Laying Down the Law

When I heard that a Republican outfit in PA was sending Jewish voters emails suggesting Obama's candidacy resembled the rise of Hitler, I was livid. I'm glad the Anti-Defamation League is fighting back.

Found via AMERICAblog, the ADL's statement reads, in part:

Regardless of which candidate one supports, it is shocking and profoundly distressing that anyone would see fit to make such an odious, false and repugnant analogy. Not only does it further debase the level of our political discourse, but it also diminishes and trivializes the virulent anti-Semitism and Nazi aggression that led to the slaughter of six million Jews and millions of others.

Read the whole thing here.

I've written about Godwin's Law before (on AMERICAblog, actually), but now seems like an excellent time to bring it up again:

As a Usenet discussion gets longer it tends to get more heated; as more heat enters the discussion, tensions get higher and people start to insult each other over anything they can think of. Godwin's Law merely notes that, eventually, those tensions eventually cause someone to find the worst insults that come to mind - which will almost always include a Nazi comparison.

(...)

When it happens, the thread is going to start either degenerating into a long flamewar over Nazi Germany or about Godwin's Law. Either way, the thread is effectively over, and you can safely killfile the thread and move on.

I'd say the "Republican Federal Committee of PA – Victory 2008" has effectively crossed the line with its 'Holocaust'- themed correspondence, and we should be allowed to safely dismiss the McCain campaign and move on.