Oh, no, no, no! John Nichols is not the sort of person who would compare Scott Walker to Stalin.

Here's a priceless chunk of bullshit:

Joseph Stalin is reputed to have suggested that it did not matter who cast the votes. What matters is who counts the votes. I don’t have a taste for comparing Gov. Scott Walker with the Soviet strongman. But when it comes to managing elections, Walker is giving his harshest critics ample encouragement to make the comparison.

So... it's not that Nichols is the type who'd say somebody is like Stalin, it's that Scott Walker is just so terribly much like Stalin that he's forced to overcome his reticence and observe that some other people are probably going to be forced to compare him to Stalin.