If anyone in your family lineage had any ties to the Nazi regime, no matter how obscure, you are automatically disqualified from speaking to any Jewish audience, according to Joy Behar. Apparently we are responsible for the sins of our grandparents. [audio available here]

Discussing the Bush "appeasement" remarks on the May 19 edition of "The View," Joy Behar, after mocking President Bush’s intelligence, followed this bizarre line of reasoning in chiding Bush for even speaking to the Israeli Knesset.

"It’s very interesting and ironic that George Bush Sr’s, George Bush, this one, his grandfather, this one, the late, I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but in this case it’s fun. [laughter] He was a United States senator, Prescott Bush, okay, he was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany, okay? This is his grandfather. He has no business talking to Jewish people when he’s got this right in his back yard, this guy."

Following Behar’s logic, many people have no business talking to Jewish people including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pope Benedict XVI, and the entire Kennedy family.

Was Prescott Bush really closely aligned with Nazi Germany? Hardly. The late Prescott Bush was a director of Union Banking Corp., whose founder, Fritz Thyssen initially supported Hitler’s rise to power. Thyssen cut ties with the Nazi regime in 1938 due to persecution of Catholics and Jews. The documents, declassified in 2003, "do not show any evidence Bush aided that effort."

Later in the show, when discussing the role karma plays in natural disasters, Joy Behar blamed "global warming" on earthquakes.

BEHAR: What about global warming and climate change?

GOLDBERG: That’s a possibility.

BEHAR: That’s something to look into. Because we seem to be having a lot of earthquakes and a lot of things going wrong.

Perhaps Behar, who believes George W. Bush is so dumb, should study some basically geology and climatology. The shifting of the earth’s tectonic plates has nothing to do with the earth’s shifting climate, whether or not it is man made.

The relevant portions of the transcript are below.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: President Bush apparently made a thinly veiled dig to the Israeli parliament saying "appeasement is what led to the Nazis invading Poland," alluding to Obama’s comments about sitting down with leaders in Iran or Syria.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Was he alluding to- or did Barack Obama assume he was alluding to him? I mean, it’s not always about him. You know, he’s, he made a general statement about people who would be appeasing or did it hit a spot on Obama because Obama has said "I would sit down-"

GOLDBERG: I think the president has been very clear in what he meant.

JOY BEHAR: You know, it’s so ironic-

HASSELBECK: I’m just saying-

GOLDBERG: He, he meant it. It’s exactly what he did.

HASSELBECK: He made a general statement possibly including Barack Obama, but it probably struck Barack Obama because he has- hang on. Let me finish.

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Do you think what he said Elisabeth was general? Do you really think it’s general? Nothing is general in what these politicians are saying.

BEHAR: You know it’s ironic- can I just say something?

HASSELBECK: -including- well I’m going to try and finish what I was saying. Barack Obama was included maybe in that statement and maybe it struck him because he has said "yeah I would sit down with Ahmadinejacket" as you call him.

BEHAR: Then why is Condoleezza talking to Syria? Bush spoke to North Korea. Isn’t that called appeasing also in his definition?

HASSELBECK: What about Nancy Pelosi going over and have a talk in a photo op?

BEHAR: Nancy Pelosi is not the president.

HASSELBECK: I’m just saying neither is Condoleezza-

BEHAR: And she is not in the Bush administration. The Bush administration is out there talking to North Korea, talking to Syria. Also-

GOLDBERG: Isn’t that what diplomacy is?

BEHAR: Isn’t that what diplomacy is about? This guy doesn’t even know the difference between the words diplomacy and appeasement. He’s so stupid!

[laughter and applause]

HASSELBECK: Back in 19- no, no, no, no.

BEHAR: Wait a second.

HASSELBECK: This is not-

BEHAR: And might I just add one more point.

HASSELBECK: Go ahead and then I’ll go.

BEHAR: It’s very interesting and ironic that George Bush Sr’s, George Bush, this one, his grandfather, this one, the late, I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but in this case it’s fun. [laughter] He was a United States senator, Prescott Bush, okay, he was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany, okay? This is his grandfather. He has no business talking to Jewish people when he’s got this right in his back yard, this guy.

[...]

GOLDBERG: You know, Burma’s still digging out from the cyclone that may have killed as many as 100,000 people, and a lot of the mostly Buddhist residents say that it was karma. Now we’ve heard wrath of God explanations for everything from Katrina to 9-11. Do you believe in karma? Do you think this is about karma?

[...]

HASSELBECK: Or is it the fact that there’s free choice in the world and we as humans make choices like, say, you know, if you’re talking 9-11, if you’re talking about something like that, then there are choices that people made to actually do that. When it’s a natural disaster, then, you know, it’s out of your, it’s out of your grasp to understand.

BEHAR: What about global warming and climate change?

GOLDBERG: That’s a possibility.

BEHAR: That’s something to look into. Because we seem to be having a lot of earthquakes and a lot of things going wrong.

—Justin McCarthy is a news analyst at Media Research Center.