The nasty tactic of comparing domestic political opponents to terrorists, Saddam Hussein, and other hated figures in order to create a negative association between them has cropped up again and again since 9/11. We wrote about it constantly on Spinsanity. Now here’s OpinionJournal.com’s James Taranto doing it again:

[Howard] Dean isn’t the only Democratic leader who is practicing the Don Rickles
style of politics. Here’s a passage from a Rolling
Stone interview with Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader:

Rolling Stone: You’ve called [President] Bush a loser.
Reid: And a liar.
Rolling Stone: You apologized for the loser comment.
Reid: But never for the liar, have I?

The Associated
Press reports that another Democrat yesterday said of the vice president:
“Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast, as he
has drenched various parts of the world in blood.”

Oh, sorry, that wasn’t a Democrat–it was a spokesman for North Korea’s communist
regime. We should have known; the NoKo nuts at least have a little flair in
their style of insult.