B.K. Marcus on LewRockwell.com writes defending Dubin’s drawing parallels between Gitmo and Hitler/Soviet gulags/Pol Pot, etc:

Think of a reference to Jim Crow, Hitler, Stalinism, Pol Pot – whoever or whatever is your most effective symbol of political evil – as a rhetorical shortcut to the reductio ad absurdum. The question is this: are you willing to stand by your logic when I apply it in the extreme? That is absolutely not an unfair question. If the history of the 20th century teaches us anything, it's that these extreme cases are relevant. They do happen. And they not only can be part of a rational conversation about political principles, I would argue that they should be.

I sometimes wonder at the lengths that some libertarians will go to in their effort to fight the Statists in both parties. By any measure of reason, Durbin’s comments were not only impolitic, but ridiculously inaccurate. Marcus’s allusion that this is a variant shortcut to the decutio ad absurdum is in itself absurd. In order this argument to make sense, there must be some basis in reality: the types of prisoners, the quality of treatment, the ultimate end of it’s prisoners, etc. There are no parallels on any of these fronts, a fact that has been documented by so many. Of which Newt Gingrich’s opinion article in Washington Times is but one.

Not only that, but Durbin’s acts had nothing to do with the principles involved, but of specific actions. As such, Ann Coulter’s parallel seems far more appropriate.

In the interests of helping my country, I have devised a compact set of torture guidelines for Guantanamo.
It's not torture if:
The same acts performed on a live stage have been favorably reviewed by Frank Rich of the New York Times; You can pay someone in New York to do it to you; Karen Finley ever got a federal grant to do it; It's comparable to the treatment U.S. troops received in basic training; It's no worse than the way airlines treat little girls in pigtails flying to see Grandma.

Beyond this: What is the deal with all the libertarians supporting democratic operatives? Especially when they say stupid things? Contrary to pop culture and a plethora of pragmatic statists, the enemy of your enemy is NOT your friend. He is still your enemy.

I know most freedom loving people abhor what W has done. Hey cool. I agree! But that doesn’t automatically make them right. And definitely doesn’t make them worth supporting.