"Tommy Thompson told Jewish activists Monday that making money is 'part of the Jewish tradition."

Oops!

(Thanks to Eric Muller for pointing this one out to me.)

Well, now, how bad is this one? It's not "nappy-headed hos" bad. It's not "macaca" bad. Of course, there's always the old "it's a compliment" excuse (which Don Imus could have used too). Thompson tries it, and earns the predictable mockery.

Eugene Volokh is likely to have the right take on this, I decide before reading what he has to say:

Actually, while earning money in the private sector is part of the tradition of most religions and ethnicities that have survived and thrived, valuing the earning of money in the private sector is, to my knowledge, more an aspect of "Jewish tradition" than of at least some other traditions.

Judaism, for instance, lacks the sense that poverty is virtuous, long ostensibly (and sometimes actually) present in Christianity. Jewish culture has also historically lacked the condemnation of mere commerce -- as opposed to military success, political power, or land ownership -- as dirty and grubby, perhaps partly because Jews were so often excluded from the military, politics, and land ownership....

Recent Jewish culture has included some other ideological forces that have devalued commercial success, chiefly Socialism, even non-Socialist social-welfarism, and, in some measure, the exaltation of intellectual pursuits over commercial ones. Today in America, it may actually be that Protestants on average endorse commerce as a worthy way of life more than Jews do....

So it's hard to see Thompson's comments as reflective either of actual anti-Semitism -- which is especially unlikely given that he was wooing a Jewish group -- or of the unreflective acceptance of pejorative or inaccurate anti-Semitic stereotypes. Thompson could have spoken more artfully....

Hmmm.... He's running for President. Isn't the ability to speak artfully part of the job description? (And I'm not saying you can't get the job without. Clearly you can.)