Hitler, Mussolini, Radovan Karadzic, Nicolae Ceaucescu and George W. Bush

See? We can do it too.

Howard Dean, just four days into his job as Democratic National chairman, called Wednesday for New York's state Republican chairman to apologize or resign over remarks linking Democrats to a civil rights lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists.

Calling Stephen Minarik's comments "offensive," the former Vermont governor said, "The American people deserve better than this type of political character assassination."

Minarik touched off a firestorm on Monday by saying that in electing Dean as national party chairman on Saturday "the Democrats simply have refused to learn the lessons of the past two election cycles, and now they can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean."

Stewart is a New York City lawyer convicted last week of helping terrorists by smuggling messages from one of her imprisoned clients, a radical Egyptian sheik, to his terrorist disciples on the outside. Boxer is a liberal senator from California.

"The Democratic Party doesn't have anything to do with Lynne Stewart," Pataki said Tuesday. "Obviously, she was found guilty of a heinous criminal act and that is not something within the realm of appropriate political discourse in New York state."

"I'm pleased that Governor Pataki publicly rebuked Mr. Minarik for his offensive comments," Dean said in a statement issued by the Democratic National Committee. "I agree with Governor Pataki and my fellow New York Democrats that Mr. Minarik was completely out of line."

"But this is not settled. Mr. Minarik has shown neither regret nor remorse for what he said," Dean added, calling on other New York and national Republican leaders to "follow Governor Pataki's lead and rebuke Minarik."

Props to Pataki (you won't hear me say THAT very often) for standing up for what's right. But this is how Republicans think. If you disagree with them, you're a traitor and no different from [insert your favorite Republican boogeyman du jour here].

Now this may be the New York Republican chair saying that the head of the DNC is EXACTLY THE SAME as someone convicted (rightly or wrongly) of aiding and abetting terrorists. This is the same bullshit "You're with us or with the terrorists" that Bushco has been saying ever since 9/11 was the best day that ever happened to their Administration.

But this is not an isolated incident. Powerline, a wingnut blog, claims that former president Jimmy Carter is also on the side of the terrorsts because he had the temerity to express concern about security in place for the January 30 Iraq election:

Jimmy Carter isn't just misguided or ill-informed. He's on the other side.

Well, if they can do it, so can we. That's why the title of this post links George W. Bush with some of the worst genocidal leaders of the 20th century. Sauce for the goose, baby.