CHARLOTTE, N.C. - California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton, whose habit of making outrageous, often vulgar remarks is well known in California - but not, apparently, out of state - likened Republicans this morning to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
"They lie and they don't care if people think they lie," Burton told the San Francisco Chronicle and CBS News before a breakfast for California delegates to the Democratic National Convention. "Joseph Goebbels - it's the big lie, you keep repeating it."
Burton said Paul Ryan, the Republican Party's nominee for vice president, told "a bold-faced lie and he doesn't care that it was a lie. That was Goebbels, the big lie."
The remark was reminiscent of the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, when now-Gov. Jerry Brown compared Meg Whitman's media apparatus to Goebbels.
Burton is a special case, though. He said last year that major donors "can take a dump in my salad for $78-grand." This year, he said the party had its limits - it couldn't "get a hit squad" to threaten to burn down lawyer Molly Munger's house if she refused to pull out of a November tax battle with Brown.
Burton's statement today has caused a stir at the convention and has received national attention. The Republican Jewish Coalition, among other groups, condemned his remark.
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