The Panoptiblog

Apparently, last week Arkansas State Senator* Kim Hendren (R) referred to New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D) as “that Jew” during a meeting of the Pulaski County GOP. The meeting did not go well for Hendren overall. Among the lowlights was this, quoted from conservative blogger Jason Tolbert:

Hendren told me, “At the meeting I was attempting to explain that unlike Sen. Schumer, I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’ 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.”

No, Senator. No, no, no, no, no. You should not have put it that way because you accidentally revealed your casual anti-Semitism. And while this did in fact take away from what you were trying to say, that was collateral damage.

Or at least it should have been. While the Arkansas Times blogger did have some tepid criticism of Sen. Hendren, I can find very little else about it. Accounts of the evening’s meeting had no mention of it. In fact, had he not given that sorta-kinda-explanation, it may not have come out at all.

What other group in America could be referred to this way without the speaker being publicly excoriated? If a U.S. Senator were referred to as “that Muslim,” “that black woman” or whatever ethno-religious “othering” you want to fill in that blank, it would’ve led cable news. There’s no excuse, no apology that would cover this, and yet no outrage.

UPDATE: I should’ve credited Politico’s Ben Smith, whose blog post alerted me to this in the first place. Since then, Salon.com, DailyKos, and HuffPo have all commented on this. The only question now is whether Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow get to it first.

* Correction: I originally wrote that Hendren was an Arkansas Senator, as in, U.S. Senator. He is, in fact, a state senator. My error did not take away from what I was trying to say, but I apologize nonetheless.