Republican Jewish groups assail Senator Byrd's Hitler reference......

[ElsewheresDaughter]

I read Senator Byrd's oration on the floor of the Tuesday and found it to be Spot ON!..also read Thom Hartmann's piece "The Warnings of History"(which is about exactly what Senator Byrd was referring to.

www.commondreams.org/views03/0316-08.htm

here's alink to Senator Byrd's entire senate floor speech:
http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_speeches/byrd_speeches_2005_march/byrd_speeches_03012005.html


http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/11037736.htm

WASHINGTON - Two Jewish groups accused Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D., W.Va.) yesterday of making a reprehensible comparison between Adolf Hitler's Nazis and a Senate GOP plan to block Democrats from filibustering.

Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) called for Byrd to retract his words, saying they "lessen the credibility of the senator."

In a Senate speech Tuesday, Byrd defended the right of senators to use filibusters - procedural delays that can kill a nomination or legislation unless 60 of the 100 senators vote to move ahead. Republicans have said they may consider changing the rule if Democrats continued to block President Bush's judicial nominees.

Byrd cited Hitler's rise to power by, in part, pushing legislation through the German parliament that seemed to legitimize his ascension. "We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men," Byrd said.

He then quoted historian Alan Bullock, saying Hitler "turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."

Byrd added, "That is what the nuclear option seeks to do."

Byrd spokesman Tom Gavin denied that Byrd had compared the GOP to Hitler. He said the reference was meant to underscore that the past shouldn't be ignored.

more..

[rkc3]

1. I love santorum's comment...

... retract his words, saying they "lessen the credibility of the senator."

If a senator's words lessened his credibility, how many words would this asshole have to retract?

[Just Me]

2. Not until every member of the right-wing apologizes for calling,...

,...liberals, progressives, feminists, civil rights activists, human rights activists, Democrats, independents, environmentalists etc. etc.,...commies, traitors, terrorist appeasers, socialists, unpatriotic, obstructionists, etc. etc.

On edit: Al Franken and George Soros should give these kids a call.

[FreedomAngel82]

42. I agree

Don't forget anti-American. That one pissed me off so bad.

[kentuck]

3. A few words to Ricky Santorum...

If the shoe fits, wear it.

[AntiCoup2K4]

4. Do these Republican Jews also complain about PNAC re-enacting Mein Kampf?

If not, they're fucking hypocrites and need to shut up.

One would think that Jews, even Republicans, would be very alarmed at a pattern of behavior by the Bush Criminal Empire & PNAC which resembles Hitler's path to absolute power and absolute evil very closely.

Instead, they choose to ignore the similarities because the agenda benefits the Likud Zionist agenda.

Whatever happenned to "NEVER AGAIN"?

(and for the record, I know -or at least hope - that these morons do not speak for the majority of Jewish Americans)

[Kber]

21. For the record

they sure a shit don't speak for me!

[FreedomAngel82]

44. The thing is

a lot of people don't even know what PNAC is. I've told a few people about it and I always get the same reaction: "huh?" or "what's that?"

[JI7]

5. reminds me of the Black Republicans going after Dean

notice how they need these ethnic and religious people to do it since most of the Republicans themselves have shitty records on issues of race, religious acceptance tolerance etc.

[FreedomAngel82]

45. That is true

And it's only TWO just like with the two black guys. :eyes: And I didn't know there was even any republican Jews. :shrug: New one to me. I wonder how much they got paid.

[agingdem]

6. As a liberal Jewish Democrat...

whose parents were Holocaust survivors, I agree whole-heartedly with Senator Byrd!

[Merlot]

7. Senator Byrd speaks the truth, and does it eloquently!

[2diagnosis]

12. Why is he letting his staff contradict him?

"Sen. Robert Byrd's description of Adolf Hitler's rise to power was meant as a warning to heed the past and not as a comparison to Republicans, a spokesman for the West Virginia Democrat says." ... http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/03/byrd.hitlerremark.ap/index.html?section=cnn_allpolitics

[FreedomAngel82]

46. Aw

:hug: God bless your parents. One thing I always wonder is what these people on the right would do to all of us liberals and democrats? :scared:

[gratuitous]

8. Ah, the piggy squealing

Of the centerpunch skewered! Music to my ears.

