i'd like to see the honorable rep. king say that personally to every democrat who has served this country. he can start with wes clark.

oh and he can tell that personally to every republican who has served this country and is supporting obama. he can start with colin powell ... assuming he survives the encounter with wes clark.

Hil, you know you're just winding up zeitgeist. Hee.

Scratch a republican, hurt a fascist. King is a fascist.

"When you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship," King said. "There is no freedom to the left. It's always to our side of the aisle.""

King has the GOP projection strategy down pat. The party of Abu Ghraib is the party of freedom. Right.

The GOP is now too nuts to be allowed anywhere near power. We need an opposition party, but we need one that isn't batshit crazy, and which has a clue about what secular constitutional government is supposed to be. The Republican party is too far gone to serve in that role.

The main danger is that Obama may take too long to get things turned around, given the enormous catastrophe he's inheriting. If that happens we could be back to a GOP clown show in the Oval Office come 2012.

I'm just waiting for the roll-out of the final OOGA-BOOGA message:

"CATS sleeping with DOGS!11!!eleventy!1!"

Obama has to respond to this garbage. I fear it is beginning to stick and could threatens his landslide (and perhaps even his election).

The hyperbole is so outrageous it might only do damage to the argument.

Boy. Cry. Wolf.

Who is this argument even designed for?

Voters 60+, who are likely (not likely) the most susceptible, know better than to believe America will fall to the communists (Cuba? China? - anyone paying attention knows we're indebted already).

No one else could possibly be moved by this argument.

I don't think most people would mind getting $1200 a year from their state instead of having to pay state taxes. You know, like they do in socialist red state Alaska.

. . . you take a lurch to the left . . .

And a step to the ri-yi-yi-yight!

Put your hands on your hips!

(etc.)

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!

Let's see if I get this right . . . in the history of the world, all of the freedom-hating totalitarian dictarships have been leftists? And all along I thought the Constitution-loathing, secret-prison loving, I-am-the-decider guy in the White House was a right winger? Must have been mislead by the state-controlled press.

And what are these people doing campaigning in Iowa? Sioux City is where Iowa-South Dakota-Nebraska meet, but it's pretty marginal as for as electoral college math is concerned.

I told you not to trust Campbell Brown:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campbell.brown.obama/index.html

Thomas Friedman in today's NYT, with another steamy helping of his own trademark pablum. The subject today is Iran, which Friedman has temporarily convinced himself will implode much like the Soviet Union, because of the drop in oil prices. This would presumably mean that Iran will abandon its satellite states ... and withdraw from its overseas military adventures ... and as I read, I began wondering whether Friedman might actually be writing about some other country. Then it dawned on me what the secret message must be:

Under GW Bush, America’s moguls have gone on a financial services binge — using borrowed money to mask the rising prices of food, gasoline, mortgages and to create jobs — to buy off the American people. But the one thing Bush couldn’t buy was real economic growth. America today has flat wages in the face of significant cost of living inflation, 11 percent unemployment and huge underemployment with thousands of young college grads, engineers and architects selling pizzas and driving taxis. And now with credit drying up, America — just like the Soviet Union — is going to have to pull back spending across the board. Fasten your seat belts.

"The structure of the American state and the economy has been deeply altered. Real hundreds of millions of dollars have poured into the coffers of the GOP while real hundreds of billions poured into the pockets of the rich. Real laws were passed that tore gaping holes in the Bill of Rights. A real shift of the judiciary toward the radical right has been set in motion. An unprecedented concentration of power in the Unitary Executive. A fusing of government, corporations, the military, and major portions of the media. A hugely expanded secret police apparatus." Who did this? Who? The left? Hardly. Reich wingers are responsible for this. Tell me again who is on the side of freedom and who are the fascists in waiting?

mudwall jackson:
After Wes Clark, King can tell it to Jim Webb. Webb will stick his boot so far up King's ass, it will be coming out his nose.

I'm guessing that Steve King is one of those idiots who's convinced that the Nazis were leftists because the word "socialist" is in their name.

How he explains away Mussolini and Franco, I'm not sure, but I'm sure he's got some bullshit "explanation."

Woah, woah, woah, Jennifer. You're telling me that if we elect Obama that cats will sleep with dogs?! I'm sorry, but the very thought of that totally freaks me out.

That's it, I'm going back to my polling place first thing in the morning and changing my early vote to McCain. Not that I'm some sort of prude against inter-species dating or anything, but I only got my cats neutered against other cats. They didn't say anything about them screwing around with dogs, and that's just not a chance I'm going to take; especially not with all the cheap whore dogs in my neighborhood. This is NOT change I believe in.

