Althouse: "I made a mistake; there’s no other way to say it. I got into a topic that I shouldn’t have, and I screwed up."

April 12, 2017

"I made a mistake; there’s no other way to say it. I got into a topic that I shouldn’t have, and I screwed up."

Said Sean Spicer.

And maybe not everybody, but I hope a lot of people, are thinking: Don't do it. You might think it, but resist. Don't compare somebody to Hitler.

89 comments:

rhhardin said...: Nobody cares.

Someday fake caring will be dispared like fake news.; 4/12/17, 8:36 PM
Jane the Actuary said...: "Fake caring" or no, this is a stunner of an apology -- no "I apologize if my words caused someone offense," but a full-blown "I screwed up, big time."; 4/12/17, 8:37 PM
J. Farmer said...: Godwin's law is dead anyway, so we might as well play fast and loose with the Hitler analogies. Of course, President Kushner might not have taken too kindly to them.; 4/12/17, 8:43 PM
Sebastian said...: Ignorance and stupidity aside, the political error in all the x-is-like-Hitler statements is that it lets the commie killers off the hook. How about "Assad is like Pol Pot, turning deserts and cities into killing fields"? Of course, you got a scale problem either way--the Great Leap Forward wiped out more than the whole population of Syria.; 4/12/17, 8:44 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Press Corp: Why did you bomb Syria?

SS: Because Assad is bad

Press Corps: There are plenty of bad people we don't bomb

SS: Assad is real bad

Press Corps: There are plenty of real bad people we don't bomb

SS: Assad is worse than Hitler- even Hitler didn't gas his own citizens

Press Corps: But Hitler DID gas his own citizens! A-Hah,we knew you guys were anti-semites!!!!!; 4/12/17, 8:45 PM
dreams said...: Liberals are such scumbags, they won't even let him apologize for making a careless comment and it's obvious he had no ill intent toward the Jewish and the holocaust. The fake outrage is just another example of liberals pretending to be offended.; 4/12/17, 8:45 PM
Chuck said...: The part I liked best was Spicer calling concentration camps "holocaust centers."

WTF?

I can only imagine that there were about two dozen talented Republican communications people -- in House and Senate offices, from the Bush Administration, from the think tanks and conservative media -- who turned down an offer to join the Trump Administration before they got down to Sean "Holocaust Center" Spicer.

Video? Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBl6eAWrxUA; 4/12/17, 8:52 PM
holdfast said...: We really do need to teach history better in schools. I have no doubt that Spicer was not trying to minimize the Holocaust or anything. He just jumped into a stupid rhetorical hole and couldn't climb out.

Then on the other hand you have Politico magazine going full anti-Semite conspiracy theory.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/the-happy-go-lucky-jewish-group-that-connects-trump-and-putin-215007

The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin
Where Trump's real estate world meets a top religious ally of the Kremlin.
By BEN SCHRECKINGER April 09, 2017; 4/12/17, 8:55 PM
Chuck said...: dreams said...
Liberals are such scumbags, they won't even let him apologize for making a careless comment and it's obvious he had no ill intent toward the Jewish and the holocaust. The fake outrage is just another example of liberals pretending to be offended.

I'm not a liberal, and I never for a moment thought that Spicer had any ill-will for Jews. I don't think that Trump has any serious ill-will toward Jews, either. I do think that Trump has a sort of jocular kind of bigotry, from when he is reliably reported to have said that he didn't want any blacks working for him in financial roles and that he wanted "little guys wearing yarmulkes."

Spicer and Trump aren't anti-Semites. Spicer and Trump are just a couple of dummies, way out of their league.; 4/12/17, 8:59 PM
Paul said...: The left call Trump a Hitler all the time. They called Bush 'BushHitler'.

And now they get upset over calling someone Hitler...

It's all a sham folks.; 4/12/17, 9:02 PM
Tank said...: Another giant non-issue.