Remember the rules from "Dem Strategy for Dummies":

1. If Repubs say we're making a mistake, we're on the right track.

2. If Repubs say we're being reasonable, we're making a mistake.

3. If Repubs snicker at a candidate (think Dean), they are afraid of him.

4. If Repubs praise a candidate (think Lieberman), he's a loser and/or a spineless wimp.

* * *

Swiped from Daily Kos, who swiped it from Chris Bowers of MyDD.

[CindyDale]

9. The reason we study the Holocaust is to keep it from happening again

but I guess you can't expect Republicans to realize that.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[AntiCoup2K4]

19. Must be an Israeli military site?

I'm guessing their Generals are Jews.

[CindyDale]

32. I'm guessing that it's a page on a site that explains how to do propaganda

[ElsewheresDaughter]

15. fee fii foo fum...sniff sniff

[Suziq]

18. I'm a Jew . . .

and other Jews should know better. How quickly they forgot history. This was the same attitude in Germany in the 1930's, denying anything was wrong with Hitler's regime.


:hippie:

[Spinoza]

30. The fact is

no group (however defined) in the U.S. except for African Americans votes in higher numbers (as a percentage of their total) for democrats than Jews. I don't have the exact figures, but I am fairly certain the Jewish vote for Kerry was in the neighborhood of 75%. This dwarfed all other ethnicities or identifiable sub-groups (Again, except African Americans.)Perhaps someone has the exact figures and can enlighten us.

[Cyrano]

13. A Jewish Republican is, on it's face, an oxymoron.

Any Jew who thinks that the Republican party cares about their well-being is a fool.

I've made previous posts like this and it seems it's time to repeat it. Any Jew who trusts their well being to the Republicans could one day be standing next to me in a shower room looking around for soap, while I'm waiting for the gas to drop in.

And if that sounds harsh, it was meant to. No one more than Jews, should be able to recognize a fascist, totalitarian piece of shit a mile away. Yet, there are still Jews who are deluding themselves for reasons beyond my comprehension.

I live in southeast Florida. During the last campaign, Ed Koch (a former NY mayor) came down here to campaign for Bush. He was peddling the lie that Republicans care about Israel and Democrats don't.

He went to a local, crowded breakfast spot, and while some people were willing to hear him out, others told him to go the fuck away and not talk to them.

I've heard people say that "all Jews are smart." Not so. As someone who was born a Jew (and is now a devout agnostic) I know some Jews who are some of the most dense people you could find on the face of the earth. They probably don't even have up-to-date passports.

[CindyDale]

14. Koch is the Zell Miller of New York

Always was, IMO.

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. The ADL is not a Republican organization

[ElsewheresDaughter]

20. did i mention the ADL in this thread? NO you did

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. They are mentioned in the article YOU provided a link for in your post

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that Byrd's remarks showed "a profound lack of understanding as to who Hitler was" and that Byrd should apologize to the American people.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/11037736.htm

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. but , was Foxman speaking for himself or the entire ADL? the article only

states that he "Foxman is the director of the ADL" not that the ADL thinks Byrd should apoligize.

[Freddie Stubbs]

28. According to the ADL's website,

Senator's Hitler Comparison on Judicial Nominees "Offensive and Insensitive"


New York, NY, March 2, 2005 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed outrage at the remarks of West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, who suggested that some Republican tactics on judicial nominations were similar to Adolf Hitler's use of power in Nazi Germany.

In remarks from the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Byrd compared a Senate rule cutting off debate on nominations to Hitler's use of constitutional means to push legislation through the German Reichstag at the start of the Nazi era.

more: http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/4660_52.htm

[ElsewheresDaughter]

31. thank you.... the article could have worded this more clearly....

my bad..i should have checked the ADL site

[2diagnosis]

29. Makes sense, the National Director of the ADL

issues a statement to the press and it does not reflect the group's position. OK.

[CindyDale]

35. See the link below

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2005/01/the_adls_antise.html

In this writer's opinion, Foxman's views are not unbiased, populist views.

Byrd says he didn't even compare anyone with Hitler, BTW. He was referring to proceedings.

