Rep. Steve Cohen apologizes for Nazi comments

[Still a Democrat]

Source: Politico

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) is insisting that he didn’t mean to call his Republican colleagues Nazis for their opposition to the health care reform law, but nonetheless is apologizing to anyone offended by what he said on the House floor earlier this week.

In a statement released midday Thursday, Cohen said he wants “to be clear that I never called Republicans Nazis.” Rather, he said, he referred to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels in a Tuesday night floor speech because he considers Republicans to be peddling “propaganda” in their opposition to health care reform.





Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47903.html

[mmonk]

1. Democrats apologize and Republicans deny.

I don't think he should.

[BrklynLiberal]

19. +100. The repukes say the most disgusting things, and NEVER apologize!!!!

Int his case, I think Rep. Cohen was telling it like it is....and just got caught up in the moment, and did not have the evil and immoral intentions that most repukes have when they tell the lies they tell.

As I have said before, the repukes tell lies better than the Dems tell the truth.

[MadBadger]

2. But thats the problem with mentioning Nazis, or Hitler. The point your are making always gets lost.

[Still a Democrat]

3. Yep

Not to mention trivializing millions of murders.

[Hugabear]

11. I fail to see how it trivializes the Holocaust

We shouldn't be able to draw any lessons from Goebbels and the way the Nazis used propaganda to further their cause?

[Nihil]

13. "Not to mention trivializing millions of murders"?

What a load of fictitious bullshit.

At no point did Cohen (a Jew FWIW) trivialise "millions of murders".

What you have here is not a Democrat who has 'called his opponent a Nazi'
(as so many people on this thread & others have suggested) but someone
drawing a perfectly true and valid comparison between the political tactics
of two political parties.

IMO, the real problem with this event isn't the name "Goebbels", it is
the fact that so many people - Democrats as well as Republicans - are just
pig-ignorant of history, incapable of thinking logically, have zero skills
in rhetoric and are living in total denial of the world around them.

:argh:

[jillan]

8. Exactly - no one remembers what point he wanted to make, all they remember is "Nazi".

Not okay when a repub does it, and not okay when a Dem does it either.

[DesertDiamond]

33. If you can think of way of calling out people who use Goebbel's tactics without it automatically

bringing up the picture of Nazis, please offer it. Meanwhile, IMO, those who use his tactics are so callous and lacking in humanity that they deserve to be called whatever anyone wants to call them. They're doing it, and it needs to be said. As for the millions of people who died because of the Nazis, how many have died because of lack of health care?

[liberal N proud]

4. Why is it the Democrats always have to apologize for the truth

While the pukes play the victim when they are called out for their hate and lies.

:nuke:

[elias49]

5. Dems generally have souls nt

[TroglodyteScholar]

6. Bingo n/t

[dbt]

14. The Republics have this gargantuan propaganda machine

backing them. I call it ABCCBSCNNNBCFox. It flies everywhere on one wing.

If Goebbels had had such a massive tool at his Beck and call, the outcome of WWII could well have been different.

[Historic NY]

7. WTF......

[lobodons]

9. Nazi quotes should not be off limits

Equal comparisons yes such as Republican lies led to the death of over 6 million innocents should be off limits. But to use Nazi quotes such as repeat a lie enough the people will start to believe it in a comparison should not be off limits.

[DesertDiamond]

34. +1,000,000! But again, how many millions have died because of lack of health care?

[nckjm]

10. He said nothing wrong IMO

The parallel he gave about the power of repeated lies in order to brainwash people was completely accurate. Especially so, since in both cases, the lies and brainwashing results in people accepting actions that have devastating and deadly results(read Alan Grayson's article about how many American's would die annually if health care is repealed.)

It is time to be crystal clear that these Repug actions are intentional and are aimed to make America a total corporatist nation. (I hope they've kept that "mission accomplished" sign!) Jon Stewart was really bashing Cohen tonight which reminded me why I hadn't watched him but once since his rally.

[sabrina 1]

12. He should not have apologized.

Some Republicans would most definitely have been Nazis had they lived back then, no question in my mind.

I have zero problem picturing Dick Cheney in a Nazi Uniform or ordering some of the atrocities ordered by them. The only reason he didn't now, was because there are still some, although not enough, restrictions on them. They still managed to slaughter over one million Iraqis, and torture many, many more. So, even with restrictions and the world watching they still succeeded in murdering an awful of people.