Chuck, of course, thinks it's an issue, which tells you everything you need to know.; 4/12/17, 9:02 PM
Ann Althouse said...: This whole controversy is disrespectful to Holocaust victims. They do not belong in everyday political jousting.; 4/12/17, 9:04 PM
JPS said...: The whole uproar is willfully obtuse. Lots of people who consider the Holocaust the worst mass murder have asked, "Why didn't Hitler use chemical weapons in World War II?" Parse the CWC all you like, the people who ask that are not thinking of gassing captives in fake shower rooms as "using chemical weapons in war" because they don't consider Hitler's mass murder of millions of captives to be "war." E.g.:

http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm

"Why didn’t Hitler use poison gas in World War II?

"He certainly did everything else. Unprovoked aggression (multiple counts). Terror towards civilian populations in occupied areas. And the greatest mass murder of all time, the 'Judeocide' that most people refer to as the Holocaust."

[Note re "greatest": No, not the largest, but in terms of sheer concentrated evil I agree. Though you don't have to be a Holocaust-minimizer to argue that larger-scale mass murders, or the non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, are too often overlooked.]

As Sebastian points out, Spicer still had a scale problem. Assad is a vicious bastard and if there's a hell I think he's richly earned a spot, but he's not in the same league and it's an inapt comparison.; 4/12/17, 9:06 PM
traditionalguy said...: OK. Spicer says using sarin gas bombs are worse than Hitler, forgetting the SS Death Camp guards dumped gas into fake showers full of Jews.

That means Hitler was not better than Aasaad is today. Aasaad is equal to Hitler. What is wrong with that thought.

I suppose the Idea is the European Jews own the record and share it with no other victims.; 4/12/17, 9:09 PM
Mr. Majestyk said...: I assumed Spicer meant Hitler had not used chemical weapons on the battlefield, since that's where Assad used them and everyone knows Hitler used them in the concentration camps.; 4/12/17, 9:10 PM
Chuck said...: Ann Althouse said...
This whole controversy is disrespectful to Holocaust victims. They do not belong in everyday political jousting.

Are you saying that it was wrong to call Spicer on this, and get him to back down and apologize? Is that part disrespectful to Holocaust victims? Is it disrespectful (to Holocaust victims) to say to Spicer; "This was so bad; so distasteful; such an affront to people who were victims of such a profound international crime that no recompense can ever suffice; that you, Sean Spicer should just resign and return to private life so that the Presidency of the United States isn't tarnished, and isn't an ongoing affront to those victims..."?; 4/12/17, 9:15 PM
Jim Gust said...: Scott Adams counts this as a huge win for Trump:

"1. Sean Spicer (accidentally?) caused the opposition media to argue that Hitler analogies are ridiculous. "

Is the nonsense really over now?; 4/12/17, 9:17 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: "I assumed Spicer meant Hitler had not used chemical weapons on the battlefield, since that's where Assad used them and everyone knows Hitler used them in the concentration camps."

That's exactly what I thought. Chemical weapons were used during WWI (a sick irony - Hitler was gassed. He knew what it felt like.) and were banned by the Geneva Convention. They were not used by conventional armies during WWII, while of course, the Germans employed gas in the death camps.

I made that assumption immediately, but I also knew that Spicer had made a mistake.; 4/12/17, 9:21 PM
readering said...: Althouse, how do you attract such a combination of contrarian malcontents to your blog? "Stay away from Hitler analogies" should be so uncontroversial as to qualify as a bromide. But people here have a first impulse to find ways to express astonishment about the controversy and even criticize the critics after Spicer himself apologized?

But it makes a change of pace from justifying his boss's ongoing accusations of wiretapping and criminal conduct.; 4/12/17, 9:27 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Ann Althouse:

This whole controversy is disrespectful to Holocaust victims. They do not belong in everyday political jousting.

