My oh my oh my. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK4) won the seat that j.C. Watts vacated in 2002 largely by running commercials implying his opponent was sub-human. He's well-known as a mouthpiece for insipid former Gov. Frank Keating (R), including holding down a $40K-per-year job on the state payroll as Secretary of State while working full-time in his own political consulting business advising Keating and other state GOP cretins.

He told a local audience this week that voting for John Kerry is like voting for Hitler.

For those of you who aren't local (a significant percentage this site's three readers), this is Canadian County, Oklahoma. El Reno is the county seat. Yukon is the larger city because it's a suburb of Oklahoma City now, but it's only twelve minutes east of here. Here's a map of Oklahoma's Congressional districts. Oklahoma County (and Oklahoma City) are the center of the map; Canadian County is just west. That little bump of southeast Canadian County that's in Cole's 4th district is the city of Mustang, ten minutes south of Yukon and about twenty minutes from where I sit. The rest of Canadian County is represented by Frank Lucas (R-OK3), but Mustang was enough to give Cole a chance to shoot off his mouth to Canadian County Republicans.

This story comes from KTOK, local talk radio that has plunged to the bottom of the local ratings by turning into hate radio (Limbaugh, Hannity, even Michael Savage), so it's not like they have some vendetta against the GOP - wingers are now their only audience. Just in case they realize what they've started and remove it, the text is reposted here.

Republican Congressman Tom Cole claims a vote against the re-election of President Bush is like supporting Adolph Hitler during World War Two. It's what he said recently before a meeting of Canadian County Republicans.

U-S Representative Tom Cole might have stirred up Democrats by saying a vote against the re-election of President Bush is like supporting Adolph Hitler during World War Two. Or supporting Osama bin Laden now. "If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election," Cole is quoted in this week's edition of the Yukon Review which covered the recent meeting of the Canadinan County Republicans where Cole was a speaker. The newspaper says Cole claims if Bush loses his re-election bid, the enemies of the U-S will interpret it as a victory for bin Laden. No comment so far from Oklahoma Democratic party leaders to see if they think Cole is comparing John Kerry to Adolph Hitler or Osama bin Laden. In the Yukon Review article, Cole is quoted as asking what Hitler might have thought had Franklin Roosevelt not been re-elected in 1944.

Atrios points out:

Of course, 46.0% of voters pulled the lever for Thomas "Hitler's Snugglebunny" Dewey in 1944. Most, presumably, were Republicans. Why were all those Republicans rooting for Adolf Hitler?

Silly Atrios! Only Democrats can be traitors. KTOK tells us so every day.

Update: Cole has now issued a press release in which he says the Yukon Review "mischaracterized" his comments. He didn't say a vote for Bush was like a vote for Hitler - he just said that if Bush loses, Osama bin Laden wins, so effectively, voting for anyone but Bush is voting for Osama. Oh, that's much better. Hack.