Republican Women of Anne Arundel County Maryland Compare Obama to Hitler (update)

Yesterday I wrote about the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County (Maryland) and the letter on their website comparing President Obama to Hitler. Well, it appears that public attention to that letter focused a bit of uncomfortable attention on the organization. The letter has now been removed from the website with the following added (in bold) at the top of the page:

The article put on our web site by Joyce Thomann was done solely by her. Our Board of Directors never saw the article and would never have approved it. We are not in support of Mrs. Thomann's personal thoughts ot opinions.

Ah, yes. Nothing like throwing the president of your organization under the bus. I'm glad that the board does not "support" their president's "personal thoughts ot [sic] opinions"; but, don't you think that an actual apology might have been appropriate: Something like "We don't believe that it is appropriate to compare President Obama to Hitler" or "We apologize for the damage Mrs. Thomann's words have caused to civil discourse in America"? Anyway, I'd sure like to hear the discussion those Republican Women of Anne Arundel County have at their next meeting.

It is also worth noting that Charles Thomann, husband of the Joyce Thomann, the president of the organization and woman responsible for the letter, defends his wife's comments, although he admits that they weren't "artful" (typos in original):

The husband of an Anne Arundel County Republican woman who wrote a blog plosting comparing President Obama to Hitler said his wife's comments have been misunderstood, and that criticism is piling up.

Responding to a message for comment, Charles Thomann, the husband of Joyce Thomann, the president of the Anne Arundel County Republican Women's Club, said his wife was in Denver caring for her ailing 96-year-old mother and could not immediately comment.

A Republican member of the five-person Maryland State Board of Elections and an adjunct history professor at Anne Arundel Community College, Charles Thomann, speaking on behalf of his wife, defended the online letter comparing Obama and Hitler and said "It wasn't meant in the way people are taking it."

Thomann conceded that "maybe she wasn't as artful as she could have been," referring to his wife's comments, but said he and his wife view Obama's push of what they deem socialist programs similar to the way Adolf Hitler spread the Nazi ideals in Germany.

"The methods that [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [President] Obama are using to get the socialist view point across, is similar to what Hitlder did. And the German people regretted it. I just happen to be up on it. I happen to be a history teacher."

Thomann said his wife's email inbox is piled high with messages and he has been fielding angry calls from the public since news of the letter broke online. It has been linked from the Huffington Post and other outlets.

"We've gotten a lot of calls," Thomann said. "The liberal Democrats have really been pushing it. Most of it is very vitriolic. I think it's been completely misunderstood ... Once black woman, who said she was black, called and said, 'I really resent this because you're racist.' I told her we're not racist. We're delighted to have a black president. Heck, we'd like to see a woman president, too."

Kory Blake the chair of the Anne Arundel County Democratic party, said "That they would compare the president of the United States to the worst mass murderer in the history of the world, it's uncalled for and it's unncessary. It enforces, for me, the belief that the Republican party has been overtaken by an ideology of hate and they will do anything to try to discredit this president. Unfortunately, they carossed the line on this comparison. People all around the country are looking at Anne Arundel County and scratching their heads. It's appaling."

I'm not sure which part of this response I find most amusing/frightening. Perhaps its Mr. (Prof?) Thomann's inability to really understand why people were outraged by his wife's comparison. Perhaps it is his belief that the comparison was fair, if not "artful". Perhaps it was his "we'd like to see a woman president, too" to prove that he and his wife aren't racists. I guess, on reflection, I'd have to vote for "I just happen to be up on it. I happen to be a history teacher" immediately following his ridiculously inaccurate comparison of President Obama and Speaker Pelosi to Hitler and the rise of the Nazi party. By way of very simple example, have you seen any brown-shirted enforcers beating people in the streets when they disagreed with President Obama's policies or, for that matter, has the Capitol been burned in an arson blamed on communists (or Republicans)? If he's a history professor, then I'd have to say that the students at Anne Arundel Community College are not being particularly well-served by their faculty.