Alan Keyes Award

I told myself I was going to take a break from writing until I heard a Christmas song on the radio. Well, thanks to the Bob Chipeska-esque folks at Clear Channel, that moment has come earlier than anticipated.

We give the first post-election Alan Keyes Award to Representative Paul Broun (R-GA). Until now, Broun has been notable primarily for being the House's logical successor to Ron Paul and winning election after his primary opponent suggested the University of Georgia should be bombed. Anyhow, Broun wins the award for violating the first rule of public rhetoric, which is to never compare anyone to Adolf Hitler. When discussing Barack Obama's idea for a Civilian Defense Force, Broun stated:

That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did. When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist. We can't be lulled into complacency. You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential of going down that road."

Now, I confess that I found Obama's idea, at least the way I heard him phrase it, to be quite bizarre. However, the point is not whether Obama's corps is a valid comparison to the brown shirts of Nazi Germany. Rather, the relevant point is that any comparison to Hitler will inevitably result in a backlash against the speaker. Disregarding the frequent comments of Pat Buchanan, I have yet to see a speaker make a comparison to Hitler and the Nazis that didn't result in that speaker forced into an apology. Politicians and non-politicians alike should have figured out by now that Hitler is off limits. Luckily for me, people like Broun can't remember, and thus we can expect to see more people automatically win this award by making Hitler remarks.

I'd also add, for good measure, that whatever Hitler was he was not a Marxist, as Broun claimed. Note to Representative Broun, if you're going to make an ass out of yourself, at least try to make yourself an intelligent sounding ass.