Bush like Hitler, says first Muslim in Congress

Editorial: Forget the Reichstag, consider the point
Bush is no dictator, but he has tried to expand his power.

Published: July 14, 2007

Although he was careful to keep his comments in context, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., took predictable flak for alluding to the Nazi era during recent comments about the Bush administration. It's a lesson that keeps being learned the hard way: Unless you're talking about some other murderer of millions, comparisons to Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust or even the Reichstag fire are inappropriate. The author Reza Aslan proposed that as a rule of civil dialogue in a Westminster Town Hall speech in Minneapolis last year, and he was right.
But the point Ellison was trying to make deserves a hearing: The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he said, were "almost like the Reichstag fire ... it put the leader of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted."

Forget about Hitler for a moment. The terror attacks of 9/11 were indeed a starting gun that kicked off a rush to expand government power. Could the Patriot Act have passed without 9/11? Would Congress have authorized a war in Iraq? No credible observer believes that the attacks were some kind of inside job (though an alarming number of people in Muslim countries are happy to think so). But neither is it credible to suppose that the Bush administration has failed to take advantage of the popular support presidents enjoy in times of crisis. Any president would do so.

Few, however, would go as far as this president has gone. Bush and his team seem intent on enlarging his authority and defying those who would challenge him or his administration. Geneva Conventions? Quaint. Habeas corpus? Flexible. Court approval of wiretaps? Outmoded. Rising calls to replace a secretary of defense? "I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best."

It is hardly a voice to foster cooperation among the branches of government. In fact, the president seems to be courting a constitutional crisis -- a prospect that loomed a bit larger this week with the unrevealing testimony of former White House political director Sara Taylor and the non-testimony of former White House counsel Harriet Miers. Both were called to discuss their roles in the affair of the fired U.S. attorneys. Under the supposed cover of executive privilege, Bush ordered Miers not to appear. Taylor appeared, but failed to say much -- and some of the little that she did say seemed to absolve Bush of any involvement, thus casting doubt on any justification for a claim of executive privilege. So now the administration has defied a congressional subpoena, and the fight has nowhere to go but ugly.

No, none of this is Nazi Germany or anything close to it. It's not the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand or the sinking of the Maine. It's just the story of an administration that tried to give itself too much power, and of a Congress that finally found the wisdom to resist.

© 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.