COLUMN: Insult To Injury
On Sunday more than 40 heads of state from around the world gathered in Paris for a “unity march” to show solidarity with the French in response to the terror following Charlie Hebdo magazine's offensive cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed.
Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, compared Obama to Hitler on Tuesday, arguing that, “Even Adolph Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris.” Weber's remark was as offensive if not more so than the President's failure to attend the march.
Sunday's snafu was yet another example in a long list of Obama's tactlessness. He failed to support one of the primary tenets of the United States; the Freedom of Speech.
In 2009 he gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod, conveniently pre-loaded with photos of his inauguration as well as audio recordings of several of his speeches. Following that fiasco, the President was overheard snickering with France’s Nicolas Sarkozy about another world leader, saying, “You’re fed up with him (Israel’s prime minister), but I have to deal with him more than you do!” More recently the President has come under fire for failing to stick to his promises regarding Syria and the Middle East.
Suffice to say the man is a public relation manager’s nightmare.
Americans expressed outrage at their feckless President’s failure to attend, or even dispatch a high-ranking official, to France’s march. Making headlines Tuesday, one voice of disapproval rose above the chorus.
Evidently Weber was trying to place first in the radical Republicans’ ongoing competition to see who can swallow more of their own foot. Until Tuesday the crown was held by former Missouri Representative Todd Akin, who in 2012 told a local TV station about the difference between rape and, “legitimate rape.”
It appears Weber is vying hard for first place by marginalizing the behavior of the man responsible for the most infamous Holocaust in the history of humankind. Of course Obama’s latest political blunder is offensive, but Weber’s remark is far worse.
In an age of Holocaust denial and the continued persecution of minorities across the globe, comparing a political faux-pas to the actions of a man responsible for the extermination of millions of people is far more offensive than missing a march.
Weber went on to describe Obama’s mistake as “just appalling,” which is the best way to describe his own thoughtless response.
