L. Brooks Patterson Likens Mich. House Speaker To Adolf Hitler
LANSING (WWJ) - Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson is likening a powerful Michigan Republican to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Patterson referred to State House speaker Jase Bolger as "Adolf" as cameras rolled for the latest edition of the weekly "Off the Record" political TV show, hosted by WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick.
His comments were: "Adolf Bolger has really become very arrogant and he's throwing his weight around up there and I think he's embarrassing himself."
"If he thinks he's going to be a candidate for governor, he better learn how to control his temper and he better learn better how to work with the consensus within his own party. I think sometimes Adolf steps a little bit to the fringe and he's embarrassing himself," Patterson continued.
"He called the Republican speaker of the house 'Adolf Bolger' for his behavior not only on the issue of no-fault insurance, as one of the aides for Mr. Patterson was denied the right to testify in the committee Thursday, but on other extremist issues which Mr. Patterson simply does not like," Skubick said.
But the comparison to one of the world's most hated men didn't stop there, as Patterson apparently thought his comments needed a visual element.
"Calling the speaker of the house, who is a member of your own party, Adolf is one thing. But secondly, on TV he pulled out of his pocket a comb and put it up to his upper lip looking like Adolph Hitler and repeated the charge one more time," Skubick said.
Bolger issued a statement on the Patterson comment. Bolger says reasonable people can disagree on policy... but it's not reasonable to resort to name calling. He says his biggest disappointment is that he likes Brooks Patterson, so he's sad to see him act like this.
Patterson later issued a statement saying he apologizes if he alienated some in Jewish community when he made the "Adolf" comment.
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