Oh, Ann, surely a woman as interested in juxtaposition as you can appreciate that this gaffe has occurred right as the headlines are becoming dominated by stories that suggest Bannon is being sidelined, and Kushner is asserting his sinister influence, even now on the much vaunted NSC. Breitbart is frothing.; 4/12/17, 9:28 PM
Chuck said...: Jim Gust said...
Scott Adams counts this as a huge win for Trump:
"1. Sean Spicer (accidentally?) caused the opposition media to argue that Hitler analogies are ridiculous. "
Is the nonsense really over now?

How can it be, that Sean Hannity has not yet devoted a weekly segment to the brilliant insights of Scott Adams?; 4/12/17, 9:29 PM
Achilles said...: Sean Spicer broke the Hitler rule: Only lefties get to compare people to Hitler.; 4/12/17, 9:35 PM
Owen said...: (1) I hope Spicer's words end this stupid exercise.
(2) we all know what he meant. Those who pretend otherwise are just wasting our time and trying to earn Outrage Points for which they have no claim.
(3) Just maybe this tiresome Hitler gag-line (yes, I mean that) will make it impossible for anyone else to invoke this monster. Guess what, we have not studied the history nearly well enough, and our jeers about Hitler are based on profound ignorance. Stop behaving like 8th-grade smart-alecks.; 4/12/17, 9:36 PM
YoungHegelian said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/12/17, 9:36 PM
Susan said...: Has Chimpy Bush McHitler weighed in on this yet?; 4/12/17, 9:46 PM
YoungHegelian said...: What Spicer said is the general phrasing that is used by all WWII historians. If I said, "In WWII, none of the combatants, aside from the Japanese doing a few test weapons on the Chinese, used chemical weapons." all would nod their heads in agreement. That's because the words "Chemical weapons" have a standard meaning, like the use of mustard & phosgene gas in WWI. When those weapons were used, by the way, they were used by the tons in a single battle.

Gassing innocent civilians with an insecticide (Zyklon-B) is not chemical warfare. It's not chemical warfare anymore than herding them into a big truck & then pumping in the CO from the exhaust is chemical warfare, which the Nazis did. Nor is dying from typhus in the camps because you were denied care "biological warfare". It's industrialized murder, but it isn't chemical warfare.

As for "Holocaust centers", not a felicitous term, I'll agree. But, "concentration camp", like the word "the Fascists", is a word blessed by general usage that obscures more than it reveals. "Concentration camps" are what we did to the Japanese-Americans & the British did to the Boers in South Africa. It's when you round people up & "concentrate" them into a specific area. They aren't meant to be killing machines.

The Nazis, on the other hand, had two kinds of camps -- labor camps & death camps. Lots of people died in the labor camps, but there was not much laboring in the death camps, other than the kapos processing dead bodies. Auschwitz/Birkenau was a labor camp. Sobibor was a death camp. There were lots of survivors of the labor camps. The number of survivors from the death camps was very small, basically those folks who escaped, were kapos, or were lucky enough to still be alive when the camp was liberated.

It saddens me just ignorant of history political discourse has become.; 4/12/17, 9:49 PM
Scott said...: Trump needs a new press secretary. I can't remember anyone in this position in any previous administration (R or D) make as many unforced errors as Sean Spicer has in such a short period.; 4/12/17, 9:51 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Scott:

Trump needs a new press secretary. I can't remember anyone in this position in any previous administration (R or D) make as many unforced errors as Sean Spicer has in such a short period.

In the early days of the administration I remember stories being floated that Laura Ingraham was being considered for press secretary. I remember at first I thought maybe her people will leaking the story to try to gin up support for the job. But then I thought, why would Ingraham want such a thankless job. Anyway, I really wished it would happen. Ingraham is a professional talker, she's well trained in this milieu, and she's fully on board the America First bandwagon. Her and Coulter. Both have finally kicked the neocon/GWOT bullshit to the curb. Mercifully. They're a bit late to the party, but we're happy to have them nonetheless.; 4/12/17, 9:58 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: “ 'If you basically put down a red line and say don’t use chemical weapons, and it’s been enforced in the Western community, around the world — international community for decades — don’t use chemical weapons,' Mr. Matthews said in 2013 on MSNBC’s 'Morning Joe.' 'We didn’t use them in World War II, Hitler didn’t use them. We don’t use chemical weapons. That’s no deal.' " from The Washington Times. "Chris Matthews, who said same thing in 2013, defends Spicer’s Hitler remark"

