Rep. Paul Broun had sent mixed signals on Tuesday about retracting his comments, saying in a radio interview that he regretted the way they have been perceived while at the same time issuing a written statement defending them.
But spokeswoman Jessica Morris said Wednesday the congressman is "not taking back anything he said."
In an interview with The Associated Press Monday, Broun pointed to a speech Obama made in July in which he called for a large new civilian security force. Broun compared the proposal to Adolf Hitler's security forces and said he was concerned that Obama could be planning something similar.
"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "In fact, every fascist dictatorship has been established basically this way, by establishing a national police force or a national security force that's answerable to the one in power. That's the reason I'm so fearful of it."
"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is he's the one who proposed this national security force," Broun added. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a Democratic Germany...I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. Don't get me wrong. What I'm saying is there is the potential of going down that road."
Broun had earlier called Obama a Marxist at a Rotary Club meeting in Augusta.
Obama's comments about a national security force came during a July speech in Colorado. A spokesman said Obama was referring to a bipartisan plan that he discussed throughout the campaign for expanding the nation's foreign service and building a reserve defense corps to help rebuild places like Iraq. The Bush administration also has endorsed the idea.
"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," Obama said in the speech. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
Broun on Tuesday told WGAC radio in Augusta that he regretted calling Obama a Marxist at the Rotary event.
"I apologize to anyone who has taken offense at that," he said.
But his office put out a written statement Tuesday afternoon that included no apology and reiterated his concerns about Obama.
"I never called Mr. Obama a communist, nor did I accuse him of being Hitler, but I do not apologize for stating the obvious: his socialist views are out of the mainstream of American political thought, and history shows that civilian national security forces bode ill for citizens," the statement said.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/11/215185