Time capsule: "Aid and comfort to the enemy"

From Eric Alterman's "When Presidents Lie"... . In the chapter on LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin, and how Sen. J. William Fulbright was treated when he started going after President Lyndon Johnson for the lies he told which led to escalation in Vietnam:

"In April [Fulbright] went before the Newspaper Publishers Association and announced his fear of America's "arrogance of power," comparing the nation's "overextension of power and mission to [that] which brought ruin to ancient Greece, Napoleonic France, and to Nazi Germany."

(This prompted Senator Goldwater to call for the Arkansan's resignation, over his deliberately having given "aid and comfort to the enemy.")

Which brings us to ...

Karl Rove, 2005, speaking about Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, for using a Nazi comparison in describing abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay:

"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year? Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."

David Corn on Rove: "Not just a hypocrite, but a thug."

SIGN A PETITION ASKING THE PRESIDENT TO FIRE ROVE.

And, finally, a column by Mark Leibovich in the Washington Post, "The Comparison That Ends the Conversation,"listing some of the other times the Nazi comparison has been used in the Senate.