I guess four more years of Teh Suck is worth it. Thanks for the heads up. Why didn't King warn us about this instead of all that rehashed Red Scare nonsense? Who could fear socialism when we've got catdogs to worry about?

"When you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship,"
WTF???!! The right wing has completely lost every shred of sanity.

When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.

Yep, Iowa's Steve King is a bigoted jackass from the same mold as Michele Bachman.

So can we have some Act Blue love for his opponent? Please?

Actually Rep. King isn't saying that all totalitarian dictatorships are leftist, he is saying that all states to the left of the Republican party are totalitarian dictatorships.

So he is pretty much saying that there are no modern industrialized countries besides the US that are not totalitarian dictatorships. The NATO alliance consists of the US and a bunch of totalitarian dictatorships. And, as Hilzoy points out, the US only escaped from the Clinton Dictatorship less than a decade ago.

Shame on John McCain for not campaigning on invading Europe to liberate our allies from the totalitarian overlords!

"Ah, yes, my children, let me tell you of the End Days as foretold by our great seer, Rove...

When, it is said, cats will lay down with dogs and get up with fleas..."

Man, I've never seen a political party falling apart like this. Someone will have to make a documentary about it someday - how people react when their whole world of $hitballed lies comes whirling apart, flinging poo on all of them. Fascinating stuff.

To all those who think that this will make enough of a difference to voters who have seen what eight years of Republican rule means, get a grip.

For a little historical perspective, Winston Churchill made the same wildass claims in 1945, telling voters that if the Labor Party won, it would inevitably resort to Gestapo tactics to impose a totalitarian socialist state in the UK. Worked for him too. And he had just won a war.

But don't take my word (or historical analogies) for it--go out and campaign for Obama this weekend. My guess is that the people who are most afraid are also the most uninvolved.

Last night when I was taking a shower, I heard Olbermann from the other room mention some GOP hack claiming that this election was a "referendum on socialism." Did anyone else hear that?

Anyway, the thought that occurred to me was that, if this is true, and Barack Obama wins next week's election, then doesn't socialism win the referendum? Somehow I have a hard time imagining these assclowns on television November 5 conceding that America has decided to go socialist. Am I nuts?

Wasn't that the premise of Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism"? Remember he is a serious intellectual. Snark intended.

Ah, yes, Republicans who believe in freedom. For example, they believe in the freedom to marry who you want, and the freedom to make decisions about your own body, and the freedom to use controlled substances in the privacy of your own home, and of course the freedom from warrantless wiretaps.

Yes, Republicans are all for freedom, indeed.

I would like to point out the most horrific of the left-wing dictatorships that still exist: Sweden. Yes, it sure must suck living in a socialist country where... ummm - where the standard of living is high, life expectancy is long... Ok, I got nuthin'.

I live in Portland, significantly to the left, and unlike Mr. Obama, I actually *am* a socialist. Frankly, I am sick and tired of socialism being pulled out as a bogey to frighten people! Go listen to our resident senator, Bernie Sanders!

cheers-

If we don't watch it, we'll end up with universal health care, a better educational system, a smarter electorate, a safer and more efficient infrastructure, less crime, a happier population, a sense of community, government employees who are respected and take pride in their work, a responsible finance industry, a vibrant industry employing many to create promote clean energy alternatives at home and abroad, better relations with virtually every country on earth,...

I know what your thinking, 'not even That One could accomplish all that'. That's true of course, but ultimately that is where we could be headed. We've got to nip it; nip it in the bud!

It's not just King; this "he's a socialist" business seems to have spread like wildfire among those who are fast running out of other arguments. And, *for once*, I can call them on their BS with some authority, having grown up in a true socialist (striving for the communist paradise) country.

Back in Poland, I was considered, almost, to be a capitalist blood-sucker (not in fact, but in my philosophical perspective), a disgusting dissident and a traitor to the proletarian cause. Here, without having changed my philosophy a whit, I'm a flaming commie.

If Obama is a socialist, then I'm Queen Elizabeth II.

Yours, Regina E.

But Hilzoy, we *really did* have something close to totalitarianism - it was under GWB, not Clinton! I like most of your work, but you fumbled not sending that up.

"When you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship," King said. "There is no freedom to the left. It's always to our side of the aisle.""

They just can't get enough of that Rove stuff, can they?

Freedom to marry who you please? Conservatives.

Freedom to speak privately with loved ones overseas? The Republicans.

Guaranteed right to a trial by a jury of your peers? Bush, all the way.

Freedom from Cruel and Unusual punishment, Cheney and Co., my friends.

Are you taking notes, Obama. Let's break our chains! The GOP has showed us the way! Let us follow to freedom!