PRETZEL LOGIC

Hugh Hewitt got the vapors upon learning that Ahmadinejad wants to go to Ground Zero, and got the vapors again in reaction to the news that Columbia University invited Ahmadinejad to speak and take questions.

In the latter post, Hewitt writes:

President Eisenhower was once the president of Columbia. Recall that Ike ordered Germans marched through the death camps. Things have changed at Columbia....

Er, if that's the valid point of comparison, shouldn't we want Ahmadinejad to go to Ground Zero? Shouldn't we force him to go, even if he changes his mind at the last minute and decides he'd rather not?

Help me out here, Hugh. I'm confused.

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(Yeah, yeah, I know: This analogy doesn't really hold up because Ahmadinejad had nothing to do with 9/11 -- in fact, he has, in his own fashion, condemned it -- and because Al Qaeda is Sunni and Arab and Ahmadinejad is Shiite and Persian. Oh, and I'm also glossing over the fact that Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, has vowed to ask Ahmadinejad about every nasty thing he's understood to have said or done. Sorry, folks -- I'm trying to keep this on the same simple-minded level it's been on since right-wingers and other mountebanks started talking about it.)