They're after Robert Byrd again

Speaking the truth is an unforgiveable sin as far as the Repugs go. Senator Robert Byrd was defending the Senate procedure of filibusters:

In his comments Tuesday, Byrd had defended the right senators have to use filibusters -- procedural delays that can kill an item unless 60 of the 100 senators vote to move ahead. He is a long-standing defender of the chamber's rules and traditions, many of which help the Senate's minority party.

Byrd cited Hitler's 1930s rise to power by, in part, pushing legislation through the German parliament that seemed to legitimize his ascension.

"We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men," Byrd said. "But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends."

Byrd then quoted historian Alan Bullock, saying Hitler "turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."

Byrd added, "That is what the 'nuclear option' seeks to do."

The nuclear option is the nickname for the proposal to end filibusters of judicial nominations because of the devastating effect the plan, if enacted, would have on relations between Democrats and Republicans.

For the 4.7 billionth time in the past week, the pot jumped right in to call the kettle black:

Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the Senate's No. 3 Republican, called for Byrd to retract his comments, saying they "lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate."

Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, called the remarks "poisonous rhetoric" that are "reprehensible and beyond the pale."

"Man on dog" Santorum is worried about the decorum of the Senate. That's rich. And if the Repugs are going to use Nazi tactics, it's good that there's one senator willing to point it out. (Don't be surprised to see "mainstream" Dems like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry side with the Repugs on this one--like they do on just about everything.)