Sideshow: Leave the gun, but take the NRA label

MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL . Now to the "Sideshow." Steve Colbert had some thoughts about the hoopla over the snowstorm in Washington this week, the one here in D.C. and how it somehow got lumped in with talk about spending cuts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're calling it the snowquester.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snowquester .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The snowquester.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snowquester .

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're calling it snowquester, which I think is great. Isn't that cute?

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": Of course, the word snowquester is a combination of snow and the sequester. I think we should name all of our weather events after what kind they are, plus whatever people are talking about on television at the time.

COLBERT: Today, Washington is blanketed in the snowquester. Tomorrow, a storm covers New York in drone-cicles.

COLBERT: Or a freak blizzardashian.

COLBERT: As we speak, Oklahoma is still suffering the effects of hope been a Pope Bene-Drought XVI .

MATTHEWS: The snowquester was only one way to dub yesterday's mishmash of events. Rand Paul went with filiblizzard the commemorate both the snowstorm and his 13 hours on the Senate floor. As I told you yesterday, somewhere towards the beginning of that filibuster, Rand Paul dropped a reference to Hitler .

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Out of that chaos, Hitler was elected democratically. They elected him out of this chaos. The point isn't that anybody in our country is Hitler . I'm not accusing anybody of being that evil. I think it's an overplayed and a misused analogy, but what I am saying is that in a democracy you could some day elect someone who is very evil. That's why we don't give the power to the government.

MATTHEWS: Well, Senator Paul went on to say that he was by no means comparing anyone in today's politics to Hitler , of course, only warning of what could happen down the line if we don't cut government spending. You may have been surprised to hear the warning that we're somehow on the road to Nazism , but here is the thing. Rand Paul and his here come Hitler warnings have a long history together. Talking Points Memo kept track.

PAUL: What happened in Germany when the Weimar Republic printed up so much money, you carried it around in wheelbarrows? There was a collapse and they actually voted in a Hitler . You could get something like that in our country if we're not careful and vigilant. The danger is, I think, runaway inflation where the money becomes worthless. I fear more a time like the Weimar Republic in 1923 , where the Germans carried their money around in wheelbarrows. The pictures in our history book, most people have seen them, money in wheelbarrows, people burning their money for fuel, and out of that came chaos and came Hitler . Hitler was basically elected in his first election, but he was elected because there was chaos. People actually democratically voted in a Hitler and I worry about that again in our country. If the money is destroyed in our country, could we get a time where a strong leader comes forward and says, we just need security, I will make you safe, but just give me your liberty?

MATTHEWS: Repetition is the mother of memory. Anyway, Rand Paul 's obsession with 1920s Germany inflation -- German inflation -- is probably rooted in his love of the gold standard. Fact check, prices in the United States rose one-sixth of 1 percent in January, hardly a call for more wheelbarrows. Finally, representing the NRA without a rifle? You might think the NRA would want its field representatives to be an ideal reflection of responsible gun ownership here in the U.S. Well , that's not quite the situation for Richard D'Alauro , one of the NRA 's New York -based representative. Richard D'Alauro has been barred from owning and purchasing firearms since last year, according to " The Daily News ." Richard D'Alauro , the NRA 's field representative for the city and its suburbs -- this is in the paper today -- is forbidden from owning guns under an order of protection stemming from a confrontation with his wife in their Long Island home. At the time, the police confiscated 39 pistols, shotguns and weapons that D'Alauro kept in the couple's home. The judge continued an order of protection against Richard D'Alauro for one year, banning him from owning or purchasing firearms. Well, Mr. D'Alauro , who pleaded guilty to a harassment charge, will apparently get his 39 firearms back in October this year. His lawyer says that it's -- quote -- "of no significance whatever" that his client cannot own a gun while representing the NRA . Hmm . You figure. Up next, the one thing we learned from Rand Paul is if senators want to filibuster, they ought to do it when they did -- the way he did it, talking until you can't talk anymore. He had to go to the bathroom, apparently. And that's ahead. You're watching HARDBALL , the place for politics.