Well, Glenn Beck continues to score points against Obama Administration apparatchiks, if only because the later seem to go about pointing to the big red targets on their chests. In case anyone doesn't know it, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who has taken point in one war the Obama Administration isn't conflicted about, against Fox News, said some interesting things about Mao Tse-tung. Apparently giving some kind of pep talk earlier this year, she said this:

The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers: Mao Tse-tung and Mother Theresa -- not often coupled with each other, but the two people I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point which is 'you're going to make choices; you're going to challenge; you're going to say why not; you're going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before.

And this:

In 1947, when Mao Tse Tung was being challenged within his own party on his plan to basically take China over, Chiang Kai?shek and the Nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army, they had the air force, they had everything on their side. And people said, "How can you win? How can you do this? How can you do this against all of the odds against you?" And Mao Tse Tung said, you know, "You fight your war, and I'll fight mine."

Now I think it is silly to suggest that Ms. Dunn ought to resign over this. Saying something painfully stupid, especially when she didn't seem to be acting in her official capacity, is not usually a firing offense. Give enough speeches, write enough blog posts, and sooner or later you will discover that you have done it.

But it was painfully stupid. To begin with, whatever Mother Theresa and Mao were, they weren't political philosophers. I remember when George W. was asked to name his favorite political philosopher, and he named Jesus. Christ wasn't a political philosopher either. Bush didn't escape criticism, and neither should Ms. Dunn.

And it doesn't help to claim that she got the comparison from Bush 41 advisor Lee Atwater or to say, as some of her defenders have said, that a strategist for Barry Goldwater once claimed to follow Mao's guidance. It was a dumb thing for anyone on either side to do.

Mao Tse-tung was the most prolific and monstrous mass murderer in the history of prolific and monstrous mass murderers. In raw numbers, neither Hitler nor Stalin can compete. He was probably responsible for the death of almost, and perhaps more than, a hundred million people. During the "Great Leap Forward," he caused the starvation of tens of millions. His personal physician recounted that Mao would eat turtle soup and listen to glowing reports of economic progress, while just outside his window the streets were lined with corpses. During the "Cultural Revolution" he set virtually every one of his subjects against every other, creating a horror such as the world may never have known before or since.

Now it's true that Mao was effectively ambitious, and it's logically possible to admire his ambition and some of his talents apart from the fact that he was a monster. But for purposes of rhetoric, this is a very bad idea. Imagine if George W. Bush had spoken admirably of the executive efficiency and fiscal management of Francisco Franco! This just isn't the best way to go about inspiring people. Besides, it risks sending some very bad messages.

Ms. Dunn spoke the way she did because she suffers from the common blindness of the Left when it comes to "progressives" like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. But that's okay. She only the White House Communications Director.