I saw the actual video of Chris Matthews saying that earlier this AM but the video seems to have disappeared.; 4/12/17, 9:59 PM
holdfast said...: Bring in Zombie Tony Snow? Probably the nicest and most decent guy to hold the job of Official Spokesliar in decades.; 4/12/17, 10:04 PM
Mark said...: Perhaps he is senile like people voted about Ginsburg.

The juxtaposition of these stories is a funny thing.; 4/12/17, 10:06 PM
Michael K said...: "I can't remember anyone in this position in any previous administration (R or D) make as many unforced errors as Sean Spicer has in such a short period."

This is bullshit. He made one bad mistake and that is it. He should stop talking about.; 4/12/17, 10:18 PM
M Jordan said...: Spicer has one tremendous trait that may save him forever: he's impervious to negative vibes. I've known several teachers like this who could stand up in front of class hating their guts, cracking jokes nobody laughed at, giving lectures nobody listened to, sweating not a drop as they stomped through a field of angry land mines. It was a trait I sometimes wished I could borrow and I say that sincerely.

Spicer will survive.; 4/12/17, 10:29 PM
Nonapod said...: I really don't care, but I'll just say that this administration could use a better press secretary, even if it breaks Melissa McCarthy's heart. It's kind of silly that the main public communications person could make such a faux pas. I mean, yeah, the predictable fake liberal outrage is tedious and idiotic and he apologized appropriately... but come on man! This is PR 101 stuff here: Don't use Hitler or the Holocaust for analogies or comparisons for anything. Just don't. This isn't some youtube comment section or internet forum (Godwin's Law) or even a talking head cable news show.; 4/12/17, 10:31 PM
Meade said...: "Sean Spicer broke the Hitler rule: Only lefties get to compare people to Hitler."

Not really. Even lefties don't get to do it. That's just how bad Hitler and Nazi Germany were.

Any minimization of the evil of genocide is itself evil. A White House press secretary has to understand that or else he should resign.; 4/12/17, 10:32 PM
Rich Rostrom said...: YoungHegelian: Auschwitz was a labor camp complex, but it included a death camp (Birkenau). The other death camps (further east and south) were all closed down before the areas were liberated by Soviet troops, with the exception of Majdanek.; 4/12/17, 10:37 PM
Zach said...: I agree that it was a mistake, but let's give a golf clap for a real apology. None of that "I'm sorry if you were offended" BS.

If you're ever in a position where you need to apologize, say you're sorry, say why you're sorry, and shut up. It looks far better than an apology where you never actually admit you were wrong.; 4/12/17, 10:41 PM
chuck said...: I like Spicer and don't give a damn about the press. I doubt that I am alone in that...; 4/12/17, 10:43 PM
Francisco D said...: When is the last time anyone on this site ever said something stupid?

Chuck - the lifelong Republican?

Inga - the former psych nurse?

J. Farmer - the pedantic Soviet apologist?

I could go on, but sometimes you need to give people a break.

Unless your goal is to discredit and destroy the Trump administration.; 4/12/17, 10:55 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Francisco D:

J. Farmer - the pedantic Soviet apologist?

Yawn.; 4/12/17, 11:08 PM
Mr. Majestyk said...: Meade said: "Any minimization of the evil of genocide is itself evil. A White House press secretary has to understand that or else he should resign."

