# Santorum does Godwin: Dems are equivalent to Nazis **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 20, 2005, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724 "2005-05-20T10:59:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/21 "2005-05-20T14:00:07Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > Santorum in '08. Let’s get this guy out in front of the country. Maybe it will be a wake up call to conservatives with a shred of common sense. Fer chrissakes, don’t even say that in jest—he’d actually _win!_ ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/22 "2005-05-20T14:00:14Z")
**NurseCarmen** , in light of recent efforts I’ve been trying to make to be more civil, I will gladly change my mind on that subject. The Derbyshire column referred to in that post could have been seen by reasonable people as inflammatory, and didn’t help make the current political climate more peaceful. Neither did Santorum’s comments, which I do not approve of. And neither, it should be said, did the OP. ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/23 "2005-05-20T14:14:41Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > Santorum in '08. Let’s get this guy out in front of the country. Maybe it will be a wake up call to conservatives with a shred of common sense. With every fiber of my being I hope for this. G’wan, nominate the bigot. I wanna hear the apologies that people come up with. > [@Mr. Moto](#): > > How this makes the OP morally superior to Santorum is beyond me. Simply by being, the OP is morally superior to Santorum. > [@Mr. Moto](#): > > I’ll give you the chance to do what Santorum certainly should do, which is to retract that comment and perhaps apologize for making it. Oh, get the hell over yourself. As others have pointed out, this the Pit, not the floor of the United States Senate. ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/24 "2005-05-20T14:15:25Z")
Rick Santorum. My senator. Oh how I wish he would go away and never come back. I actually voted for this guy when he ran for the House and when he first ran for the Senate. He was a “get the government off our backs” guy. Now he wants to be in everybody’s business. I hoped he’d learn from the esteemed senior Senator from PA, but that wasn’t the case. Ol’ Ricky goes whichever way is politically expedient rather than personally principled. Rick Santorum…Raging Asshole. How’s that for trying not to be offensive. As a constituent who feels cheated, I think I have the right. This is the Pit, no? As odious as Bob Casey, Jr. is (and they don’t get much odious-er), I’m thinking about volunteering for his campaign to oust RS. At least this might mean Rick’s kids might actually have to attend schools in PA. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/25 "2005-05-20T14:20:06Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Fer chrissakes, don’t even say that in jest—he’d actually _win!_ Do you actually think that the country would elect that sanctimonious prick for the presidency? :smack: You’re right. What was I thinking? ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/26 "2005-05-20T14:24:35Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Anal froth has not, to the best of my knowledge, killed six million Jews. **Billdo** , were you looking for a new sig? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/27 "2005-05-20T14:32:48Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > **NurseCarmen** , in light of recent efforts I’ve been trying to make to be more civil, I will gladly change my mind on that subject. The Derbyshire column referred to in that post could have been seen by reasonable people as inflammatory, and didn’t help make the current political climate more peaceful. > > Neither did Santorum’s comments, which I do not approve of. > > And neither, it should be said, did the OP. Ahhh. I hadn’t seen your retraction of support to Derbyshire’s attempts at humor until, oh I dunno, today at 9:00 am. I wish you’d clarify that position. [F](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5898034&postcount=56)ailing to do so would be hypocrisy, don’t you think? I too agree, that bringing up the subject of anal foam in that post could have been seen by reasonable people as inflammatory, and didn’t help make the current political climate more peaceful. I just wanted to shine a light on what seemed to me a different position on muck-dredging political theater than you had previously aired. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/28 "2005-05-20T14:32:52Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > We seem to demand a civility in politics that we as a people don’t want to observe anywhere else. The OP is a rather blatant example of that, and I regard it as somewhat hypocritical. What do you mean “anywhere else”? I, myself, demand a civility in politics that I am willing to observe in may other places. A wedding, perhaps. Or durring high tea with the Queen of England. Thus I am willing to observe civility in many, many other place. That’s not the same thing as observing civility in **every** other place. As a matter of fact, I don’t see _anyone_ demanding civility in all places and at all times. If **Billdo** had done that, then he would indeed be hypocritical. But he hasn’t. With that in mind, let me ask you - are you demanding thet the same level of civility in politics be demonstrated at all other times and in all other places? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/29 "2005-05-20T14:36:21Z")
Certainly not. But demanding civility in the same paragraph you’re being uncivil seems particularly cloying. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/30 "2005-05-20T14:39:06Z")
