When a federal judge compares George W. Bush to Benito Mussolini, is that newsworthy?
After the conservative daily New York Sun broke the story about a speech by Judge Guido Calabresi of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, few media outlets even mentioned what he had to say.
“In a way that occurred before but is rare in the United States … somebody came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution that had the right to put somebody in power,” Judge Calabresi told attorneys and law students at the American Constitution Society’s annual convention on June 19. “That is what the Supreme Court did in Bush versus Gore. It put somebody in power.”
The 71-year-old judge, who was born in Milan before his family left Italy in 1939, added: “The reason I emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy.” And Calabresi, a former dean of Yale Law School, went on: “The king of Italy had the right to put Mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister. That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in. I am not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual.”
Referring to the Supreme Court’s post-election decision in 2000…
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