This is true. But Spicer obviously wasn't minimizing the evil of genocide. Based on the context of his comments, he was saying that Hitler didn't use chemical weapons on the battlefield. Does anyone really think Sean Spicer was denying that Hitler gassed millions of innocent people? Really?; 4/12/17, 11:09 PM
Sally327 said...: I've often wondered who Germans compare people to when they want to say someone is a horrible person.; 4/12/17, 11:15 PM
Gretchen said...: Did we ever, ever hear anyone in the Obama or Hillary ever say they made a MISTAKE, or say

I am sorry, you cannot keep your doctor, I lied.
I am sorry, your health insurance premium will skyrocket, and service plummet, we figured you are all idiots, and it worked.
I am sorry, we made up a BS story about a video so we wouldn't look bad, we even told it in front of caskets of the fallen, because we don't give one shit that they died, as long as BO and Michelle can have four more years of dinner parties with rappers.
I am sorry, Hillary isn't trustworthy.
I am sorry, Obama has no clue what the hell he is doing.
I am sorry, I got a private server so I could do some bad stuff in secret.; 4/12/17, 11:20 PM
rcocean said...: Yep, 1945 was just yesterday. And making a minor historical error is "Minimizing Genocide".

People can defend Mao and Stalin with almost no blowback.

When are people going to stop posturing?; 4/12/17, 11:28 PM
William said...: I read a book about the siege of Leningrad. The point of the siege was not simply to conquer Leningrad, but to starve the population--all of them. Hitler had a long range plan to kill all non-Germans west of the Urals. Saying that Hitler was an anti-Semite who wanted to kill all the Jews is, in a perverse way, kind of minimizing his malignancy. He had dimensions of evil beyond anti semitism.; 4/12/17, 11:36 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: As a purely historical matter, Stalin had a much longer reign of terror than Hitler.

And Stalin was a Communist.

Just sayin'; 4/12/17, 11:37 PM
William said...: Spicer is blunt and, for a press spokesman, insensitive and clumsy in his way of speaking. Nonetheless, he seems straightforward and likable. The insensitivity might be a boon in the position he now occupies. The criticism is appropriate and merited--for a day or two. I imagine the press will keep this up forever though, and it will end up being a net plus for him..; 4/12/17, 11:47 PM
William said...: Poison gas was actually invented by a German Jewish chemist who wanted to impress the Kaiser with his patriotism. Ironic, huh. Prior to Hitler, German Jews were actually extremely loyal to the fatherland. The bete noire of Jews used to be the Czar.; 4/12/17, 11:55 PM
buwaya said...: This is, yet again, coordinated propaganda, not "news".
No-one is arguing with actual people, nor is any outrage natural. You all are listening to a machine, in spite of its using human components. Spicer is speaking to a machine, not journalists.; 4/13/17, 12:04 AM
Trumpit said...: Everyone who murders is a mini-Hitler, mini-Stalin, mini-Mao, mini-Pol Pot, etc. In California, we have murder with special circumstances for instance, Special Circumstance #19, which is poisoning a person to death. Poisoning a person to death in California can subject you to the death penalty, but that hasn't happened in California for a long time because it is a very liberal state.

In California, if someone cheats you out of money, you have to sue in civil court. If you steal a pack of gum at a convenience store, you can go to jail for theft. But, you can cheat someone out of a million dollars, and you can't be locked up. This is crazy.; 4/13/17, 12:06 AM
walter said...: Alternative facts..this guy's a genius..12 dimensional chess...; 4/13/17, 12:29 AM
buwaya said...: I suggest that the spokesman be replaced with a microphone and a speaker, fed by a synthesized voice. The reporters questions will be passed to a communications committee, which will compose the response, in text, to be dispassionately synthesized. Have the machines talk to each other.; 4/13/17, 12:47 AM
Che Dolf said...: Achilles said... Sean Spicer broke the Hitler rule: Only lefties get to compare people to Hitler.

Meade said... Not really. Even lefties don't get to do it.

First critics tried to destroy Trump with "racist," but that didn't work so they switched to "nazi." When that failed, too, they tried "Hitler." My favorite part of the election was when a few bold thought leaders resorted to "worse than Hitler."

