Paul spokesman praises video likening Grayson to Hitler

A spokesman for Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul (R) is getting heat for praising a video likening Paul’s opponent to Adolf Hitler. And he's not apologizing.

The video portraying Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) as Hitler popped up on a Ron Paul message board over the weekend. A spokesman for Grayson primary opponent Rand Paul then posted a reply to the video, labeling it “Too funny!!” with a smiling emoticon. (UPDATE: Since this post was created, the message board entry has disappeared. A screenshot of the comment can be found here.)

The spokesman, Christopher Hightower, said he doesn’t think it’s funny to compare Grayson to Hitler, but that he thought the video itself was funny.

He noted that the video is nothing new and has been mocked up for any number of celebrities, sports figures and politicians.

“The video’s just funny,” Hightower said. “I don’t really think it’s funny to compare Trey Grayson to Hitler; I don’t think that’s funny.”

Asked to respond to some opponents who have raised objections, Hightower said: “Some things in life, some people think they’re funny, and some people don’t think they’re funny. I’m not really one to judge that.”

The video features an angry, ranting movie version of Hitler. Its subtitles make him out to be Grayson, angry about Rand Paul’s momentum in the Senate campaign.

A similar video popped up in Florida’s GOP Senate primary recently as well. In that case, Marco Rubio was accused by supporters of Gov. Charlie Crist of being behind the video, though there was never anything to substantiate the claim. Rubio's supporters later suggested the video was created by Crist supporters to make Rubio look bad.

Rand Paul, who is Ron Paul’s son, has caught the political world by surprise by outpolling and outraising Grayson early in their primary.