Likening tax to Holocaust outrageous

Los Angeles Daily News (not available online until tomorrow) ^ | 01-07-2003 | Richard Cohen

[boris]

Likening tax to Holocaust outrageous

THIS is the way things happen in my business. In October, an extremely influential GOP activist and White House insider, Grover Norquist, was interviewed by Terry Gross on her National Public Radio program, "Fresh Air." By December, a portion of that interview was reprinted in Harper's Magazine where, over the holidays, I happened to see it. I am writing about it today because, among other things, Norquist compared the estate tax to the Holocaust.

This remark — so bizarre and tasteless that I fell it deserved checking — sent me to the show's transcript, which, sure enough, confirmed it. In the transcript, Norquist claimed that those who disagree with him believe the estate tax was worth keeping because it really affected only "2 percent of Americans.'' He went on: "I mean, that's the morality of the Holocaust: Well, it's only a small percentage, you know. I mean, it's not you. It's somebody else."

He went on to liken the estate tax to apartheid in the old South Africa and to the Communist regime of the old East Germany. How he neglected Iraq under Saddam Hussein, I will never know.

[boris]

I excerpted this because it originated in the Washington Post.

My letter to the editor in response:

Editor
Daily News

Sir:

As a Jew, I understand perfectly Grover Norquist's comparison of the estate tax to the Holocaust. Richard Cohen either has a tin ear or tunnel vision. I suspect his curious lapse in imagination is carefully calibrated. Let me help.

The Nazis were careful to dig the gold out of the tooth fillings of the dead victims of genocide. They harvested hair, jewelry, eyeglasses, anything of value--from corpses. The Nazis were ghouls; is there a difference between robbing the dead by digging out a filling--or by dipping into their estates?

--Boris

[Monti Cello]

Your argument is better than Norquist's.

I suspect the article (reporting on a radio show from October???) is simply damage control in the aftermath of the Moveon.org Nazi accusations.

[Tallguy]

I suspect the article (reporting on a radio show from October???) is simply damage control in the aftermath of the Moveon.org Nazi accusations.

yep!

[Grit]

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1452983

The Norquist NPR interview from 10-02-03. A very good listen regardless of many FReepers opinion of Norquist.

[MurryMom]

...aftermath of the Moveon.org Nazi accusations.

The organization (Moveon.org) never made any such accusations. Ads suggesting such connection merely appeared on their website in response to Moveon.org's request for submissions. The "Nazi" ads never made it to the finals.

Ed Gillespie of the RNC is the only person who needs to apologize for false insinuations relating to the "Nazi" ads. He should have known better in view of hipshooting by Nordquist and other Repukie sympathizers.

[Guillermo]

Oh, of course, it was the Republicans fault.

Do you blame your pms on Bush too?

[VRWCmember]

Ads suggesting such connection merely appeared on their website in response to Moveon.org's request for submissions. The "Nazi" ads never made it to the finals.

Yes, MM, but moveon happily let those ads remain on its website and only removed them when the publicity exposed moveon for the vile hateful organization that it is.

While you apparently favor the confiscation by the government of half of an estate that was accumulated over many years of hard work and represents only the leftovers after confiscatory taxation over all those years, the poster Boris has already pointed out the very legitimate parallel between the nazis' morbid gleaning of anything of value from the corpses of their victims, which is clearly a better allusion than the also valid point by Norquist that the justification by the pro-death-tax camp that their tax plan only screws 2% of the population is just plain evil.

[sausageseller]

The organization (Moveon.org) never made any such accusations.

SS Why then, did they ever allow the submission?

By allowing the submissions, not 1 but 2, they have endorsed them!

[Sloth]

Ads suggesting such connection merely appeared on their website

By magic? WOW!

[VRWCmember]

Hey MM, I've noticed you often use some of the same hateful terms for Republicans and our President as Molly Ivins. Given her history with plagiarism issues (which may explain some of the columns she wrote defending Joe Biden and lashing out at his detractors) I must wonder: has she been plagiarizing you? or are you Molly Ivins posting under the screen name MurryMom?

[Petronski]

Ads suggesting such connection merely appeared on their website in response to Moveon.org's request for submissions.

Moveon.org invited the ads, paid for the server space, provided the website linking to it, performed the promotion to bring traffic to the site and, perhaps most importantly, made no effort to police itself (by removing the ads) until they were 'caught.'

That is sponsorship. You and your Stalinist lackey buddies are only upset that no one agreed with the 'point' of the ads.

[Capitalism2003]

The death tax was one of Karl Marx's main planks in the commie manifesto...No wonder the democrats love it.

[sausageseller]

Paging MM. Come out, come out where ever you are!

[cwb]

I honestly think your just fooling yourself. Even before the controversy over this ad, I saw representatives of MoveOn appear on Hannity's shows (radio and TV) comparing the Reichstag fire with what Bush is doing in this country. Hell, CBS' Hitler mini-series was trying to imply much of the same connections. While MoveOn may not have produced the ad, many of their members do have these attitudes and are guilty of perpetuating this hatred. They ran the ad on their website and thought it was cool until they got caught. And by the way, It wasn't just Gillespie who made it an issue...the ADL did, too. Should they also apologize, or is that just for Republicans?

[stop_fascism]

A new year. She's back, and still a fool. Some things never change.

[NeoCaveman]

It was their site you mindless twit. If they weren't Democrats they'd take personal responsibility* for putting those ads on their site.

*By personal responsibility, I mean a simple apology and not passing the blame.

[cwb]

I was actually trying to be reasonable with Murrymom....until I read her past posts. I didn't know she was this big a lib. Of course, I should of realized that when she didn't return to defend her rediculous claim. Hey, at least she gets to post here (for some time, now) and hasn't been banned, as would happen to many of us if we were doing this at DU.

[fella]

As that chef says.....BAM! But them you have to realize what the self acclaimed liberals really are.

[xm177e2]

Ads suggesting such connection merely appeared on their website in response to Moveon.org's request for submissions. The "Nazi" ads never made it to the finals.

Maybe you could explain how the ads "merely appeared" on their website. Their site is not like FR where anyone can put up anything they want (is it?)--so those Nazi ads had to be approved by someone.

In any case, two of the "Bush in 60 Seconds" judges are Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo, who have both compared Bush to Hitler before. Why should we think that these ads were aberrations, and not exactly what MoveOn.com's supporters believe?

[MurryMom]

...are you Molly Ivins posting under the screen name MurryMom?

Thanks for the compliment, VRWC, but MurryMom still resides in Murrysville, PA, not the Lone Star State where Molly Ivins make her home.