Congressman Paul Broun, who represents Northeast Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives, is a man so bereft of original ideas and so incapable of reasoned thought that, less than a week after being returned to Washington by the electorate, he's been reduced to comparing this nation's incoming Democratic president to Adolf Hitler.
And what is it, exactly, that newly chosen President-elect Barack Obama has done that places him - in Broun's mind, at least - in a league with the most vilified figure in modern history, a man responsible for the deaths of millions of human beings?
Well, it's the fact that Obama has proposed an expansion of this country's national service effort, a call to community service aimed at boosting this country's security by working to improve its infrastructure, do a better job educating its citizens, and help those citizens stay healthy. An Obama campaign document readily available on the Web, "The Blueprint for Change: Barack Obama's Plan for America," offers up additional details on the president-elect's community service proposal.
For Broun, that plan somehow translates into, as he noted in a Tuesday story from the Associated Press, "exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany, and ... exactly what the Soviet Union did. When he's (Obama) proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that's as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."
Our congressman went on to say, "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 (Obama) to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential of going down that road."
Congressman Broun was of course comparing Obama to Hitler, a comparison that his denial only served to reinforce. And then, Broun compounded his non-denial denial by subsequently offering a non-apology apology on an Augusta radio station, using the smarmy and ultimately meaningless line, "I apologize to anyone who has taken offense at that."
Broun's high dudgeon at Obama's call for a broadened commitment to public service in this country was apparently motivated by a misunderstanding - willful or not - of a speech the president-elect delivered during the campaign. Speaking in Colorado on July 2, Obama said, "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
In Broun's mind - and, in fairness, across much of the blogosphere - those lines presaged some intent on Obama's part to establish a jackbooted security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship on the United States. However, Broun - and a legion of others, judging from Internet postings on the July speech - conveniently ignore, or are unaware of, other segments of the speech in which Obama outlines his plans for the "national security force."
"People of all ages, stations and skills will be asked to serve," note transcripts of the speech, which deviated from Obama's prepared text. "Just as we must value and encourage military service across our society, we must honor and expand other opportunities to serve, because the future of our nation depends on the soldier at Fort Carson, but it also depends on the teacher in East L.A. or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the foreign service officer in Indonesia."
That's hardly a Hitlerian plan for subjugating the people of the United States under totalitarian rule. Unless, of course, you're Congressman Paul Broun.
As long as he was pulling stunts such as trying to get girlie magazines off PX shelves, or using taxpayer dollars to send out campaign literature, Broun was a mildly amusing political sideshow. But this latest episode in Broun's tenure, which has already earned him rebukes from Georgia's two U.S. senators - who, like Broun, are Republicans - will reduce him to irrelevance in Washington. That will, in turn, leave the people of Northeast Georgia with no representation in the House of Representatives. Thanks a lot, "Congressman" Broun.
I gotta say, the ABH's Ed board has it right on the money with this:
As long as he was pulling stunts such as trying to get girlie magazines off PX shelves, or using taxpayer dollars to send out campaign literature, Broun was a mildly amusing political sideshow. But this latest episode in Broun's tenure, which has already earned him rebukes from Georgia's two U.S. senators - who, like Broun, are Republicans - will reduce him to irrelevance in Washington. That will, in turn, leave the people of Northeast Georgia with no representation in the House of Representatives. Thanks a lot, "Congressman" Broun.
He might cry and whine about being marginalized, but it's his own fault that he's been reduced to a position where the best he can do is grandstand more frequently and more annoyingly than Dennis Kucinich. And he will do nothing for NE Georgia. Who will want to work with him? I'd applaud President-elect Obama if he tried to work with Congressman Broun, because working with someone who more or less explicitly called you a Marxist, communist, and a Nazi in the same breath makes you a bigger person than I. Congressman Broun, you are an embarassment to the Congress, an embarassment to Georgia, and an inept diplomat of any kind. Do us all a favor and step aside for someone who can actually be diplomatic, work to solve problems and not create more, and best serve the people of northeast GA.
LaFountain for Congress 2010
Again, not really. :-/
-rl
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