In the age of Obama, it seems like Republicans’ dog-whistle politics just keep getting louder. A case in point is Republican State Senator David Schultheis of Colorado, who sent out a tweet last week comparing President Obama to the 9/11 hijackers:

"Don't for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying the U.S. plane right into the ground at full speed. Let's roll."

“Let’s Roll” was the signal for United Flight 93 passengers trying to recapture their plane from terrorists on 9/11. The plane ultimately crashed right into the ground, at full speed. The “generous” reading of this is that Schultheis would rather see America destroyed than have a successful, Democratic president.

Of course, Senator Schultheis denies that was the comparison he was trying to make. But the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Colorado Senate both blasted the remarks, as did a spokesperson for the conservative-leaning 9/11 Families for a Secure America, who said “Let's not cheapen what happened on Sept. 11 by making random and/or ill-fated comparisons to current policy.”

This is not Schultheis’s first morally reprehensible statement. Earlier this year, when he voted against a bill to prevent AIDS transmission from pregnant women to their babies, “he said then that infected children would set examples for women against sexual promiscuity.”