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Hitler no, Osama yes

Rep. Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican, has strong feelings about President Bush's re-election.

In an account published this week in the 7,000-circulation Yukon Review in Oklahoma, Mr. Cole told a group of local Republicans, "What do you think Hitler would have thought if Roosevelt would've lost the election in 1944? He would not have thought American resolve was strengthening. What would the confederacy have thought if Lincoln would have lost the election of 1860?"

Mr. Cole added, "If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election, it's that simple. It will be interpreted that way by enemies of the United States around the world."

Mr. Cole clarified his remarks in an interview with KTOK radio in Oklahoma City yesterday, saying the Hitler remark was a misquote.

"He admits to saying if the president loses his re-election bid, it will be considered a victory for bin Laden in the eyes of U.S. enemies," KTOK noted in an account yesterday.

"Cole says his references were not meant to be name calling of Democratic presidential candidates. In fact, he says Senator John Kerry is a very patriotic individual," the account stated.

Still, his comments irked Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Matsui of California, who called the remarks "disgraceful and must be repudiated by Republican candidates from President Bush on down the ticket."

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland said yesterday that Mr. Cole "ought to be ashamed of himself" and called for lawmakers to repudiate the remarks "as completely wrong, unacceptable and out of bounds."