Example: "Don't compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. It belittles Hitler."

I don't know what you mean when you say "lefties don't get to do it." They have done it constantly, with impunity. If you mean you have a private rule they're violating, that's cute, but it has nothing to do with how our politics are actually conducted.; 4/13/17, 1:42 AM
Etienne said...: It's embarrassing in our racist country that in the 21st century, the poor Germans have to suffer the aftermath of a war that has been over for 72 years.

The war has been over for more years than people are even alive to remember it. That generation is gone. Probably 1% of the German public know what the fuck we are on about.; 4/13/17, 2:01 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: One way I knew the left was losing the argument on Trump was their practice of Godwin's law. Just to refresh recollections, in the early days of internet discussion groups, Michael Godwin , an attorney and author, noticed that the longer a discussion went on the likelihood that someone would make an analogy to Hitler approached one, and at that point, the person who made the analogy had lost the argument.
With Trump's election, the Hitler/ Nazi allegations flew thick and fast for a while, demonstrating how deranged many media clowns and internet commentators were.

Now, low and behold, Sean Spicer stepped on the Hitler rake and got a black eye, which he truly earned. Someone so inept should not be press secretary. If you want to see what a press secretary should be, look at the astonishing tapes of the delightfully named Josh Earnest spooning out the BS with a twinkle in his eye and a smirk on his face. The press ate it with a spoon, and the only honest thing he said was, "I refer you to the (fill in the blank) on that."

Trump needs to find a smarmy snake to be his press secretary, not a dim blunderer..; 4/13/17, 2:21 AM
buwaya said...: To be fair, Josh Earnest was nearly always speaking to his co-workers in the Democratic media complex. They were all parts of the same machine, choreographed and tuned to give a public performance.
Spicer is dealing with an ememy entity.; 4/13/17, 2:41 AM
buwaya said...: To put it another way, Josh Earnest could only do well in an artificially friendly environment. Smarmy snake can only survive if everyones dance moves are so arranged that he is miraculously never stepped on.; 4/13/17, 2:43 AM
Real American said...: Shouldn't the White House spokesman be a good speaker?; 4/13/17, 3:15 AM
virgil xenophon said...: @buwya puti/

Yes, and the lefty Press Secretaries are indeed all of the same ilk as the reporters. Remember that puff piece on Jay Carney "at home" in the Washington Posts' style section? Photos of the happy couples kitchen revealing a Che Guevera poster on the wall? SOooo typical..; 4/13/17, 3:23 AM
David Baker said...: How long before Spicy gets to spend more time with his family?

(SNL's Melissa McCarthy sealed Spicy's fate); 4/13/17, 4:09 AM
Brando said...: First, that's nonsense--of course you can compare people with Hitler. The problem is when the comparison is ridiculous, like "this guy wants to invade another country so therefore Hitler" or "this guy wants to overregulate some industry so therefore Hitler". It's not that NOBODY can be compared to Hitler. Can we compare a mass murdering dictator to Hitler? Of course we can!

Second, Spicer's whole line into the Hitler thing was stupid because it was unnecessary. Yes, in some ways Assad is like Hitler, but Spicer went into how he was "worse" than Hitler because he used gas in attacking rebel towns. What was dumb here is that Assad clearly never went as far as Hitler did (taking millions of civilian captives and massacring them simply to wipe out a race), but also the comparison was nonsense. We don't need Assad to be as bad as Hitler to justify firing some rockets at him which don't appear to have crippled him.

The best argument for the rocket attack is that Assad cut a deal in 2013 where he agreed to stop using chemical weapons, and in exchange for that we would not attack him. Now, in 2017 he broke that deal by using chemical weapons and so we attacked him. Is that so difficult? Why does Spicer need to go into hyperbole about how Assad is at Hitler level? Because if he is, it justifies far more than a rocket attack.

