So as you may recall, Arkansas State Sen. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette, yesterday was forced to apologize for calling Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “that Jew” during a colloquy in which Hendren was explaining how he was in favor of returning America to a 1950s-era morality. Why he apologized is unclear to me; it seems to me Hendren has a great understanding of how America used to function.
At any rate, Hendren has felt the need to expand on that apology, to let people know that just because he gave every evidence that he’s an anti-Semitic bigot, he’s totally not. Why, some of his best friends are Jews!
Defending himself again to the Arkansas News, Hendren went further, saying he didn’t know why the words “that Jew” came out of his mouth. He added that there is a Jewish person in history he admires — Jesus. He’s also partial to Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.
That’s right — Jesus and Joe Lieberman! Of course, Lieberman’s going to hell, but he’s pro-torture, so that’s okay. And nothing says Judaism like Jesus Christ!
Somehow, I don’t think Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., is going to have to worry too much about Hendren’s planned 2010 challenge.
Somehow, I don’t think Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., is going to have to worry too much about Hendren’s planned 2010 challenge.
Because Arkansans are such philo-Semites? Or because you think this was not an isolated outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease?
Also, I’m so totally sure that this guy refers to Jesus as “that Jew” on a regular basis.
Nah, but that’s his standard appellation for Lieberman so it still excuses him from accusations of anti-semitism.
What I love is that he just keeps ‘explaining’, and his explanations are worse than the original statement!
“Hey, I didn’t mean nothin’ by calling Schumer, ‘that Jew.’ I was just trying to explain to people that he doesn’t have traditional values like me. You know what I mean. He’s not one of us. He’s weird. Nontraditional. Because he’s a Jew. You know what I mean.”
YES WE KNOW.
PLEASE STOP EXPLAINING.
YOU’RE MAKING IT WORSE.
Fuck, man. It’s like an SNL sketch.
—Myca
It’s like an SNL sketch.
Thanks to Jake Squid’s comment in the earlier thread, I have this mashup of the opening sequence to That Girl with Chuck Schumer skipping spryly through New York City like Marlo Thomas playing in my head. Sadly, I do not have the skills to make this a reality.
YES WE KNOW.
PLEASE STOP EXPLAINING.
YOU’RE MAKING IT WORSE.
Like I said before; once you’ve jammed your foot in your mouth, don’t open it just to jam the other one in ….
I read the Arkansas News article, and it turns out the Political Animal blog actually was pretty merciful in what it excerpted:
Because Arkansans are such philo-Semites? Or because you think this was not an isolated outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease?
Very much the latter; I think all available evidence has proven my theory so far. :D
“I believe in those traditional values like Andy Griffith, Aunt Bea, Barney and Opie…”
This dude’s head will really explode when someone tells him that Andy and Opie made a commercial for Barack Obama.
Speaking of continuing to dig long after you should put the shovel down, here’s a columnist in a local, uh, it used to be a newspaper and now it’s just this kind of odd on-line venture, but anyway, this local thing, trying to explain what she really meant when she referred to a grafitti-tagged school bus as a “sheeny wagon.”
For the record, I pretty much believe her. It’s just so head-desky.
Now I feel dumb … I’d always thought sheeny was a slur against Irish people. It seems kind of hilarious to think of someone trying to bash an Irishman and saying, “You dumb Papist sheeny!” and the guy looking back at him like “Huh?”
Don’t feel dumb. It’s pretty damn old. The person who told me about this actually said, “You’re too young to know what a sheeny is,” and I said, “I know what a sheeny is …” and then I doubted myself and turned my answer into a question of “It’s a Jew, right?” I’ve never in my life actually heard it deployed.
That’s why I believe her. I suspect the adults who said it when she was a kid knew what a sheeny was, but I can believe she didn’t know.
We’re actually laughing our asses off about it at work. This woman has a history of writing things that are pretty dumb and/or weird, so this just took the cake. If you click the link, make sure to look to the right and see her drawing of a sheeny wagon, conveniently sans sheeny.
Update: In a bizarro-land convergence of Irish and Jewish sheeny-dom, a commenter on the piece appears to blame the Jews for the Irish Potato Famine. Aaaargh!