Iowa billboard linking Obama, Hitler removed

By LUKE MEREDITH, Associated Press Writer Luke Meredith, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jul 14, 1:35 pm ET
DES MOINES, Iowa – An Iowa tea party group on Wednesday replaced a billboard comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin, calling the sign a bad decision that reflected poorly on the organization.

Workers papered over the sign in downtown Mason City at the request of the North Iowa Tea Party.

"We got it covered up first thing this morning," said Kent Beatty, the general manager of the company that owns the billboard.

The roughly 200-member tea party group had the original sign put up last week. It showed photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism."

After the billboard drew sharp criticism by other state and national tea party leaders, members of the local group sought the change.

North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson said he and other leaders agreed with critics that the image of Obama between Hitler and Lenin was offensive. He said the images overwhelmed the intended message of anti-socialism.

"They are absolutely right in their criticism because the image of Hitler just totally wiped everything else and it misrepresents the tea party movement," Johnson said. "They were right from the standpoint that the image was not a positive reflection on the tea people."

Johnson said Hitler images are usually not allowed at North Iowa Tea Party gatherings.

Removal of the sign was welcomed by the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, a New York-based group.

The North Iowa Tea Party "acted properly in removing the grotesquely offensive sign which should never have been put up in the first place. Had they not acted to remove it they would have severely damaged the credibility of legitimate political causes they espouse," the group said in a statement. "We ask that political groups do not trivialize our suffering in the future by making false analogies with Hitler's horrendous crimes."

For now, the sign has been plastered over with one urging people to notify officials before digging.

But Johnson said the North Iowa Tea Party plans to put up a new sign soon.

That sign will feature a quote that some attribute to Thomas Jefferson that reads, "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." Others argue Jefferson never wrote the statement.

Listed below, in smaller print, will read, "The North Iowa Tea Party stands for individual responsibility, freedom, liberty, less spending, smaller government."

"It's going to be little more bland," Johnson said. 'We paid for a month, so we don't want to waste the money."

USER COMMENT

I'm just sooooo sick of (GOP) Repuks never admitting to fault nor be accountable EVER!

Sure everything blame it on President Obama who gave away his entire Nobel prize winning and let Bush get off scott free. Bush probably can't even pronounce Nobel without stuttering(Nobelculear). Yeah let them cover things up and ROB you of your HOME in the next 3 years. BUT I STILL WANT TO REMIND YOU

}Lest we forget - the Republican legacy:

More porous border for 12 million more illegals -
Global economic meltdown -
Global loss of respect for America - lost moral high ground -
USA Becomes a TORTURE STATE leading to global hatred of America -
Health Care: skyrocketing insurance premiums, increasing family bankruptcies, dropped coverages
Katrina deaths and abandonment of the city and the people New Orleans -
Deaths of 4300 courageous US military personal and 200,000 innocent Iraqis in an unnecessary war - Skimped on body armor for soldiers -
Walter Reid decline & disgrace -
Near poverty military pay -
Sub-standard support of military families and returning soldiers and wounded -
Over a $ trillion already spent on an unnecessary war and likely $2 trillion more for future follow-up - blow-back, and V.A. costs for lifetime of all current and future Iraq related veterans -
Shameful treatment of local civilian populations -
Degenerate torture prisons -
Let Bin Ladin go at Tora Bora -
Bin Ladin family flight out of U.S. on 9/12 -
Al Qaida & Taliban not finished off in Afg -
Bush walking hand-in-hand and kissing Saudi King in the mouth -
No-bid outsourcing of military and war to friends -
Corporate welfare for outsourcing jobs overseas -
Non enforcement of already weakened regulations -
Illegal Immigration Crisis -
Social Security Crisis -
Medicare Crisis -
Bernie Madoff, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Enron, WorldCom, Fannie May, Freddie Mac -
Unemployment Crisis -
Welfare Crisis -
Gulf oil spill destruction due to de-regulation
Gulf coast communities destroyed, fisheries, property value, tourism due to toxic destruction
Toxic food outbreaks
Average Household Wealth Sunk 25 %
Gas up to $4.40 per gallon

In short, destruction of our great nation.

LEST WE FORGET