Recall what happened when Sen. Robert Byrd mentioned Hitler to warn against manipulating the law and stifling debate in the context of the "nuclear option" debate:
Byrd referenced Hitler in the filibuster debate on March 1 by exclaiming that, like proposed Republican efforts to ban judicial filibusters, "Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality. ... Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal." Hannity responded on the March 2 edition of Hannity & Colmes by calling Byrd "unhinged," condemning his Hitler remarks as "atrocious" and "disgraceful," asking, "Could a Republican ever get away with comparing Democrats to Adolf Hitler?"
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Unhinged.
Atrocious.
Disgraceful.
I guess Sean Hannity hasn't watched much of his own network as of late, because I don't hear him calling Glenn Beck unhinged, atrocious and disgraceful. Glenn Beck's stock in trade is Hitler.
After comparing author-documentarian Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 to "the [Joseph] Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda, where they would take truths, half-truths, and out-and-out lies and mix them all together," nationally syndicated Clear Channel radio host Glenn Beck proceeded to twist and distort facts three times on the June 28 edition of The Glenn Beck Program.
Glenn Beck, June 28, 2004
Olbermann named Beck third "Worst Person" for Nazi NY Times comparison; Bozell took top honor for touting debunked WMD discovery
June 29, 2006 8:11 pm ET filed under Research
Beck on Iran's "Holocaust conference": "Gee, the only one that wasn't there was Jimmy Carter"
December 15, 2006 1:19 pm ET filed under Research
Beck likened Gore to Nazi propagandist, let Inhofe distort his climate change testimony
March 23, 2007 6:51 pm ET filed under Research
Beck wouldn't vote for Lieberman for president "because of the way the Middle East would use it"
May 10, 2007 7:02 pm ET filed under Research
Stein on Obama's convention speech: "Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that's something the Fuehrer would have done" (on Beck show)
July 24, 2008 12:09 pm ET filed under Research
Following O'Reilly's assertion that Hitler is "all time biggest pinhead," Beck asks "Over Jimmy Carter?"
March 12, 2009 6:50 pm ET filed under Clips
Teasing tomorrow's show, Beck airs photos of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, asks, "Is this where we're headed?"
April 02, 2009 6:37 pm ET filed under Clips
After stating, "I am not saying that Barack Obama is a fascist," Beck compares auto bailout to actions of German companies "in the early days of Adolf Hitler"
April 01, 2009 6:56 pm ET filed under Clips
Beck says he's not "comparing" banks who took bailouts to "people of Germany," while comparing TARP to "exactly what happened to the lead-up with Hitler"
April 21, 2009 8:39 am ET filed under Clips
Beck compared Gore's global warming "lie[s]" to "Goebbels or Hitler"
April 24, 2009 1:12 pm ET filed under Clips
Beck on Holocaust museum shooter being "against the Fed": "I guess that's extremist in the way Thomas Jefferson was an extremist."
June 11, 2009 12:26 pm ET filed under Clips
Glenn Beck Show: Coulter discusses "problem with huge bureaucracies" like Nazis, U.S. gov't, adds "I'm not saying this is Nazi Germany"
June 19, 2009 10:37 pm ET filed under Clips
Beck attacks Wal-Mart for joining CAP, SEIU on health care, compares to "what happened in ... Germany ... under Hitler"
July 01, 2009 6:41 pm ET filed under Clips
Beck on European health care: "How many times do they have to goose-step" before we decide not to follow them
July 16, 2009 5:54 pm ET filed under Clips
Beck compares media portrayal of "tea partygoers" to Nazi portrayal of "complainers"
August 11, 2009 7:12 pm ET filed under Clips
Beck: "I'm not comparing" Obama to Hitler, but "please read Mein Kampf" and learn from Germany's mistakes
August 12, 2009 11:38 am ET filed under Clips
Beck claims Obama's "civilian national security force" is "what Hitler did with the SS," "what Saddam Hussein" did
August 27, 2009 6:11 pm ET filed under Clips
MediaMatters
It truly boggles the mind. It is clear how hard Beck is working to push the Nazi meme. It wasn't just one ill-advised remark. It is a concerted, deliberate effort.
And it's not only Hannity who is guilty of partisan, selective enforcement of the "no Hitler references (Godwin's law)" rule:
"Senator Byrd's inappropriate remarks comparing his Republican colleagues with Nazis are inexcusable," Santorum said in a statement yesterday. "These comments lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate. He should retract his statement and ask for pardon."
Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said yesterday that Byrd's remarks show "a profound lack of understanding as to who Hitler was" and that the senator should apologize to Americans.
"It is hideous, outrageous and offensive for Senator Byrd to suggest that the Republican Party's tactics could in any way resemble those of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party," Foxman said.
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More important is the disgusting and deranged implication of death camps and genocide towards Byrd's political opponents just because they propose to change the Senate's rules -- not laws, just the internal rules -- to allow for majority rule on one particular task. ... Byrd should know better than to demean the millions of victims of the real Nazis by invoking them as an insult to people who simply oppose Byrd politically.
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"Senator Byrd's invocation of Hitler's Germany in discussing the duty of U.S. Senators to advise and provide consent on judicial nominees is reprehensible and beyond the pale. While members of the Senate are free to agree and disagree on the issues, this poisonous rhetoric only serves to illustrate the desperation and weakness of Senator Byrd's position."
-Ken Mehlman
Robert Byrd, defending his party's obstruction of Bush's judicial nominees, invoked the name of Hitler, making a most offensive and irresponsible comparison.
-gopbloggers.org
The Nazis, Soviets, and Cambodian Communists murdered millions of entirely innocent men, women, and children. The Nazis performed medical experiments on children and gassed whole families.
...Hitler holds our fascination because of his singular villainy. But this shouldn’t crowd out our ability to make distinctions. Hitler is supposed to define the outer limits of evil, not the lowest threshold. Something can be very, very bad and be far “better” than the Holocaust.
-Jonah Goldberg
With regard to Byrd, the March 2 Inside Politics featured the video of his remarks, and host Judy Woodruff reported that "[t]he GOP is lambasting Senator Robert Byrd for apparently drawing a comparison between Senate Republicans and Adolf Hitler." Woodruff also quoted Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman's response to Byrd. Later in the same show, Schechner and CNN political producer Abbi Tatton further discussed conservative bloggers' reaction to Byrd's remarks.
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Lambasting!
I don't see anyone lambasting Glenn Beck for using Hitler terms at the drop of a hat, for any reason or no reason.
Barack Obama held a meeting today! HITLER!
Barack Obama walked his dog today! HITLER!
Barack Obama sneezed today! HITLER! HITLER! HITLERRRRRR!
Why doesn't SNL start doing Glenn Beck parodies?