I got this idea somewhere on a blog last night, but haven't been able to find it. The idea is to look at those who were most exercised about the fake controversy over the MoveOn Nazi ads to see how quickly they take Santorum to the woodshed over his Hitler-in-Paris meltdown yesterday.
Let me say at the outset that I for one despise Nazi comparisons. I am not amused when Janine Garafalo mentions the 43rd Reich, I cringe when I see Nazi spew in the comments here, I say "Ecch" to all of it. Such comparisons are the stuff of college dorm door decoration, not reasoned debate.
Besides, the Nazis at least knew how to invade a country. If you really insist on comparing the current President with a mid-century fascist, follow Woody Allen's lead and compare him to Mussolini.
Anyway.
I googled "MoveOn Nazi" and picked the top three reliably conservative publications that showed up in the search results. Then I looked at the current pages of those publications to see their takes on the Santorum statement. The results after the break.
First up, Tammy Bruce,
FrontPage Magazine. She beautifully breaks down the fundamental problem with comparing Hitler to modern-day American pols:
Upon seeing the ad, one has to ask, do they really believe this garbage? Are they so ill that they really think this, or are they so ill that they don't believe it but are willing to subject this nation to the accusation? Either way you look at it, it is beyond the pale, to say nothing of obscenely absurd.
Hitler's Third Reich was a nation that invaded nations to enslave them and murdered tens millions of people worldwide. 12 million people died in the Nazi death camps. Ultimately, 61 million lives were lost because of Adolf Hitler's Jew-hatred and desire for world conquest.
No, she did not acknowledge that MoveOn had disavowed the ads, but is that really important? What is important is the core principle that there is nothing worse in political discourse than comparing your opponent to Nazi's.
TODAY: Tammy Bruce hasn't placed anything in FrontPage in a while. FrontPage's, well, front page says nothing about Santorum.
Ms. Bruce's own website doesn't have much in the way of news generally. It does have - I am not making this up - a still from Mars Attacks of a Martian firing a ray gun with the caption "This is why we need the Minutemen" and a link.
So the final score from the FrontPage/Tammy Bruce survey:
Comparing Bush to Hitler: BAD
Comparing poor Mexicans illegally crossing for jobs to evil Martians killing people: GOOD
Comparing Democrats to Nazis: Not worth mentioning.
Next up, Byron York, NRO. He at least acknowleged that MoveOn tried to distance itself from the ads, but he wasn't having it. He instead cited Nazi comparisons from a number of non-MoveOn leftists, then argued:
In light of those examples, it seems reasonable to argue that the themes explored in the two Bush-is-a-Nazi ads submitted to the MoveOn contest are a fair representation of the MoveOn view of George W. Bush.
Bryon's current take on Santorum: *crickets* NRO's coverage, to coin a phrase, ditto.
Next hit, Drudge Report. Now we're really getting somewhere. The first two are columnists who might take a few hours to really get after Santorum. Maybe they just haven't posted yet. But of course Drudge is always about the BREAKING NEWS, so surely he will cover it.
Drudge's original report quoted Jack Rosen of the American Jewish Congress at length:
Comparing the commander-in-chief of a democratic nation to the murderous tyrant Hitler is not only historically specious, it is morally outrageous. Comparing an American president, any American president, to Hitler is an outrage.
Powerful stuff.
New Drudge says . . . nada. But for useful comparison, they do feature at unflattering headline about of a new MoveOn ad that shows Bill Frist blowing up the capital. A cynic might think that Drudge is more offended by the existence of MoveOn than by anything they actually say.
Perhaps someone, somewhere on the Right will acknowledge the inconsistency and take Santorum to task. I had hopes for Andrew Sullivan, but nothing so far. But we can pretty much count on those who showed the most outrage over l'affaire MoveOn to remain silent.