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March 01, 2005

Byrd: "Nuclear Option" Hitlerian

"NUCLEAR OPTION" IS HITLERIAN...That's right...Sen. Robert Byrd -- on the floor of the senate today -- likened the shutting down of a filibuster by a simple majority using the "nuclear option," as Hitlerian. This was just covered by Brit Hume on Fox's Special Report.

Charles Krauthammer noted on the Fox panel that Byrd carefully left out one fact during his little rant today: Byrd filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But that fact is not really necessary to discredit Byrd. His likening of his opponents to Hitler summarily robs his remarks of any credibility, and therefore disqualifies them from any serious consideration.

UPDATE: Captain Ed makes the point that Hitler did not come to power through Democratic means. Actually, his initial rise to official power was through German elections in 1932, in which the Nazis claimed 37 percent of the vote - leading to President von Hindenburg appointing him Chancellor in January, 1933. The thought was that Hitler might be pacified. That was one of the gravest political miscalculations of the twentieth century. (The greatest political --as well as diplomatic and military -- miscalculation of the twentieth century was Hitler's declaration of war on the United States in 1941)

It was after he was appointed Chancellor that Hitler consolidated his power most conspicously with illegal and non-Democratic means. The Reichstag fire -- the month after he became Chancellor -- initiated the most Draconian methods of power consolidation...the suspension of civil liberties and the Enabling Act to follow.

Anyway, for Robert Byrd to bring up the Enabling Act and Hitler today on the senate floor was just about as outrageous as anything Byrd has ever done, and Captain Ed has some choice words on the matter:

Byrd, with his attempted filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is the last person who should be standing in the well of the Senate, calling anyone a Nazi. Why the Democrats have defended this doddering old embarassment for decades is beyond any explanation but the most base and cynical: he votes the right way. Republicans shunned Trent Lott for waxing nostalgic for an old Dixiecrat on his birthday. Will the Democrats do the same for the lunatic who has befouled the political environment with this intellectually, morally, and historically bankrupt foolishness?

I'd like to hear someone ask Hillary Clinton what she thinks of Byrd's remarks. And for entertainment, they might even get Howard Dean's reaction as well.

Posted by Rick Edwards at 03:16 PM Pacific