But, as I said, not hypocritical. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/31 "2005-05-20T14:46:02Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > Certainly not. But demanding civility in the same paragraph you’re being uncivil seems particularly cloying. Looks much more like you couldn’t find anything defensable about Santorum’s statement, so you had to somehow try and find something, somehow, to attack the OP with, no matter how desperate and completely illogical. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/32 "2005-05-20T14:51:17Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Looks much more like you couldn’t find anything defensable about Santorum’s statement, so you had to somehow try and find something, somehow, to attack the OP with, no matter how desperate and completely illogical. Yes, and it’s a demonstration of how the neo-cons re-set agendas practically daily…let’s stop jumping to **Mr. Moto’s** tune and concentrate on the thrust of the original post: Santorum is an idiot and a hypocrite. He didn’t “misspeak” or make an “unfortunate” choice in his wording. He is flinging shit–and should be called on it and stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/33 "2005-05-20T14:52:12Z")
I didn’t “have” to do anything. I’m perfectly capable of denouncing something on its own terms, even if it’s done by conservatives. That statement by Santorum wasn’t the only thing I saw fit to comment upon. ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/34 "2005-05-20T14:52:31Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Looks much more like you couldn’t find anything defensable about Santorum’s statement, so you had to somehow try and find something, somehow, to attack the OP with, no matter how desperate and completely illogical. To **Mr. Moto** ’s credit, he _did_ say that Santorum oughta retract what he said. However, I don’t see that happening. Santorum is far too approved by the one true God to admit a mistake. Kinda like That Man in Washington. Besides, it’s a lot of fun watching **Mr. Moto** try oh-so-desperately to rise above what he considers unseemly. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/35 "2005-05-20T14:57:38Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Ahhh. I hadn’t seen your retraction of support to Derbyshire’s attempts at humor until, oh I dunno, today at 9:00 am. I wish you’d clarify that position. [F](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5898034&postcount=56)ailing to do so would be hypocrisy, don’t you think? > > I too agree, that bringing up the subject of anal foam in that post could have been seen by reasonable people as inflammatory, and didn’t help make the current political climate more peaceful. I just wanted to shine a light on what seemed to me a different position on muck-dredging political theater than you had previously aired. Right. You caught me in a contradiction, which I freely admit. And at the risk of looking foolish, I tried to correct this problem. It would have been dishonest of me to try to duck it in some way. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/36 "2005-05-20T15:14:59Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > “Santorum Does Godwin”? > > Man, I hope he used lube. Dude, he _is_ lube. And fecal matter. In a frothy mix. Didn’t you read the OP? ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/37 "2005-05-20T15:15:28Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > “Santorum Does Godwin”? > > Man, I hope he used lube. Why? It isn’t as if Godwin could _feel_ it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/38 "2005-05-20T15:31:07Z")
Perhaps **Mr. Moto** has a point. Comparing Santorum to anal froth is unnecessarily insulting to anal froth. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/39 "2005-05-20T15:32:26Z")
My “he is flinging shit and should be called on it and stopped” comment is in reference to Santorum, not **Mr. Moto**. _He_ is providing smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724/40 "2005-05-20T15:34:35Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > Well, Byrd’s example does demonstrate that the tendency of rhetoric to become overheated is not limited to one party. Let’s put some specifics to “overheated rhetoric.” > [@Senator Byrd](#): > > With no right of debate, what will forestall plain muscle and mob rule? Many times in our history we have taken up arms to protect a minority against the tyrannical majority in other lands. We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini’s Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men. > > But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends. Historian Alan Bullock writes that Hitler’s dictatorship rested on the constitutional foundation of a single law, the Enabling Law. > > Hitler needed a two-thirds vote to pass that law, and he cajoled his opposition in the Reichstag to support it. Bullock writes that: “Hitler was prepared to promise anything to get his bill through, with the appearances of legality preserved intact.” And he succeeded. > > “Hitler’s originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the State: the correct order of events was first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal.” > > That is what the nuclear option seeks to do to rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate. > [@Senator Santorum](#): > > Imagine, the rule that this is the way we confirm judges has been in place for 214 years, broken by the other side 2 years ago, and the audacity of some Members to stand up and say, How dare you break this rule, it is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying: I’m in Paris, how dare you invade me, how dare you bomb my city. It’s mine. This is no more the rule of the Senate than it was the rule of the Senate before not to filibuster. It was an understanding, an agreement, and it has been abused. Folks might see it differently, but I think Byrd’s statement is anything but “overheated.” If anything, it’s an overly long quote of a point made by a historian that is, frankly, a bit dry. Santorum’s quote, on the other hand, is probably the dictionary definition of overheated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorum-does-godwin-dems-are-equivalent-to-nazis/304724.md?page=3)