Freshman Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) is apologizing for calling President-elect Obama a “Marxist” and likening him to Adolf Hitler. “I regret putting it that way,” he said Tuesday on Augusta’s WGAC radio. “I apologize to anyone who has taken offense at that.”

Broun was referring to comments he made Monday in an Associated Press interview, during which he called Obama a “Marxist” and accused Obama of supporting policies in line with those of Hitler.

Reacting to a proposal by Obama to bolster the military with a civilian force, Broun told the AP: “That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did. When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”

The Georgia Republican added, “We can’t be lulled into complacency. You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I’m not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I’m saying is there is the potential.”

Broun now says he didn’t mean to call Obama a dictator.

“The point I tried to make is that he is extremely liberal. He has promoted a lot of socialistic ideas. And it just makes me concerned,” he said.

Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the Obama-Biden Transition Team, declined to comment Wednesday on Broun’s remarks. But he noted that a “number of influential Republicans,” including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, have endorsed the idea of having a civilian force play a role in post-Iraq War reconstruction efforts.