Bob Rae: Bush is Hitler, Harper Bad

Three cheers for the Munich Pact!

I told myself I was going to back off the Liberals for a little while.

I reminded myself I am trying to be non-partisan, for better or worse, and that the Liberals are suffering enough without my "help".

Then Bob Rae compared Stephen Harper's softwood lumber deal with the United States to the Munich Pact.

Fuck. And here I go:

Yes, you probably read that correctly. On May 10, Bob Rae -- yet another lousy candidate for the leadership of the federal Liberal party -- compared the Canada/U.S. softwood lumber agreement (under which the American government accepted Canada's most important conditions) to the Munich pact (under which Adolph Hitler and then-British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed that Germany would be allowed to annex Czechoslovakia), not only comparing Harper to one of the weakest political leaders in history, but also compared U.S. President George W. Bush to Adolph Hilter.

Coming from a former leader of the NDP, that's about as subtle as blitzkrieg.
Naturally, many Liberal party members have wanted to distance themselves from these comments. A phonecall made by Warren Kinsella, howver, was able to confirm that Rae did in fact make these comments.

On his website, www.warrenkinsella.com (yes, Warren named his website after himself -- subtle!), Kinsella wrote: " I am told: 1. [Rae] did, in fact, compare Harper to Chamberlain"; 2. He did, in fact, mention "Munic" but not the word "pact". Those are what some of us call a distinction without a difference. Do you think the analogy is appropriate? I sure don't."

Kinsella went on to suggest -- stop the presses! -- Rae owes Harper an apology: " Do you think Bob Rae should apologize? I sure do. Do you think he will? Don't hold your breath."

Even Warren Kinsella thinks Rae fucked up. Mister Rae, this is the best indication that you have, in fact, fucked up.

However, Rae has yet to take responsibility for his comments. On his website, www.BobRae.ca (he also named his website after himself), Rae makes no mention whatsoever of what he and his supporters would probably call a "minor blunder".
Many observers would speculate that what the Liberal party currently needs in a leader, more than anything else, is an individual who can look back at all the mistakes the party made over the past 15 years and learn from them. Evidently, Bob Rae is one of many who are incapable of doing this. After the embarrassment the party suffered with their infamous "a Harper election will make Bush happy" commercial (although not nearly as humiliating as their "troops with guns in our cities" ad), and the adverse effect it had on the party's ability to be elected, one would have thought that all Liberals -- even one as inept as Bob Rae -- would have been smarter than this.

Considering their reputation for being rampantly anti-American, the Liberal party may have wanted to show they can pursue a more productive relationship with Canada's largest trading partner -- then again, maybe not.

With a statements like this, Bob Rae may as well be telling people to vote for Osama bin Laden for the federal Liberal leadership.