MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS: GEORGE W. BUSH AS ADOLF HITLER

So what does Bush have to do with MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS (the new Judi Dench film)? Well, nothing intentional, I'm sure. And when I ran it by Craig and Ray who I saw it with, they didn't see a real connection the way I did. But I did see it and, more important, feel it. Images can be so powerful. The film takes place just before and during the first couple years of WWII. It's superbly acted. (An aside: the previews looked good but the reviews panned it and I decided not to see it. But I sat next a really delightful woman on the plane ride up to the Bay Area last week and she and I saw eye-to-eye on everything-- starting with the Al Franken book I was reading-- and she had seen the film and was raving about it. So I went. And it was very good.) But the superb acting did nothing to conger up any thought about Bush or even of his grandfather illegally trading with the Nazis during the war. But suddenly, in the midst of all the naked boobs the movie is always displaying (not Dame Judi's), Hitler does the blitzkrieg thing on France and the screen is filled with the actual newsreel footage of Hitler in Paris and of German troops marching through the streets of occupied France.

My grandfather instilled a visceral hatred of the extreme right in me. They have always been my mortal enemy. No matter what era, no matter what locale, the political right always winds up murdering Jews, intellectuals, nonconformists, gays, free-thinkers, leftists... And when I saw Hitler, the ultimate icon for the Far Right, and his Nazi troopers on screen I had an instant reaction of revulsion and disgust... almost Pavlovian. And you probably already know where this is going, I'm sure.

For millions of average men and women around the world, the kind of revulsion and disgust and hatred (and fear) that I felt when I saw Hitler's visage during MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, is what they feel, quite understandably, when they see Bush and, unfortunately and tragically, when they see American soldiers marching through an occupied country.

Now when I asked the Art Department to take one of the famous Hitler-in-Paris photos and put Bush's mug on it, there was a lot of grumbling. It went beyond the normal "Can't we just do another Mean Jean Schmidt picture?" You see, the Art Department is a bunch of elderly Jews living in South Florida, trying to avoid doing any art by sitting around yenta-ing it up all day and studying The Zohar and listening to tapes of Madonna singing "Dreidl Dreidl." They all escaped from a camp. They think they own all the Hitler outrage. ALL of it. What about all the union members? The Russians and Poles? The gays and disabled? The Christian objectors? Oy, and the gypsies and the Jehovah's Witnesses... "No, he killed 6 million Jews." That's a lot. He nearly wiped the Jewish population of Europe out-- his stated goal. But he killed between 20 and 40 million Russians and Ukrainians. And millions more in the foul, unprovoked war he plotted and pursued. Don't their descendants own a little fear-and-loathing too?

Well, a funny thing is happening while I'm writing. The Art Department pulled their heads out of The Zohar and they're all IM-ing me. I don't know if they've been hitting the Manischewitz but they've worked themselves up into a frenzied state reminiscent of when Katherine Harris tricked them all into voting for Buchanan instead of Al Gore and that lovely Joey Lieberman in 2000.

Verbatim: "The holocaust was focused on the Jews and the Nazis stole their wealth, their power, statistically the amount of Jews that were killed cannot be compared to any other group. These assholes who say that 'Oh, more gentiles were killed.' It is a false dichotomy, the Jews have made an unsurpassed impact on world history and science and art. There are only 13 million left, at the time around 1/3 were killed off (by the way that was predicted in Jewish prophesy). Anyway, you can't compare it statistically." And "Not to mention the holocaust was aimed at the Jews, not specifically at another group, its main purpose was to wipe away the Jews. I get angry when these idiots give me these arguments about 'Well 12 million gentiles died too, more than Jews.' Yea, but there are billions in the world. (OMG! Did she really just say that? She was never a Depeche Mode fan or she'd have remembered "People Are People" and not have been so crass.) Oy and there's more: "Jews were at the top of the scientific and economic system, they had art and wealth and it was stolen out of jealousy. Fuck the Nazis and fuck the pricks who say the Jews do not deserve Israel. And then just when I thought the clamor and righteous indignation had died down and they had gone back to looking at the roots of Kaballah or maybe dancing around to Madonna Esther again, along came Adam: "It pisses me off. Every empire that tried to wipe the Jews away was destroyed in the end, every single one."

As you see, it's a touchy matter. But they did the art for the piece. And they've all quieted down now with some warm milk and kugel. They sure got me off the topic I meant to be writing about: Bush and why equating him with Hitler can mean something other than extermination camps for Jewish people. Hitler-- like Bush-- also means fascism, unprovoked war against weaker states, state terrorism, illegal spying, lots of lying and propaganda. And so much more. What I saw in the film when the German troops were marching around Paris was how they wrecked the hopes and dreams of so many millions of innocent people, not just the ones they killed-- hideous beyond redemption-- but also the ones who were left. How is Bush different in Iraq? Someone tell me.