fight the political battles harder and with greater reason and passion. If Romney and Ryan don't realize this, they will be defeated.
This is vile, of course. But think of the Union fellow who kicked a chair (holding invisible Clint Eastwood) off the stage. This was followed by the Dem party guy saying: and it's only monday….we'll be here all week. n nWhen was the last time a Republican engaged in nonsensical thuggery of this sort? n nThese people are fighting like the cornered rats they are and they deserve the same treatment. To be beaten and yelled at until they Go. Away.
What the Democrats are doing to Ryan is nothing new for them. I mean, for instance, what they did to Sarah Palin, who's crime was being picked for the ticket in 2008. And, an awful lot of Republicans (over the last 4 years) were influenced by the Dem and MSM attacks on her to actually despise her themselves. I bring this up in part to stick my few cents in on how maybe Palin isn't as bad as too many Republicans have come to believe … but also to warn everyone that Dems mean to get independents and, yes, even Republicans to hate on Ryan just as much (and that there is absolutely nothing and no lie Dems will not spew to achieve their "brown shirt" goals).
I agree with everything you said, but I think they will fail with Ryan. First, he isn't going to be caught off guard like Palin was. Second, he is tons smarter than Palin – which isn't a slam on Palin at all. Anyone who tries to make him look stupid is going to have their backside handed to them. Third, people are onto the MSM game more so than in 2008. The media's water-carrying for the Democrats loses a little more of its impact every year. Fourth, Ryan is too genuine a guy for independents and Republicans to hate. Progressives, sure – they thrive on hate. They'll hate their own mothers if necessary. But the rest of the population? Not so much into hate, you know? Finally, garbage like this, to the extent people hear about it, will contribute to the alienation of independents from the Democratic Party. There are serious problems waiting to be addressed, and this is what we get from major Democratic supporters?
I certainly agree that Ryan is smarter than Palin (and more grounded). Palin is intuitive (for instance: “death panels” and is solid in what she believes: “drill, baby, drill”) — and did beat Biden in debate, but Ryan has a common touch and all the facts he knows at his mental fingertips. So, you make a good argument and hope you're right. Only, how does he fight being compared to Nixon or Goebbels — when it isn't said to his face?—
I think Scrumptious has your answer – he needs to bring the comparisons up, with the light touch (or common touch, as you put it) he has, and humorously ask Obama and Biden to repudiate it. Every day. nPalin's intuition – good observation.
Someone needs to put this to Obama's and his surrogates' faces to see if they have the fortitude to repudiate such talk. Fools like DWS and Stephanie Cutter, too hell bent for their own political good, would probably cavil and equivocate.
Never *ever* forget that Nazi was an abbreviation of two German words that translate to "National Socialism" and during WW-II, we referred to them as the "National Socialists." (See, for example, the SCOTUS decision of _West Va v. Barnette_.) n nGood catch Alana, but I am not surprised. Not at all — nor do I honestly expect the NJDC to even notice. n nOn both levels that is what is scary — that we have lost the universal "never again to anyone" and further that things are only repulsive when said by one side of the political debate, but perfectly acceptable when said by the other. n nBut never, *ever* forget — "National Socialists." That's what the schmucks who perpetrated the Holocaust called themselves and *they* said they did it to advance the cause of "National Socialism." These are facts, undisputed facts, and they do give one pause, do they not?
Nothing new. Only Burton’s position makes this notable. In the fever swamps of the left the Goebbels and Nazi analogies are commonplace and dead-serious. These people are deluded, repulsive, malicious and swinish. Not to mention unapologetic.
The truth hurts and the Ayn Rand Roadie is a little Hitler without Hitler's savvy or demagoguc skills.The fact that he's not as stupid as Palin doesn't make him an asset. Obama will coast to Victory.
from NRO [National Review Online] Newsletters … n n"Morning Jolt" … with Jim Geraghty: n nWhich would you rather have? A media that is so biased against your side of the aisle that they jump up and down and scream bloody murder over any error or potential error, or a media that is so in the tank for your side that your party's leaders have grown completely complacent, to the point of reckless[ness], in their public comments? n nBefore you say you'd prefer bodyguard-style media coverage, keep in mind that with that approach, you end up with leaders like Vice President Joe Biden, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, and Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. I mean . . . the cream doesn't exactly rise to the top in that scenario, does it? n n… Only Geraghty forgot to mention you also end up with party leaders like Hillary Clinton and her vast right wing conspiracy … and leaders like Barack Obama (and everything he says)!