Democrat invokes Nazis to slam GOP on health care law

Updated at 7 p.m. ET

A Democratic congressman invoked the Holocaust and the Nazis' "big lie" strategy last night during a speech to a near-empty House chamber about Republican efforts to repeal the health care law.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., also used the same phrase -- blood libel -- that got former Alaska governor Sarah Palin into trouble with some Jewish groups.

Speaking about Republicans, Cohen said last night, "They say it's a government takeover of health care. A big lie just like (Joseph) Goebbels. You say it enough and you repeat the lie, repeat the lie, repeat the lie until eventually people believe it. Like blood libel, that's the same kind of thing."

Joseph Goebbels was the minister of propaganda for the Nazis. Blood libel is a term some Christians have used to persecute Jews.

Cohen, who is Jewish, told USA TODAY that his speech is being taken out of context and being highlighted for political gain. Only about a minute of his 10-minute remarks mentioned Nazis and the Holocaust.

His point, Cohen said, is that lies are wrong and that Republicans are telling lies about the health care law.

"Last night, I was speaking off the top of my head and I mentioned big lies and I guess that 'biggest lie' reminds me of Goebbels and the big lie was responsible for the Holocaust," Cohen said in a telephone interview.

"Lies are wrong and it's the lie (about health care) that should be discussed," he said.

Cohen's speech was first reported by ABC News.

Cohen also said he was trying to point out that PolitiFact, a website project of the St. Petersburg Times, said that "government takeover of health care" -- a frequently heard GOP mantra during debate on the health care bill last year -- was the biggest lie of 2010.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the the Anti-Defamation League, said Cohen's use of the Holocaust and Nazis was inappropriate.

"No matter how strong one's objections to any policy or to the tactics of political opponents, invoking the Holocaust and the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people is offensive and has no place in a civil political discourse," Foxman said in a statement.

A former Tennessee state senator, Cohen has been in Congress since 2007.

Lawmakers hoped the debate to repeal the health care law would be more civil, in light of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and the role political rhetoric may have had in the rampage in Tucson that killed six people Jan. 8.

In a column for Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress, Cohen spoke out about incendiary political rhetoric shortly after Giffords was shot.

"Reckless and hateful speech" often have a "terrible human cost," Cohen wrote in the piece, published Jan. 11. "If the horrific events in Arizona are not enough to modulate our public discourse, it is likely there will be more violence, more deaths."

Cohen said in his interview with USA TODAY that his remarks last night had no relation to what happened to Giffords, whom he calls a friend.

He said that like Giffords, he was threatened after voting for the health care legislation, and was drowned out by people who attended his town hall meetings last summer.

"I'm for civil discussion," Cohen said. "I've been positive but lies are not civil. "