Of course, I don't think we should be getting involved there at all, but Spicer did an exceptionally poor job of arguing that we should be.; 4/13/17, 5:06 AM
Unknown said...: >> "I made a mistake; there’s no other way to say it."
> Don't compare somebody to Hitler.

Hitler once made a mistake...

Damn!

"Whatever it is I think I see, becomes" Der Fuhrer to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wrI4iHSusA

This is worse than the stay-puft marshmallow man paradox.; 4/13/17, 5:33 AM
Jon Burack said...: Yea, I agree, the Hitler analogy NEVER works. However, I also must say I sent this email message around to my family and friends and will share it here for whatever it is worth:

The crocodile tears of the media are flowing. Fortunately, Dershowitz is on the case.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/04/12/alan_dershowitz_dncs_decision_to_immediately_politicize_spicers_dumb_hitler_reference__.html

The party of Keith Ellison wants me to be indignant about Spicer's silly slip, the party of BLM and BDS, the apologists for Al "Diamond Merchants" Sharpton, want me to believe they care about the hurt feelings of Jews. Well, my hurt feelings will only be assuaged when they all shut the F up.

Jon; 4/13/17, 6:04 AM
rhhardin said...: There ought to be a list of things that are so sacred that they can't be used for other purposes.

Women will draw it up.; 4/13/17, 6:22 AM
David Docetad said...: "And maybe not everybody, but I hope a lot of people, are thinking: Don't do it. You might think it, but resist. Don't compare somebody to Hitler."

How about Stalin? Can I compare Stalin to Hitler? Mao? Or is that against the rules?; 4/13/17, 6:28 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: "Not really. Even lefties don't get to do it."

Really?; 4/13/17, 6:34 AM
Bob Ellison said...: The weird issue here is that Spicer is paid to talk. That's how he makes his current living. He's has to know enough about administration policies and how they play politically to inform the way he talks, but primarily, he's just a talker. He's like Walter Cronkite, with some careful free reign on opinion.

Yet he's an awful talker. He looks bad on camera, his voice ain't good, he always sounds angry, even when he's trying to make a joke, and he makes big mistakes.

This is a "you're fired" moment for Trump, who claims to be brilliant on the media and public perception.

More like an "I shoulda fired you before I put you went in fronta that lectern."; 4/13/17, 6:43 AM
Danno said...: The elephant in the room that you are all missing is that the political left in the U.S. and Europe has pretty much gone anti-Semitic and now sides with the Palestinians who clearly want to exterminate all remaining Jews.; 4/13/17, 6:50 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The pro-democrat hack corrupt news media at ABC - NBC - CBS - CNN - MSDNC - they can all go to hell.; 4/13/17, 6:51 AM
Danno said...: And why is the left not outraged by the late 2016 retribution at the UN (Even VOX, a reliable lefty website, was astonished by this non-action at the UN.)

"Obama just took a parting shot at Israel — and Trump"

http://www.vox.com/world/2016/12/23/14071550/united-nations-vote-israeli-settlements-obama-trump; 4/13/17, 7:10 AM
Paco Wové said...: "Holocaust victims... do not belong in everyday political jousting."

That ship sailed a long, long time ago, lady.; 4/13/17, 7:18 AM
Mark Caplan said...: Sean Spicer bungled the often-observed fact that Hitler never resorted to WWI-style poison gas attacks on the battlefield.; 4/13/17, 7:19 AM
zipity said...: Surely Spicer should be fired for this gaffe. After all, that's what happened when CNN's Chris Matthews did the exact same thing....

LINK

Um. Er.

Never mind.; 4/13/17, 7:27 AM
MadisonMan said...: Wow, an actual apology apology.

The CEO from United could learn from Mr. Spicer.

Shouldn't the White House spokesman be a good speaker?

Obama's certainly were -- but they never said anything either, because they were too slick. I like a Press Spokesman who doesn't dodge all the time.; 4/13/17, 7:29 AM
AllenS said...: Never trust anyone who will never admit to making a mistake.; 4/13/17, 7:34 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: From Instapundit:

Sean Spicer just forgot the 1st rule of politics: Never compare anything to Hitler.

