Kootenai County Democrats have a right to be upset about a crude bumper sticker circulated by local Republicans, associating Massachusetts U.S. Sens. John Kerry and Ted Kennedy with the Ku Klux Klan.

In North Idaho, the Aryan Nations cast a long shadow for decades, attracting a rogue’s gallery of racists, militia members and Klansmen to sully the region’s reputation. For almost the same length of time, the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations battled valiantly for the region’s soul – and ultimately won.

Republicans who circulated the offending message – “Kennedy & Kerry – The KK Klan” – at the North Idaho Fair were as silly as they were historically insensitive.

Marshall Mend, a human-rights activist and a Republican, called the bumpers stickers “nasty,” adding: “I think it’s very detrimental to Idaho, detrimental to America and detrimental to Republicans. We don’t need that kind of stuff from either side.”

Before the Democrats point fingers, however, they should look hard at themselves. They’re guilty of using overheated rhetoric of this kind, comparing Bush and his administration to Adolf Hitler and other members of the Nazi Germany regime. The Internet is rife with examples of frothing partisans claiming similarities between Bush and der fuhrer, contrasting the Holocaust to the 2003 Iraqi invasion and modern America to 1933 Germany.

Both sides should be ashamed they’ve stooped so low to appeal to the crass instincts of the political herd.

Kootenai County Republicans send mixed messages when they show up en masse to support the human-rights banquet every spring and then distribute the “KK Klan” stickers from their North Idaho Fair booth. Republicans such as former county Prosecutor Glen Walker and late Undersheriff Larry Broadbent played key roles during the quarter-century struggle against the Aryan Nations. People who distributed the “KK Klan” stickers undermined the seriousness of that struggle and their party’s commitment to human rights.

As a refresher course for Republicans who laughed and joked about the stickers, Richard Butler and his Aryan Nations hosted a string of far right extremists who at various times taunted mixed-race children, bombed Coeur d’Alene, murdered, robbed banks, staged summer hate gatherings and gave the region a black eye. No one was laughing when Butler’s compound served as a launching pad for Robert Mathews and The Order, The Order II, the first skinhead conference (the Bob Mathews Brigade), Randy Weaver and other dangerous groups and individuals.

In July 1998, Victoria and Jason Keenan weren’t laughing when Aryan Nations security guards fired on them during a car chase on Rimrock Road that ended with the guards holding them at gunpoint. Four years ago, Republicans joined human-rights activists and most other Kootenai County residents in celebrating a civil verdict, stemming from the chase, that bankrupted Butler and his organization.

Not only is it foolish to include Kerry and Kennedy in the same breath as the Klan, but it shows a poor understanding of ideology. The Massachusetts senators belong on the liberal side of the political spectrum. Those responsible for the stickers deserve an F in political science and in recent North Idaho history.