Is That Legal?: Tommy Thompson's Joe Biden Moment

April 16, 2007

Tommy Thompson's Joe Biden Moment

WASHINGTON - Former Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson told Jewish activists Monday that making money is "part of the Jewish tradition," and something that he applauded.

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.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh defends Thompson's comments at length. I am not at all persuaded. I described Thompson's comments, as "unbelievable," and that's still how I see them. If a politician praised an NAACP audience for being such great dancers, or an Asian-American audience for being so good at math, it would be unbelievably stupid -- just as it was for Thompson to praise Jews for being good at making money.

Even if Eugene is correct that over the span of the last 1000 years, Jewish tradition has not explicitly valued poverty in the way that (some) Christian culture has at least presented itself as valuing poverty (while, it should be noted, accumulating wealth), Eugene misses the fact that the identification of Jews with wealth has been the source of centuries of anti-semitic resentment, hostility, and violence. Sure, it's at least theoretically possible that Tommy Thompson has somehow managed to create his own mental construct, utterly independent of centuries of prejudice and hatred, in which the supposed Jewish acumen in wealth-acquisition has connotations only of virtue and not of avarice. But I really doubt it.

If Tommy Thompson thinks it's OK to praise Jews for being good at making money to their faces, I am certainly left wondering what else Thompson might say or think about Jews when speaking to others, or in other contexts.

Posted by Eric at April 16, 2007 4:02 PM

Comments

Well, Eric I'm glad Thompson broke the ice for me. This is sort of awkward, but I was wondering if I could give you all my money because I've noticed you are much better with handling cash than I am.

It's in the big brown bag on your doorstep.

Posted by: john a at April 17, 2007 9:21 AM

Eric, I think the last sentence of your post pretty much sums things up!

Posted by: paul y at April 17, 2007 10:04 AM

Dunno, guys, I'm Jewish and live in NY (i.e. very Jewish) and Thompson's comment struck me more as tone-deaf than anti-Semitic. I just don't see any malice there, it's almost like he knows barely any Jews (well, other than the ones who give campaign contributions!) and had to think of something nice to say to his audience and picked up on something he once heard. I don't know that that is what happened, but it sure looks that way to me. I'm not aware of anything in Thompson's background, character or history that suggests he is any kind of bigot.

This is very, very far from "nappy-headed ho's."

Posted by: Stuart at April 17, 2007 5:03 PM

I believe the New York Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty has the final word on this:

http://metcouncil.brinkster.net/JewishPoverty.htm

"Jewish poverty - not an oxymoron"

Posted by: john A at April 17, 2007 8:10 PM

Volokh's point is logically sound (re positive stereotypes) but, as Mueller makes clear, totally divorced from historical context.

Posted by: jpe at April 23, 2007 9:30 PM

I think the reaction to his comment says a lot more about the listeners than about Mr. Thompson.

When you can't even accept straightforward praise for your culture or your religion at face value, because it brings up bad memories from past decades, you ought to find a counselor, rather than attacking the speaker.

Would you feel the same if Thompson had said, "Now that I'm out of the government, for the first time in my life I'm drawn to scholarship. You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that."

Posted by: Get Over It at April 26, 2007 4:47 PM