Elizabeth Warren

When is a tattoo bad?

Well, according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a tattoo is bad when it depicts a Christian symbol on the chest of a Republican.

A tattoo is not so bad when it resembles a Nazi symbol on the chest of a Democrat, particularly a progressive one.

While it is no surprise that Warren endorsed fellow progressive Graham Platner of Maine for the U.S Senate, the fact that she did so after learning that he sported a Nazi-associated tattoo on his chest — now covered up — for years seemed to make no difference.

“That’s my kind of man,” Warren, 76, said of Platner, 41. She said he was “the real deal.”

Pressed on the tattoo, Warren, who calls President Donald Trump a fascist, said, “Look, he (Platner) has apologized for that, and he’s out there talking to the people of Maine every single day.”

Warren has some experience with covering over the past as happened when her phony claim of being a blue-eyed Native American Cherokee descendent blew up.

Platner has also apologized for other controversial statements he has made in the past denigrating blacks, women and fellow veterans. He has also had praise for Hamas and accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Warren is the same senator who, as member of the Armed Services Committee, sought to disqualify U.S. Army combat veteran Pete Hegseth as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense (now War) for the Christian tattoos he wore on his chest and arms.

Warren said that there were “concerns” that Hegseth was “an insider threat” and that questions had been raised that’s Hegseth’s “Deus vult” tattoo, which translates into “God wills,” was a “Christian expression associated with right-wing extremism.”

Hegseth has about 12 tattoos on his arms and chest, all of which refer to his military service, patriotism and his Christianity. None of them have been covered up or erased.

Platner, a U.S, Marine Corps veteran, has won the support of many progressives and socialists, like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish.

He has won the support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish.

Schumer had supported Maine Gov. Janet Mills, 78, before she dropped out of the race, giving Platner a clear shot at the Democratic nomination.

As such he will face off with veteran Republican Sen. Susan Collins, 74, who is not to be underestimated given that she launched her government and political career at the State House in Boston. She served as an assistant to then Republican state Treasurer Joe Malone in 1993 before returning to her roots in Maine.

A moderate Republican, Colins was first elected in 1996 and is the longest serving woman Republican in the Senate.

Like Janet Mills, Collins is also expected to make Platner’s tattoo, along with previous outrageous comments — since walked back — an issue.

While sporting the controversial tattoo (resembling a Nazi “Totenkopf” skull and crossbones symbol) for almost 20 years, Platner maintains that he had no idea what it represented. When he found out he apologized and had it covered with another tattoo.

Platner said he got the tattoo while out drinking during service with the Marines in Croatia in during a NATO training and peacekeeping mission in 2007.

The interesting thing about Croatia, which lies along the Adriatic Sea across from Italy, is that during World War II Croatia was a pro Hitler, pro-Nazi brutal fascist state controlled by the Ustase, who were as bad as the Nazis.

The Ustase, Croatia’s version of the Nazi SS, was responsible for widespread atrocities, rounding up and murdering hundreds of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Roma people.

It was a good place to get a Nazi tattoo.

Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: [email protected]