WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.
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This story aside, I don't know about you but I'm getting sick and tired of the incessant whining that I hear out of the myriad of "jewish" groups out there.
Maybe they get what they deserve until they learn to STFU.
Not STFU was partly how they got the land to create Israel , Tard .
I've often pictured it like this:
It's near the end of the Yalta Summit , an aide enters the room and whispers in FDR's ear . FDR looks stunned and says "No sheit? Six million? Well , what do they want? Palestine? Is there anybody living there? Well , if it's just a bunch of smelly nomads then they don't count . We'll give them Palestine , maybe they shut up ."
Nope .
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Kevin Haendiges
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I heard what he said, and his spokesman is a liar. Byrd is a disgrace to the Senate. He has the gall to compare Senate Republicans with Nazis while at the same time obstructing votes on federal judge appointments.
That man needs to move his ancient a$$ into a retirement home.
Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
Posts: 24,186
RE: the ex-KKK member calling the GOP Nazi's
Quote:
I heard what he said, and his spokesman is a liar. Byrd is a disgrace to the Senate. He has the gall to compare Senate Republicans with Nazis while at the same time obstructing votes on federal judge appointments.
That man needs to move his ancient a$$ into a retirement home.
I cant agree more. I saw his speech on Fox news last night. What a Joke. What I found funny was when Byrd was bashing Lott for his "races remarks", when Lott was praising Thurman. This is not the first time Byrd has put his foot in his mouth, and the Demos say nothing, while demanding the resignation of Lott. And the Demos wonder why their party is about to implode.
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kaafir mushrik
Unintended consequences and God have one thing in common: Liberals don’t believe in either of them.
Bob Byrd never called Republicans Nazis, read his speech. He was talking about how majorities want to do away with debate over issues which leads to no opposition. He was talking about Bill Frist trying to use the "nuclear option" to stop judicial filibusters, which has a 200 yr history in the Senate. Most Bush nominees have been confirmed, the ones currently being opposed have already been up once and rejected. Remember this swings both ways, when the Dems get back in power do you really want all debate on nominees to be stopped. Do you want over zealous liberal nominees to be confirmed? Thing about it. Bob Byrd has done one hell of a job for his state and the people of the US. He has apologized on numerous occasions about his clan membership which was a common thing in the WV coal fields in his day.
Bob Byrd never called Republicans Nazis, read his speech. He was talking about how majorities want to do away with debate over issues which leads to no opposition. He was talking about Bill Frist trying to use the "nuclear option" to stop judicial filibusters, which has a 200 yr history in the Senate. Most Bush nominees have been confirmed, the ones currently being opposed have already been up once and rejected. Remember this swings both ways, when the Dems get back in power do you really want all debate on nominees to be stopped. Do you want over zealous liberal nominees to be confirmed? Thing about it. Bob Byrd has done one hell of a job for his state and the people of the US. He has apologized on numerous occasions about his clan membership which was a common thing in the WV coal fields in his day.
Well, I don't know there, Al. When a Democratic Senator says Hitler "turned the law inside out and made illegality legal," followed by "That is what the nuclear option seeks to do", that makes me suspect he was in deed comparing Republicans and Nazis.
Byrd is ticked off that people are fighting against his delaying/obstructing tactics, and so he had a temper tantrum. I don't care who's nominating whom--vote on the candidate and move on. That's what the democratic representative process is all about.
For one, judicial fillibusters have about a three year history in the Senate, they've never been used before.
Quote:
Most Bush nominees have been confirmed, the ones currently being opposed have already been up once and rejected.
NO THEY HAVEN'T. These nominees were approved in committee, but have never been given an open vote on the floor of the Senate, which would succeed.
Quote:
Remember this swings both ways, when the Dems get back in power do you really want all debate on nominees to be stopped. Do you want over zealous liberal nominees to be confirmed? Thing about it.
Yes, I do. Fillibustering judicial nominees is WRONG, no matter who does it. The President is empowered to appoint who he sees fit to the federal judiciary, and the Senate's responsibility is to advise and consent on those nominees with a simple majority vote. That's what the Constitution says. And over-zealous liberal nominees have no trouble getting confirmed.
Quote:
Bob Byrd has done one hell of a job for his state and the people of the US. He has apologized on numerous occasions about his clan membership which was a common thing in the WV coal fields in his day.
Like what? Simply occupying a seat for 47 years doesn't mean that you did "one hell of a job". Yeah, I've heard all about how he apologized on numerous occasions...So did Trent Lott.
the ex-KKK member calling the GOP Nazi's
