Less Hitler than Mussolini

Skippy the great brings us this:

we are so tired of hearing awol compared to hitler. as we have said before, the analogy is so far afield as to be ridiculous. for one thing, hitler could speak in public.

ergo, we are happy to hear that 2nd circuit court of appeal judge guido calabresi has compared awol to mussolini. the nysun:

“the reason i emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when mussolini was put in by the king of italy,” judge calabresi continued, as the allusion drew audible gasps from some in the luncheon crowd saturday at the annual convention of the american constitution society.

“the king of italy had the right to put mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister. that is what happened when hindenburg put hitler in. i am not suggesting for a moment that bush is hitler. i want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual,” the judge said.

judge calabresi, a former dean of yale law school, said mr. bush has asserted the full prerogatives of his office, despite his lack of a compelling electoral mandate from the public.

“when somebody has come in that way, they sometimes have tried not to exercise much power. in this case, like mussolini, he has exercised extraordinary power. he has exercised power, claimed power for himself; that has not occurred since franklin roosevelt who, after all, was elected big and who did some of the same things with respect to assertions of power in times of crisis that this president is doing,” he said.