Mass Lawmaker Compares Lobbyists to Jews During the Holocaust

Boston Globe - A Massachusetts state representative has apologized for comparing lobbyists with Holocaust victims when he was commenting on a proposal to require lobbyists to wear badges.  Representative John Binienda, a Worcester Democrat, said he had made an “inappropriate analogy” on Wednesday when he criticized the badge proposal. “No comparison can be made between the Nazi regime and a rules proposal made by members in good faith. I apologize to the sponsors as well as the people of Massachusetts for my words,” he said.  Binienda, who heads the House Rules Committee, said Wednesday that a Republican proposal for a rule change to force lobbyists to wear badges while talking to lawmakers smacked of tattoos that Jews were forced to wear. “The idea of the badge by lobbyists to me, I kind of find that revolting,” Binienda told the State House News Service in article posted this morning. “Hitler during the concentration camps tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn’t, and that’s something that I just don’t go along with.”

Because anytime you can compare millionaire businessmen and swindlers to a tortured group of people who were pushed into forced labor, raped, and killed, its a good idea?

In fairness, are we sure John Binienda wasn't just trying to make a thinly veiled joke in reference to the working mans classic, Office Space?  

How is it that people haven't figured out that its never a good idea to make allusions to Nazi's, Jews, or the Holocausts in analogies or comparisons. Like, just don't do it people. It will not work, it will backfire in your face, and you will be forced to make a public apology.  Seriously, there is no circumstances in which you will find a way to compare something from every day life to the Holocaust, its not going to happen and you shouldn't be trying. You'd think public holders of office would be on the same page about this by now, but every now and then you catch a story like this and you can almost hear the State House Secretaries typing up invitations to the next Government Sensitivity training session.