[WilliamPitt]

43. "Republican Jewish groups"

[2diagnosis]

17. Is the ADL repuglican?

From http://www.adl.org/adl_in_action/conference_2004_intro.asp

2004 ADL Shana Glass National Leadership Conference
Washington DC, May 2 - 4, 2004

The presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, reaffirmed his commitment to Israel's safety and security in an address to ADL's National Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Sen.. Kerry pledged that he would remain a staunch supporter of the Jewish State if he is elected President. "I want you to know that as President, it will be my promise to the people of Israel that I will never force Israel to make concessions that will force Israel to compromise its security."

http://www.adl.org/main_about_adl.asp
What has "remained the same," unfortunately, is the persistence of anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry -- which in recent years have included attacks on immigrants, Blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, gay men and lesbians. And while the hatemongers of today may be lacking in numbers and in economic and political power, they still have the ability to cause emotional pain, physical injury, property destruction, even death -- not to mention the incalculable damage they do to the social fabric of America and to this country's cherished ideals of mutual respect and equal treatment for all. ........

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. No, they are not

[starwolf]

24. I think Godwins's Law should be extended to politics

The overuse and abuse of the comparisons to Nazism on both sides has gotten to the point where it is meaningless. If everyone is calling everyone else a Nazi, the term loses all meaning and the horror that was Nazism is forgotten.

Godwin's law would make a good addition to Senate rules
(http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/g/GodwinsLaw.html )

[Q]

37. You've missed the point of Byrd's speech...

...as he was only making a statement about how Hitler used the law to advance his own illegal agenda...as the RWing Republicans are trying to do today. There was no comparison beyond this.

Besides...does anyone really think Republicans would put up with this type of shit from Democrats? Absolutely not.

[starwolf]

39. No I understood it

Given his awesome command of the English language I think he should have used a better analogy. His well made points were minimized and subject to effective obfuscation through his use of an ill chosen Nazi allegory. In other words he shot himself in the foot.

[GOPBasher]

25. "Republican Jewish Groups."

I don't quite understand self-loathing people. Why would a Jewish person be part of a Republican party bent on turning the United States into a Christian theocracy?

[CindyDale]

27. Here is one view of the ADL's Foxman and his leanings

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2005/01/the_adls_antise.html

Mr. Silverstein seems to think Foxman leans conservative. So you see there is no "general" Jewish opinion on this.

[DeaconBlues]

33. What the ADL and others need to understand

is that Byrd was not equating what is happening with the Holocaust. That would be inappropriate, since millions are not dieing at the hands of this government (although many are dying overseas).

What he was doing was comparing the power grab of the republicans and this administration with the rise of Nazism. And anyone with sight has to admit, there are a lot of similarities.

[CWebster]

34. Musn't sully that ultimate victim status

No one says it better:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/RespectingHolocaust.html

[CindyDale]

38. Thanks for posting a link to a Jewish writer from the left

The mainstream seems to want to ignore the left altogether.

[jdots]

41. A Jewish Republican is like a Neocon Christian.

They exist in greed and self denial,using religion as a front for thier souless hatred for humanity.As a enough of a Jew to have been made into a lamp shade in Hitler's Germany,I pitty the republican jews for thier lack of perception.

[Q]

36. Notice that the (fascist) Right doesn't deny that Byrd's words are true...

And this is certainly nothing new for the Neocons and RWing Fundies that have taken the GOP away from the true conservatives. They will lie, distort and take statements like this out of context and twist it around to serve their own purposes.

Byrd: "Hitler "turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."

Of course the New Republican Party can't admit this. So they must deflect attention away from the TRUTH and make Byrd the enemy. They've been doing this since before Clinton and they continue to get away with it because the...

FREE PRESS IS DEAD.

[Name removed]

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[Malva Zebrina]

47. Senator Byrd was right

to make this comparison.

There are indeed many comparisons and this reaction by the Republican Jewish confederation, is spin.

We must look at the holocaust and we must make comparisons to the people who cause that.

It is required, it is imperative to anyone trying to prevent the same.

It is NOT required of anyone who realises the similarities to shut up about it in order to "respect" Jews>

That makes no sense to me at all and if anyone should be alarmed, it should be the Jews, who must look at the evidence and must make comparisons if they are in any way inclined to abhor what HItler did to them and to compare that to modern day tyrannical leaders.

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

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[ElsewheresDaughter]

49. shameful self kick