Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown has accused Jewish opponent Josh Mandel of employing "the big lie," a term coined by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf to cast aspersions on European Jews.
The accusation was not an off-the-cuff remark but an attack ad, which says of Brown's GOP challenger, "He has become the candidate of the big lie."
In Mein Kampf, Hitler postulated that Jews used the tactic of "the big lie" to divert from their alleged guilt in the downfall of Germany. He theorized Jews manipulated common citizens by telling lies too exaggerated to be considered fabrications.
Brown and his surrogates have accused Republicans of ideology kinship with Nazis in the past. In 2011, the Senator compared GOP governors John Kasich, Scott Walker, and Chris Christie to Hitler and other dictators for their opposition to Big Labor.
A year ago Justin Barasky, who is now Sherrod Brown's communications director, implied that Mandel tolerates Nazism.