Does the New Civility Include a Dem Rep Calling House Republicans Nazis and Invoking the Holocaust?

Or is tamping down heated rhetoric something that is only expected of Republicans?

Democratic lawmaker compares GOP health law claims to Nazi 'lies'
The Hill
January 19, 2011

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.) on the House floor Tuesday night compared Republican claims about the healthcare reform law to lies perpetrated by the Nazis that led to the Holocaust.

Cohen, who is Jewish, made his remarks during floor debate over the GOP bill to repeal the law.

"They don't like the truth so they summarily dismiss it," he said. "They say it's a government takeover of healthcare. A big lie just like [Nazi propaganda minister Joseph] Goebbels. You say it enough and you repeat the lie, repeat the lie, repeat the lie until eventually people believe it. Like blood libel, that's the same kind of thing.

"The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it, and you have the Holocaust," he added. "You tell a lie over and over again."
Cohen's remarks, first caught by ABC News, come amid heightened sensitivity to political rhetoric following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). Republicans have by and large stopped referring to the law as "job-killing" though they have not officially removed the phrase from the repeal bill's title.

When a Democrat like Cohen speaks about the "big lie" technique, he is talking from experience. The mass hysteria and rush to blame Sarah Palin and conservatives for the Arizona shooting was only the most recent and egregious use of that technique.

What a shame that Rep. Cohen will not be held to the same standard of media scrutiny as Sarah Palin. Failure to do so only means that the culture of overheated rhetoric Democrats claim to deplore when accusing Republicans of it will continue!