I couldn’t believe my ears. I have to find a transcript of the actual interview to make certain that I didn’t mis-hear it.
Last night I was in the locker room of my gym, after a run, after a shower, and on the teevee they were playing the Dennis Miller show on CNBC. It was apparently a re-run, since the banner across the bottom of the screen showed “Republican National Convention 2004”. And Miller was interviewing the senior Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush.
The conversation turned to World War II, and Bush was talking about getting shot down over the Pacific, and I kinda tuned out for a minute while I was getting dressed. Miller made some remark about WWII being “a different kind of war” and must have said something about Hitler being evil, or a bad guy, or something negative…
And Bush… Bush laughed, and chided Miller for not being “politically correct.” Bush defended Hitler! He said, “Hey, c’mon now, Adolf was a good guy! He liked dogs!”
…whaaaaaaaaat? Did I just hear a former President of the United States of America claim, even as a joke, that Adolf Hitler was a good guy because he liked dogs?
This is like one of those “jokes” that Rush Limbaugh makes to tweak the Democrats, right? Where he shoots off his mouth about killing all the liberals, then if someone calls him on it he claims it’s all meant in humor… right? The kind of “joke” that reveals a hidden intention?
I guess that’s why they call it “pseudo-fascism” — they can claim they’re just funnin’ ya (see Part 4 of David Neiwert’s series on “The Rise of Pseudo Fascism”)