By good buddy “Ron” Anders has broken free of his muzzle and is in the news for comparing the Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Olympics:

Anders, an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, said Thursday that Beijing was the wrong choice to host the Olympics.

“I absolutely 100 per cent think it compares to the Berlin Olympics in 1936,” he said in an interview.

“You’ve got Falun Gong practitioners, which are not allowed to participate in the Olympics. Adolf Hitler had issues with Jews being able to participate in the Olympics in 1936.”

Rob Anders saying something controversial is merely a side effect of Rob Anders opening his mouth, and is to be expected. Obviously the analogy stretches credibility and it certainly isn’t something a member of the Canadian government should be saying.

Knowing that every time someone says Anders’ name, the Liberals gain an extra thousand votes in Ontario, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae has been quick to pounce, taking Anders to task for his lame analogy:

“Now we have a senior government MP and chair of the Veterans Affairs committee further damaging our already-strained relationship with China by comparing its government to Nazis,” Rae said. “Such a comparison trivializes one of the most horrific regimes mankind has known.”

And, on this point, Rae is spot on. These sort of comparisons trivialize things which should never be trivialized. I mean, comparing the Berlin Olympics to the Beijing Olympics would be as silly as comparing Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler to Harper signing the softwood lumber deal with Bush.