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Thread: Pork Barrel in the News

  1. #1
    Kentuckian At Heart WVRed's Avatar
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    Pork Barrel in the News

    Heh heh.

    http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/arti...00010000000001

    WASHINGTON (March 3) - A pair of Jewish groups accused Sen. Robert Byrd on Wednesday of making an outrageous and reprehensible comparison between Adolf Hitler's Nazis and a Senate GOP plan to block Democrats from filibustering. A GOP senator called for Byrd to retract his remarks.

    Byrd spokesman Tom Gavin denied that Byrd, D-W.Va., had compared Republicans to Hitler. He said that instead, the reference to Nazis in a Senate speech on Tuesday was meant to underscore that the past should not be ignored.

    "Terrible chapters of history ought never be repeated," Gavin said. "All one needs to do is to look at history to see how dangerous it is to curb the rights of the minority."

    Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the Senate's No. 3 Republican, called for Byrd to retract his comments, saying they "lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate."

    Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, called the remarks "poisonous rhetoric" that are "reprehensible and beyond the pale."

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

    "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.

    In his comments Tuesday, Byrd defended the right senators have to use filibusters - procedural delays that can kill an item unless 60 of the 100 senators vote to move ahead.

    Byrd cited Hitler's 1930s 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. "But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends."

    Byrd 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."

    The nuclear option is the nickname for the proposal to end filibusters of judicial nominations because of the devastating effect the plan, if enacted, would have on relations between Democrats and Republicans.

    The back and forth was the latest twist in the battle over Senate GOP efforts to free 10 nominated judges that the chamber's minority Democrats have blocked during President Bush's first term. The Senate confirmed 204 others.

    The first criticism of Byrd came Wednesday when Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, issued a written statement.

    "With his knowledge of history and his own personal background as a KKK member, he should be ashamed for implying that his political opponents are using Nazi tactics," Brooks said.

    Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan as a young man and has repeatedly apologized for it. Now 87 and the Senate's longest-serving member at 47 years, he prides himself on his knowledge of history and makes historical references frequently during debates.

    Brooks also attacked as "disgusting" Byrd's remark that "some in the Senate are ready to callously incinerate" senators' rights to filibuster. The comment came amid several references by Byrd to the "nuclear option."

    "There is no excuse for raising the specter of the Holocaust crematoria in a discussion of the Senate filibuster," Brooks said. "That kind of political heavy-handedness is inappropriate and reprehensible."

    Byrd is a long-standing defender of the chamber's rules and traditions, many of which help the Senate's minority party.

    "In the Senate, when a majority runs roughshod over the minority, the people's liberties can be in danger," Gavin said. "That majority may be a majority of one party or a majority of one region or a majority of one interest.

    Brooks said his group's counterpart, the National Jewish Democratic Council, should condemn Byrd's comments. Ira Foreman, executive director of the Democratic group, declined to comment.
    Quote Originally Posted by savafan View Post
    I've read books about sparkling vampires who walk around in the daylight that were written better than a John Fay article.


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  3. #2
    Big Red Machine RedsBaron's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Typical Byrd tactics. Yes, he was comparing Republicans to Hitler.
    Four decades ago he used the filibuster to delay enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
    "Hey...Dad. Wanna Have A Catch?" Kevin Costner in "Field Of Dreams."

  4. #3
    Strategery RFS62's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    He's a senile old coot who's time has long since passed.
    We'll go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost effective ~ Kurt Vonnegut

  5. #4
    Big Red Machine RedsBaron's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Quote Originally Posted by RFS62
    He's a senile old coot who's time has long since passed.
    He'll stay in the U.S. Senate for the rest of his life. I don't see him ever giving up the power of the position, nor do I expect him to ever fail to gain re-election.
    "Hey...Dad. Wanna Have A Catch?" Kevin Costner in "Field Of Dreams."

  6. #5
    Strategery RFS62's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    I know. He's invincible in WV.
    We'll go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost effective ~ Kurt Vonnegut

  7. #6
    Team Puffy Leadoff Hitter CbusRed's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Who better to point out and identify supposed fascism than a former high-ranking official in one of the most fascist organizations ever in the United States..



    What a freakin joke.

  8. #7
    Team Puffy Leadoff Hitter CbusRed's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Also classy, were Ted Kennedy's remarks about Byrd's comments. calling them Excellent, and well-thought-out.


    another freakin joke.

  9. #8
    Member Redsfaithful's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Misdirection is awesome. Republicans are so good at it.
    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

  10. #9
    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    I'd think Nazis would be up in arms over being compared to Rick Santorum.
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.

  11. #10
    Member Mutaman's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Quote Originally Posted by M2
    I'd think Nazis would be up in arms over being compared to Rick Santorum.
    The line of the day.

  12. #11
    Big Red Machine RedsBaron's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Quote Originally Posted by Redsfaithful
    Misdirection is awesome. Republicans are so good at it.
    Yeah, that's the Republicans for you. How dare they object to being compared to Hitler? It is just a typical example of Karl Rove inspired misdirection for Repubicans to object to such a calmly measured, well reasoned and moderately set forth description of themselves. The Republicans are all so similar to Hitler that it is no wonder Howard Dean does not merely oppose them or believe that they are misguided-he "hates" Republicans (opps-mentioning Dean's comment may be another bit of "misdirection").
    "Hey...Dad. Wanna Have A Catch?" Kevin Costner in "Field Of Dreams."

  13. #12
    Kentuckian At Heart WVRed's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Quote Originally Posted by M2
    I'd think Nazis would be up in arms over being compared to Rick Santorum.
    If you can find evidence of where Rick Santorum gassed millions of Jews, im sure the local authorities would like to know.

    Let Robert KKK Byrd have his moment in the sun. For a party trying to restore its image, the elder statesman of that party comparing the Republicans filibuster blocking to Hitler isnt going to help them regain the Senate or the White House anytime soon.
    Quote Originally Posted by savafan View Post
    I've read books about sparkling vampires who walk around in the daylight that were written better than a John Fay article.

  14. #13
    Kentuckian At Heart WVRed's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Quote Originally Posted by RFS62
    I know. He's invincible in WV.
    There may have been a time I would have agreed with you, but WV isnt the state it used to be. A socially conservative Democratic governor in Joe Manchin and being called for Bush right after the polls closed on Election Day.

    A lot of Democrats in WV that may run for Senate are more conservative than Byrd and Rockefeller. The primaries will be very interesting to see when Byrd is up.
    Quote Originally Posted by savafan View Post
    I've read books about sparkling vampires who walk around in the daylight that were written better than a John Fay article.

  15. #14
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    If you can find evidence of where Rick Santorum gassed millions of Jews, im sure the local authorities would like to know.
    The nazis are always tugging that wagon around (as they should) however the nazis were a political party that swung a mighty propaganda machine that reached down to the youth of Germany. Soley focusing on their atrocious acts and turning a blind eye to their build up in the 30's is a mistake.

    Being a nazi wasn't all WW2, it was a nationalist movement that seeked a divide between its believers and anyone who cared to voice a dissenting opinion.

  16. #15
    Member Redsfaithful's Avatar
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    Re: Pork Barrel in the News

    Quote Originally Posted by RedsBaron
    Yeah, that's the Republicans for you. How dare they object to being compared to Hitler?
    So you're okay with the "nuclear option" and doing away with filibustering?
    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;


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