Who said Democrats have no sense of humor?

One Congressman, deriding immediate past (and relatively anti-American) leaders of Germany and France, had this quip about former Deutschland Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder:

He said when the United States asked Schroeder to support its decision to go to war in Iraq “he told us where to go.”

“I referred to him as a political prostitute, now that he’s taking big checks from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. But the sex workers in my district objected, so I will no longer use that phrase,” Lantos said.

But about that loveable Jacques Chirac, Lantos was more somber:

Lantos said Chirac “should go down to the Normandy beaches. He should see those endless rows of white marble crosses and stars of David representing young Americans who gave their lives for the freedom of France.”

A German official took offense at the remarks, saying they insulted not only Schroeder but the entire German people.

Congressman Lantos likely doesn’t care about the opinion of some German functionary. But do you wonder why you hear such words coming from a Democrat? I did, too, until I read this:

Lantos was born in Budapest, Hungary, and sent to a Nazi labor camp when he was 16. He is the only survivor of the Holocaust ever to have served in Congress.

Perspective makes all the difference, doesn’t it?