—Headline, CNN.com, today.

● [Ted] Turner Compares Fox’s Popularity to Hitler.

—Headline, Broadcasting and Cable, January 25, 2005.

● [Scott Pelley of] CBS Goes Low, Hurls Personal Insults at Spicer Over Hitler Blunder.

—Headline, NewsBusters, yesterday.

● CBS ‘Global Warming Special’ Host [Scott Pelley] Likened Warming Skeptics to Holocaust Deniers.

—Headline, NewsBusters, January 21, 2008.

"But it's OK when we do it!"; 4/13/17, 7:35 AM
Earnest Prole said...: Hitler didn’t even sink to kicking paying customers out of his planes.; 4/13/17, 7:43 AM
Greg said...: The more apt comparison would be that even Hitler didn't load up V2 rockets or Luftwaffe bombers with chemicals to drop on London.; 4/13/17, 7:50 AM
traditionalguy said...: Maybe we need Schumer's advice on keeping Spicer.

The attack level on Spicer just proves how effective he is at press relations. He is a perfect fit for the job. Very intelligent and sincere, and does not outshine You know who.; 4/13/17, 7:57 AM
Anonymous said...: AA: This whole controversy is disrespectful to Holocaust victims. They do not belong in everyday political jousting.

Did I wake up in a different dimension this morning? I'm really scratching my head at the number of posters here who are shocked, shocked that somebody was using Hitler and the Holocaust to score political points, and who have a strange conviction that such usages have always been beyond the pale in our society.

Then I notice that even though this morning's target of posturing moral outrage (Spicer) said something that barely comes within shouting distance of that supremely ordinary activity of using Hitler and the Holocaust to score points against one's political rivals, many posters are masticating on this squirrel-burger with all the energy and alacrity their media masters could desire. That's when I know that I'm still in my home dimension after all.

Dance, monkeys, dance.; 4/13/17, 7:58 AM
Matt Sablan said...: Spicer said something stupid and apologized. Why are we still talking about it, what, days later?; 4/13/17, 8:02 AM
Matt Sablan said...: I don't remember the media getting this up-in-arms with flawed or historically illiterate "Walker is Hitler" or "Bush is Hitler" analogies. It's almost like there are different standards.; 4/13/17, 8:23 AM
Meade said...: "I don't know what you mean when you say 'lefties don't get to do it.'"

New Media might ask the dumb questions Old Media is too sophisticated to ask.; 4/13/17, 8:35 AM
Rick said...: Meade said... [hush][hide comment]
["Sean Spicer broke the Hitler rule: Only lefties get to compare people to Hitler."]

Not really. Even lefties don't get to do it. That's just how bad Hitler and Nazi Germany were.

It's odd to see the claim someone can't do something they do 50 times a day. I'm imagining someone explaining why flight is impossible while flying at 20,000 feet.; 4/13/17, 8:57 AM
pious agnostic said...: Spicer comparing Assad to Hitler was worse than Hitler. Even Hitler didn't do that to his own people.; 4/13/17, 9:08 AM
rhhardin said...: I'm imagining someone explaining why flight is impossible while flying at 20,000 feet.

Find a dead-heading pilot on your next trip and ask him why jet engines don't just blow out both ends.; 4/13/17, 9:15 AM
rcocean said...: Spicer tried to use the "Foreign leader X is worse than Hitler" card.

And he didn't play it right.

I hope he gets the future and inevitable "Its Munich all over again" card right.

You always have to play these 2 cards before you start a war.; 4/13/17, 9:38 AM
n.n said...: A mistake. An apology. Sincerity is positive progress.; 4/13/17, 1:44 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: "But it's OK when we do it!"

It sure is. Liberals actually value thinking before they speak - and that's mitigating.; 4/13/17, 7:12 PM