The Republican Party was quick to attack 87 year old Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) for comparing GOP attempts to get rid of the filibuster to the anti-Democratic moves by the Nazis, but in doing so they were also quick to forget the many times they called the Democrats Nazis. Ami Eden details this Republican hypocrisy this week in Forward, the nation's premier Jewish newspaper.

Judging from their rush last week to condemn Senator Robert Byrd, Republicans are either recovering from a collective case of laryngitis or suffering from mass amnesia.

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As noted by the blog Wonkette.com, a slew of prominent Republican lawmakers have employed Nazi comparisons in recent years to bash a variety of Democratic positions, including support for tax hikes, abortion rights and stem-cell research.

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In reality, it is the Republican Jewish Coalition that avoids rebuking members of its own party. Democratic strategist Bob Beckel raised this point last week while debating Brooks on the Fox News program "The Big Story With John Gibson." Beckel criticized Brooks directly, saying that his group failed to take on Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma last year after Cole told reporters that voting against President Bush would be like voting for Hitler. Beckel also accused Brooks of failing to criticize anti-tax activist and White House confidant Grover Norquist after he repeatedly compared liberals to Nazis.

Check out the rest of this well-written piece if you're interested in the politics of calling your opponents Nazis.