conservatives are very sensitive about that relationship...
...(whether it exists or not). They go on about it like it is part of some plot to discredit conservatives, yet it is something we all learned in school (for me it was in the 60s). That there is a continuum of political thought with communism at one extreme and fascism at the other. And that common political movements are placed between those extremes, with liberal politics over on the left side and conservative over on the right (towards the dreaded naziism extreme). It was just a throw-away line.
It's funny how Tom thinks it is quite normal to refer to Democrats as secretly trying to... well, you know the rap, by now. And we mostly accept the abuse with tolerance.