Rumsfeld Comparasion of Chavez to Hitler Gets a Yawn

How many stories have been blown out of proportion because someone slipped in a Hitler reference? How many headlines have read "___compares ____ to Hitler" It is a good headline (see above), the kind that would normally get a mention on Drudgereport (oh my god, I swear i didn't plan this but they currently are leading with "NAACP Chair compares GOP to Nazis") and get sent around the blogosphere. Usually it is a lefty slinging mud a a Republican and its significance lies in its absurdity, though normally if you read closely, the Hitler reference is oblique or tangential.

Today we had an actual case of the top US Military Official making direct comparisons of someone who has killed no one to Hitler, yet media editors opted to just slip the quote into the story or ran innocuous headlines like: "Rumsfeld says Chavez rise 'worrisome'. So is Chavez just worrisome or is he a murderous racist homophobic maniac?

The timing of this sure-fire news stealing rhetoric just happened to appear at the time our Government's military spy was being expelled from Venezuela. The US denies wrongdoing. Meanwhile, John Negroponte (Dir of National Intel.), was in front of the Senate telling more lies about Chavez - that Chavez was seeking closer economic and military ties with (Iran and) North Korea, while meddling in the internal affairs of neighboring countries. At least the NYTimes noted that "Little, if anything, has ever been publicly raised about ties to North Korea, and Mr. Negroponte did not offer evidence." No evidence of interference in Latin America has ever surfaced despite the hype either.

The Rumsfeld quote: "You've got Chavez in Venezuela with a lot of oil money," he said. "He's a person who was elected legally just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally." "And then (he) has consolidated power. And now of course is working closely with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others."