There is an old semi-joke, one I saw most recently recounted in Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel by Scott Adams, that says that a surefire way to get the upper hand in a debate you're losing is to compare your opponent to Hitler or Mussolini. I haven't ever seen it done for real, until Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently compared President Bush's election to the rise of both Hitler and Mussolini.
The New York Post today published this editorial, which began:
If judges and lawyers wonder about why they are held in such low esteem by so many Americans, they might consider the loose lips of Federal Appeals Court Judge Guido Calabrese [sic].
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