Cohen may apologize for calling them Nazis, but I would never have done so. They ARE the equivalent of Nazi propagandists and he was totally right about that.

[mbperrin]

15. Well said. To think otherwise trivializes the death of millions

of folks in the Middle East directly by this country, and trivializes how many deaths do occur and will occur in this country with no viable health care for many millions.

These issues matter, and this is no high school debate round.

People are dying and more will die while we worry about offending our masters, who, BTW, are free to say "Go fuck yourself" on the Senate floor and then later tell the media that it felt good to say it.

[ellenfl]

27. he was making a perfectly valid point about propaganda and

should NOT have apologized, imo. having read much of the history of hitler, i totally agree with him that goebels (pronounced 'gerbels', not 'gobels' like the repubs pronounce it) was the consummate propagandist. i'm getting really tired of dems being censored by repubs . . . thereby denying free speech to anyone who disagrees with them.

and i was very upset that jon stewart didn't even get it.

ellen fl

[sabrina 1]

31. Jon Stewart has been a major disappointment lately.

I completely agree with you. The Holocaust doesn't belong to any group. It is an historical event where several groups of people were targeted, first by propaganda to single them out and mark them for death.

Gypsies, Gays, Jews, all were demonized before it was possible to safely go after them.

Here, we have demonized Muslims on rightwing media and the slaughter of over one million of them barely raises a question. The propaganda from Fox et al was so successful that the death of a Muslim, the rape of Muslim women and children is not even mentioned here.

For anyone to dare to claim that there is no similarity to Goebbels can only mean they have become so absorbed into the propaganda that they have completely forgotten about our continued slaughter of Muslims, or they approve of it because they are 'the other'.

[bluestateguy]

16. Sign of weakness and capitulation

Never apologize. Even if you are wrong. You gave in to the bully Steve. And he will take your lunch money again and again.

Just like Richard Durbin blubbering on the Senate floor.

[VWolf]

17. Agreed

Just when I think I found a Dem with a spine ....

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. Using a Nazi reference was a sign of weakness

[defendandprotect]

29. Don't think so -- but we've had too little discussion of the rise of the Fourth Reich in Ameica...

something the nation has to begin to hear -- starting now!

And that's about 40 years too late!!

[blackspade]

18. This was more of a non-apology.

but the MSM is reporting it as a capitulation. Typical.

[yodermon]

20. Right. When a repuke apologizes in such a manner, we jump all over him/her

for the conditional "sorry IF I OFFENDED ANYBODY" non-apology.

[unblock]

21. the only way to prevent it from happening again is to ALLOW this kind of dialog

if it's "off-limits" to compare anything to what the nazis did, that provides perfect cover for going down that same path.

it MUST be acceptable to warn that we are doing something dangerous and inappropriate. if they disagree that what they are doing is similar to what the goebbels did, then they can dispute that claim. but it is not acceptable to simply dismiss the charge by saying it's off-limits to compare anything to what the nazis did.

[LeFleur1]

22. Exactly. Does No One Listen?

He was saying that the use of lies and innuendo to convince people of something that isn't true works, and one terrible result of that kind of tactic was the Holocaust.
I thought he was saying 'do not be manipulated by lies because that can sometimes lead to a hideous result, and here is one example.'

Hysteria in this country is reaching new levels.

Good grief

[defendandprotect]

30. Agree -- and how many know the Nixon White House was studying Nazi propaganda films?

[Fly by night]

23. Now if he'll apologize for saying he needs to carry a gun to feel safe.

Does Steve know what he believes or understand what he says these days?

Hard to tell from here.

[deutsey]

24. Saw that coming a mile away...although he was stupid for even mentioning the word "Nazi"

He could have made his very valid point that the GOP lies but without using such a loaded comparison.

As someone already mentioned in this thread, anytime you bring up Nazis in your argument the larger point you're trying to make will get lost.

[yellowcanine]

25. Always best to stay away from Nazi references. Even when they seem to apply.

Puts the focus on you rather than on the people it should be on. All he had to do was call it "propaganda", which is what it was.

[defendandprotect]

28. Interesting how quickly "corrections" caught up with Cohen ... but not Beck, Palin, O'Reilly ...

and the rest of the "PLEASE MURDER THIS PERSON/POLITICIAN FOR ME!"

right wing !!!


:eyes:

[Doctor_J]

32. Shit

I was hoping he wouldn't cower like the rest of the Dems.