Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510130074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
Marye's reaction, made in a news conference, came a day after state Democratic Party leaders condemned the flier and Republican Pat Cupp apologized for it.
The Cupp fund-raising document included this paragraph: "When I talk about the need to protect the Second Amendment, I often use this analogy: When the Nazi Party came into power in Germany under Hitler, the first thing they did was to confiscate all guns. Next, the children were put under the control of the state, and finally, the Jewish citizens and other minorities were imprisoned in concentration camps, and many were put to death in the gas chambers."
Wednesday, Cupp apologized "if offense has been taken by people of faith or others by the historical reference in my flier."
To Marye, the Nazis aren't just musty history. He left Shawsville at age 18 in 1944 to join the Army.
In the spring of 1945, his unit, the 65th Infantry Division, 259th Infantry Regiment, liberated the Mauthausen concentration camp east of Linz, Austria.
"To recall that is a very emotional experience to me. You can't imagine the horror and the despair on the face of the people who managed to emerge from those camps alive," Marye said. "To use Nazism in a political campaign," even loosely, "is to me a terrible thing."
Marye said he was offended by any attempt to link his votes for the one-gun-a-month law and against the new concealed-weapons law to Nazi party tactics. "This is how extremism can start," Marye said. "This is a poor attempt to make people think that Madison Marye was somehow going to take away their guns."
Cupp said Marye is desperate to hold on to his seat and is trying to score political points. He said Wednesday he changed his mind and apologized for the flier "not because it was wrong. It was taken out of context," but because the controversy, "takes away from the issues."
"I just don't want to argue the point on something so moot as political literature," Cupp said.
Nazi references on the rise
The Marye-Cupp contest is one of at least four campaigns around the state where the word "Nazi" or Nazi-imagery has been employed:
Nazi references first surfaced last month in a sheriff's race in Henry County. Independent Ken Barnett, who is running against incumbent Frank Cassell, ran commercials on a Martinsville cable television station with Cassell's picture next to Hitler's. The ad calls Cassell's deputies ``goose-stepping Gestapo.''
State Sen. H. Russell Potts, R-Winchester, got in trouble this week when he said his Democratic challenger's campaign appeared ``to be crafted by Goebbels.'' Joseph Goebbels was Hitler's propaganda chief. After an outcry from Democrats, Potts apologized.
Democrats also have used the term. Speaking at a candidates' forum Thursday, Democratic House of Delegates candidate Gerald Hudson of Harrisonburg compared the Republicans' ``Pledge for Honest Change'' to a Nazi loyalty oath.
He said later in an interview that he regretted using the word Nazi, but insisted he meant no offense. ``It was not intended to be a push-button word or to keep creating this hysterical atmosphere,'' he said.
Although the Nazi comparisons seem to be more frequent than ever, they are not unprecedented. An aide to Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Beyer last December told a party gathering in Winchester that the leadership of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. Jesse Helms would be ``six degrees to the right of Hitler.''
Republicans are quick to complain that Democrats also have tried to link them to the Ku Klux Klan. A 1992 Democratic strategy memo called for labeling ``GOP proposals as David Duke-like or Pat Robertson-like.''
Del. Alan Diamonstein, D-Newport News, said that is much different than comparing someone to Nazis. ``David Duke is a bigot,'' he said.
``Goebbels was responsible for millions of deaths. That's quite a bit different.''
But Republican Gov. George Allen, who has complained about ``jackbooted'' federal officials, dismissed Nazi comparisons as just part of the rough-and-tumble of politics. ``You have to have a thick skin and a sense of humor and common sense in politics, and the people will see through ludicrous comments,'' Allen said.
Beyer disagrees. ``To suggest you need a sense of humor to overcome references to Goebbels boggles my imagination,'' he said.
Allen accused Beyer of ``selective indignation,'' saying the lieutenant governor didn't complain when black Democratic legislators called his parole abolition plan an attempt at ``ethnic cleansing.''
One of the state's most prominent political analysts suggests there's a larger trend at work here. ``Normal decorum in campaign politics has broken down,'' Mary Washington College political analyst Mark Rozell said. ``There's no disputing that some candidates have crossed the line of rhetorical decency.''
Samuel Kaplan, director of the nonpartisan Anti-Defamation League in Virginia, said it's troubling when the image of the Third Reich is invoked for political gain.
``We believe references to the Holocaust and the Nazi experience tend to trivialize what transpired during this horrific period,'' Kaplan said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB