Arkansas candidate calls Schumer ‘that Jew’ (UPDATED)
A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Arkansas referred to Sen. Charles Schumer as "that Jew."
According to Politico, Arkansas state senator Kim Hendren used those words to refer to Schumer during a speech with Pulaski County Republican County activists.
He then told an Arkansas Republican blog that he misspoke, that he modeled his political beliefs after an almost 50-year-old television show and said to not be surprised if he said other dumb things during the campaign. From the Tolbert Report:
At the meeting, Hendren addressed the comments that Sen. Schumer made shortly before last week’s meeting. Sen. Schumer, appearing on MSNBC’s Rachael Maddow Show, said “The hard right, which still believes that when the Federal Government moves, we chop off its hands, still believes in the traditional values kind of arguments, in strong foreign policy, all that is over.”
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."
He also said to expect plenty of verbal gaffes in his campaign. “I don’t use a teleprompter and occasionally I put my foot in my month,” Hendren told Tolbert. “I will no doubt stick my foot in my mouth many times in the process but this is who I am.”
Politico reports that Hendren "is the only Republican currently in the race" against Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln, "though state senator Gilbert Baker and former US Attorney Tim Griffin are also mulling campaigns."
UPDATE:Schumer told the New York Daily News, "Apology accepted."
SECOND UPDATE: The Arkansas News talked to Hendren about the incident and Hendren might want to just stop talking:
He said he remembered saying “the Jew” or “that Jew,” and didn’t know why in the world it came out, but that he did go on seconds later to say there was a Jewish person he did admire, and that would be Jesus. And then he told me that, for that matter, he rather liked Joe Lieberman.
Share
Facebook
9 Comments
Comments RSS Feed Reader Comments
Amazing, with all the Jewish Nobel Prize winners, artists, scholars, inventors, politicians, humanitarians, etc, all he can come up with are two Jews, one of whom has been dead for thousands of years.
Who does he represent anyway?
I don’t know about “the good reverend” referred to by Larry Ramer above & his suggestion that , “ Israel is hell on Earth.”
What is painfully obvious to any outside observer, certainly to any visitor & most definitely to any neighbour of the racist state of Israel, is that the BEHAVIOUR of the racist state of Israel
creates a “hell on Earth” for many many innocent people : decade after decade after decade after decade, And that is ONLY since 1967 
I’m sure he’s been called worse. It might be worthy of attention if he lumped “that Jew” in with all the liberal Jews who truly don’t respect or uphold the values The Andy Griffith Show because that would be attention such Hellenists don’t want.
While I hate to seem disengaged, Mr. Hendren got it right when he referred to Senator Schumer as a Jew. It is my observation that Schumer represents the worst of what it means to be a Jew. I believe being Jewish is a full time occupation and it is not something that is done as an afterthought (as demonstrated by Schumer daily) or an additional layer on whatever else we are or do. As a matter of act, many Jews in America don’t like the word ‘Jewish’ as in ‘Are you Jewish’ preferring rather than ‘Are you a Jew?’ But therein lies the difference. ‘Jew is a noun implying what we basically really are; ‘Jewish’ is an adjective that can be changed by deleting it (as Schumer does much like red hair which can be dyed and changed). Schumer has chosen to be a good democrat, he has also chosen not to be Jewish in both words and deeds.
The White House or State Department could clear all this up with one clarifying statement. The fact that they refuse to do so makes me think there is at least some blackmail of Israel by the Administration involved. Also I understand the public statements by Clinton and Nat’l Security Advisor Jones to mean “We’re not going to be able to really help you with Iran, Israel, unless you play ball with the Palestinians.” How do you understand those statements, Ami?
To David Hicks (is this a joke or something?): The only racists in the MidEast are the ARABS. Just look at their textbooks, citizenship requirements, dhimmi taxes. Unless you are a Moslem, Mr. Hick, you could not live in most ARAB countries. let alone be a citizen. Of course, as a good Christian you could try and live in Lebanon, Bethlehem, or Egypt. That is, until you were targeted by Hizbollah, Hamas, or the Moslem Brotherhood. The only country in the MidEast with a growing Christian population is Israel. How’s that for racisim?
No joke at all Mr. Warren. Certainly no joke for the millions of people- Palestinians {without an inverted comma around the word as is often the case on this site} - who have lived decade after decade under the brutal Occupation of the Israeeli ‘Defense Forces. Certainly Hizbollah etc. are a fact of life & a threat to the security of Israel: they happen also, historically, to have arisen as a direct consequence of this brutal Occupation. Or do you think such forces just arose to eliminate Jews ?? Get real Mr. W
Leave a Comment
To leave a comment, you must first be logged in to JTA. If you are not registered, please click here.
Already a JTA member?
Need to know? Get JTA's free e-newsletters!
Larry Ramer
05/15/09 07:13 PM
Pretty bad, but definitely not as bad as some comments made by Dem luminary Al Sharpton, who, for example, called Jews “interlopers” at a building in New York the day before it was burnt down in an arson attack, killing several people. The good reverend (and friend and advisor to the pres and sec of state) also suggested that Israel is hell on Earth.