Bad Comparisons

From the Ministry of Ill-Advised Analogies, this week has seen comparisons of the US Senate to elevated to a new cultural high.

But infused throughout the back-and-forth speeches of the world's foremost deliberative body were passion and bitterness more typically seen in the people's chamber, the House of Representatives.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., compared Democrats to Adolf Hitler. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., accused Democrats of trying "to kill, to defeat, to assassinate" nominees for the federal bench.

Democrats were not without their own colorful comparisons. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told his colleagues, "When Americans think of a scary person in a black robe, they should be thinking of Darth Vader, not Republicans' choices for judges."

With such rhetoric punctuating the debate, political analysts and longtime observers of the Senate say something has changed and not for the better.

Hitler or Vader? Who will prevail?