Yesterday it looked like he was backing away from his intemperate comments. Today I learn he says that’s not so. The AJC:
Georgia Congressman Paul Broun Wednesday stood by warnings that President-elect Barack Obama might set up a Gestapo-like civilian security force.
One day after the Athens Republican told a radio talk show that he regretted calling Obama a “Marxist,” a spokeswoman for the Athens congressman said, “We have not issued any official apology” for comparing Obama’s proposals to the tactics of Hitler and the Soviet Union.
“What he said in the [radio] interview does not negate what he really feels —- that he has questions and concerns regarding some of the statements Obama has made,” said the spokeswoman, Jessica Morris.
She said Broun was sticking by a written statement issued Tuesday criticizing Obama for having “socialist views” and raising ominous concerns about a campaign proposal to build “a civilian national security force” to assist the military.
“History shows that ‘civilian national security forces’ bode ill for citizens,” Broun said in the statement.
The flap has been watched with particular interest inside the State Department, which already is building a civilian corps similar to the one Obama described in a campaign speech.