Presidential candidate Tommy Thompson the other day pulled a Joseph Biden- or is it a Michael Ray Richardson? Thompson told a Jewish group that he's making money in the private sector, which is "sort of part of the Jewish tradition." (Strike One) Thompson attempted to apologize, stating that he did not mean to "infer or imply anything about Jews and finances and things." (Strike Two) Then Thompson tried to apologize again, sharing that as governor of Wisconsin he had purchased Israel bonds and supported the Anti-Defamation League- but in Little Carmine-like malapropisms, referred to them respectively as "Jewish Bonds" and the "Jewish Defense League." (Strike Three, candidate's out.)
Is Thompson an anti-Semite? I'm sure he's not. He's just tone-deaf as hell, and probably had no business whatsoever running for president even before this happened. And come on- he served in the Bush Administration! Didn't Wolfowitz, Feith, and the rest of the Jewish conspiracy teach him all the correct Jewish terminology?
(Warren Beatty, by the way, foresaw all this a decade ago in "Bulworth.")
Posted by Stephen Silver at April 17, 2007 05:48 PM