SPRINGTIME FOR SCHRODER:

German aide likens Bush tactics to Hitler's (Peter Finn, September 20, 2002, The Washington Post)

The anti-U.S. sentiment coursing through the German election campaign quickened Thursday when Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's justice minister said that President George W. Bush's "method" in pursing a confrontation with Iraq was similar to tactics employed by Hitler because both wished to divert attention from domestic problems, according to press reports of the remarks.

The comments by Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, who did not know there was a reporter in the room Wednesday when she spoke to a group of trade unionists, infuriated a Bush administration already bristling at Schroeder's strident rejection of even a United Nations-mandated attack on Iraq.

Ari Fleischer was justifiably furious about this at his press briefing today, but there's a much better way for the administration to handle the matter. How about this for an answer when the press asks about the appeasement campaign of Schroder and his party:

Neither the president nor his administration take this rhetoric seriously. Mr. Schroder is a desperate politician who's about to lose his tenuous grip on power and if Jew-baiting, America-bashing, and dictator-cuddling can get him to 33% in political polls, it's not too surprising to see him stoop to it.

But, if he should happen to win, we're confident that he'll discard all this nonsense--which was after all merely political cant intended to whip up extremist voters--abandon his newfound friend Saddam and come crawling back, begging forgiveness.

How do we think that would play in the beer halls? Posted by Orrin Judd at September 19, 2002 11:26 PM