We’re getting some push back from readers on the post below about Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) — mainly along the lines that with Republicans calling Obama the new Hitler and comparing the public option to Nazi concentration camps, can’t a Dem get a little leeway for effect?
TPM Reader JH goes so far as to say I’m being “weak-kneed” and “dainty” in my approach.
I sympathize with the sentiment. And, frankly, I think my attitude and record on tough political rhetoric speaks for itself.
The people making the Third Reich arguments are pigs. They deserve all the verbal abuse anyone can give them. “Treason” though is a sui generis word, uniquely grave and with a very specific meaning. I just don’t think it’s a word to throw around casually. There’s plenty to talk about with so many of the antis being congenital liars and their willingness to consign so many Americans to penury and premature death. That should be enough to work with, no?
