AMERICAN MUSLIMS CONDEMN BIGOTRY
A Republican Senate challenger in Arkansas called Sen. Chuck Schumer “that Jew” at a campaign event and has spent a week backtracking, apologizing, and digging himself in deeper.
This kind of bigotry must be condemned. The senator needs to apologize and promise never to say anything like that ever again. Inclusion is the hallmark of civil societies and we need to let the world know we are a civilized people and a civilized nation. As American Muslims, we condemn this bigotry.
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/05/kim-hendren-calls-chuck-schumer-that.html
Mike Ghouse
World Muslim Congress
Arkansas State Senator Kim Hendren calls Chuck Schumer ‘that Jew’
BY Michael Mcauliff
Schumer as ‘that Jew.’
Sen. Kim Hendren
WASHINGTON – A Republican Senate challenger in Arkansas called Sen. Chuck Schumer “that Jew” at a campaign event and has spent a week backtracking, apologizing, and digging himself in deeper.
Kim Hendren, now the minority leader of the Arkansas state Senate, dropped his J-bomb last week after he got mad that Schumer described conservative Republicans as “hard right” in a TV interview.
He almost got away with it, but conservative Arkansas blogger Jason Tolbert caught it, and called out Hendren, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln.
Hendren excused his remark by pointing to his reputation as a gaffe machine.
“I don’t use a Teleprompter, and occasionally I put my foot in my month,” he told Tolbert, then inserted it a little farther.
“I was attempting to explain that unlike Sen. Schumer, I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on ‘The Andy Griffith Show,'” Hendren said.
“I made the mistake of referring to Sen. Schumer as ‘that Jew’ and I should not have put it that way, as this took away from what I was trying to say.”
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.
“I ought not to have referred to it at all,” Hendren told The Associated Press Thursday. “When I referred to him as Jewish, it wasn’t because I don’t like Jewish people.”
Schumer declined to get involved with Hendren, taking his admission of idiocy at face value.
“Apology accepted,” the senator said.
Other Jewish Democrats were less forgiving.
“The most shocking thing here is that this guy thinks it’s privately okay to refer to Schumer as ‘that Jew,’ but has enough political sense to realize it probably isn’t the best thing to say publicly,” said Ira Forman, head of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
He noted that the GOP’s tent has been getting smaller lately, with just one Jewish Republican left in Congress.
Hendren didn’t get any love either from national Republicans Thursday.
“Comments like this are completely inappropriate and don’t have any place in public or private discourse,” said Brian Walsh, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which plays a vital role funding Senate candidates. “It’s right that he apologized to Sen. Schumer.”
mmcauliff@nydailynews.com
Read more: “Oy vey! Arkansas State Senator Kim Hendren calls Chuck Schumer ‘that Jew'” – http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/05/14/2009-05-14_oy_vey_arkansas_state_senator_kim_hendren.html#ixzz0FilgEJ3m&A