Ahmadinejad proves that more than one country can have an idiot as President

In a little over an hour, Iranian President Ahmadinejad did more to unite Americans than U.S. President George "I'm a uniter, not a divider" Bush has done in more than 6 1/2 years in office.

Left-wing, center, right-wing - it doesn't matter.

Hell, his host today at Columbia University called him out, saying that he showed "all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator."

In short, everybody thinks he's a loon.

From AP, via Yahoo! News -

"In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as the fabricated legend," [Columbia University President Lee] Bollinger told Ahmadinejad said in his opening remarks. "One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers."

Bollinger said that might fool the illiterate and ignorant.

"When you come to a place like this, it makes you simply ridiculous. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history," he said.

{snip}

But Ahmadinejad went on to say that he was defending the rights of European academics imprisoned for "questioning certain aspects" of the Holocaust, an apparent reference to a small number who have been prosecuted under national laws for denying or minimizing the genocide.

"There's nothing known as absolute," Ahmadinejad said. He said the Holocaust has been abused as a justification for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians.

Many public figures from across the political spectrum had condemned Ahmadinejad's visit, even before his comments; now, those "public figures" have something solid to criticize - his actual words.

CD5's Congressman Harry Mitchell issued a press release with this statement -

"President Ahmadinejad's twisted denial of the Holocaust and refusal to distance himself from his repeated calls for the destruction of Israel only makes clearer to the American people and the thinking world that he is indeed a madman."

"Iran is one of the world's greatest abusers of human rights, the world's chief state sponsor of terrorism, and continues to defy the international community by actively working to develop a nuclear weapon. While President Ahmadinejad may have hoped that his speech today would earn him praise in the United States, he will quickly learn otherwise. The American people have no tolerance for evil dictators and terrorist thugs."

Expect more comments from various public officials before the end of Ahmadinejad's visit to the U.N.

About the only thing Ahmadinejad accomplished with today's speech was to make it tougher for the folks working to slow or stop Bush's march to war with Iran.

While the speech itself won't cause a war, it does give the warmongers (see: Kyl-Lieberman Amendment, page S11911 of the Congressional Record) another stick to beat the war drums with.