REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS BOTH TALK ABOUT JEWS MAKING MONEY - STILL NOT THE SAME THING

We have to admit we jumped a little when we read the headline Republican presidential hopeful Thompson: Money-making part of Jewish tradition. But turns out it's Tommy Thompson, not Fred Thompson. Also it turns out that there's nothing to see here:

Speaking to an audience at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington D.C., Thompson said that, "I'm in the private sector and for the first time in my life I'm earning money. You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that." Thompson later apologized for the comments that had caused a stir in the audience, saying that he had meant it as a compliment, and had only wanted to highlight the "accomplishments" of the Jewish religion.

He was talking about Jews have succeeded in America's private sector. That's just a tiny bit more problematic than complimenting Jews on having succeeded in establishing a presence in America's upper education system. Yes, it's a trope used by anti-Semites. But no it's not something that's so odious that it's rhetorically off-limits. If we were his speech writers we would have been a little more careful with the wording - and we might have taken it out entirely because it's such a thorny issue. But what are people going to complain about? The soft bigotry of heightened expectation?

Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric...