California Democrat Apologizes for GOP Nazi Comparison

Posted on Sep 3, 2012

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John Burton, chair of the California Democratic Party.

The chairman of the California Democratic Party apologized Monday after a video of his comparing Republicans to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels was widely circulated around the Internet.

“They lie and they don’t care if people think they lie… Joseph Goebbels—it’s the big lie, you keep repeating it,” Burton said, adding that GOP nominee Paul Ryan told “a bald-faced lie and he doesn’t care that it was a lie. That was Goebbels, the big lie.” At one point,  Burton referred to Ryan as a “horse’s ass” for claiming during the Republican National Convention that Barack Obama was responsible for a GM plant closing in Janesville, Wis., in 2008, before he was president.

Burton is a confirmed straight shooter, as “The Daily Show” once discovered.

The Obama campaign condemned Burton’s comments. “That obviously doesn’t represent the views of the campaign,” spokesman Ben LaBolt said. “There’s no place for that in the political discourse.”

Later, Burton attempted to explain his remarks. “To correct press reports of my recent comments about Republican lies, I did not call Republicans Nazis nor would I ever,” he said. “In fact, I didn’t even use the word. If Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan or the Republicans are insulted by my describing their campaign tactic as the big lie—I most humbly apologize to them or anyone who might have been offended by that comment.”

—Posted by Tracy Bloom

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