O'Reilly Equates Arianna Huffington with Nazis, KKK

It's as if Bill O'Reilly has never even heard of Godwin's Law.

During the February 27 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly attacked Arianna Huffington -- founder of The Huffington Post -- over comments (since removed) that readers posted to an item on the website reporting the hospitalization of former first lady Nancy Reagan after a fall. O'Reilly asserted: "[Y]ou know, I'm not going to call her a name. Arianna Huffington, I have no respect for the woman. I think that she is hurting the country. I wish everybody felt the way I did."

Townhall.com managing editor Mary Katherine Ham, a guest on the show, then stated: "[T]his happens frequently, unfortunately, on the left-wing blogs," adding, "[E]very time a conservative gets injured, dies, has something threatening them -- whether it's [former White House press secretary] Tony Snow with cancer or Mrs. Reagan falling down -- there is often on [the website] Democratic Underground or Huffington Post, a celebration thread. " O'Reilly then called The Huffington Post a "sewer" and later asked: "[W]hat's the difference between the Ku Klux Klan and Arianna Huffington? What's the difference?"

When Ham replied: "I think there's difference," O'Reilly said: "I don't see any difference between Huffington and the Nazis. ... I don't see any difference." Ham responded: "[O]h, my gosh. I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one." O'Reilly replied: "They both want people to die, Mary Katherine. Don't they?" Ham noted that Huffington "was not the one making those comments" and later stated: "I still don't think she's a Nazi." O'Reilly then said: "I didn't say she was a Nazi. ... I said there's no difference between what the two do. I want everybody to know that."

So, let's review. Someone -- not Arianna Huffington -- made intemperate remarks about Nancy Reagan in a comments section. Someone on the Huffington staff removed the comments. In response, O'Reilly -- who's had some intemperate comments in his own online forum, not to mention what he says on the air -- feels justified in comparing Huffington to the KKK, and insisting that there's "no difference" between her and the Nazis.

There has to be some kind of medication available for this guy.

It's worth noting, as Media Matters does, that the Nazi/KKK comparison seems to have become something of a default criticism for O'Reilly. Someone bothers him? Bingo, the object of his ire immediately reminds him of the Nazis and the KKK.