William Edgar Borah was known as "the Lion of Idaho." He served in the Senate from 1907 until 1940, winning by popular vote five times. He served as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for eight years. He became known for his pro-Soviet views and was a staunch isolationist.
Upon hearing that Hitler had invaded Poland, he said, "Lord, if I could only have talked with Hitler, all this might have been avoided."
Bush just used this quote to equate Democrats with Nazi appeasers.
"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said at Israel's 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to Israel's parliament, the Knesset. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
I will spend exactly no time explaining that there is little to no similarity between the Nazi regime and the terrorist organizations of the Middle East. Nor that this is a straw man argument. Nor that Bush's own policies have clearly failed for eight years.
I would like to point out that Senator Borah was most decidedly NOT a "Nazi appeaser." As a true isolationist and progressive republican, the term wouldn't have even made sense to him. In fact, even a remedial understanding of the quote itself shows that Sen. Borah did not want Germany to invade Poland.
I'm not sure what's more frustrating, the fact that Bush and his speech writers are grasping at straws to beat a dead horse, or that media will give Mr. Bush a free ride on this one, playing up the conflict between him and Obama for ratings.
This is basic history, people. I was lucky enough to have lived in Idaho where Senator Borah is fondly remembered, but the quote appears on his freak'n Wikipedia page!