Rush Limbaugh has some folks protest with his comments Wendesday about Jews, bankers and Obama. Here’s the partial transcript, from Media Matters:
LIMBAUGH: Scott Brown had a lot of success with independents, and that’s — that’s what Jewish liberals like to call themselves when they’re asked. They call themselves independents before they’ll refer to themselves as — as liberals. So if Jewish people who voted 78 percent for Obama — which is far higher than any other group except African-Americans — if Jewish people gave Obama 78 percent of their vote, what if they’re experiencing buyer’s remorse like all these people in Massachusetts did? Do you realize how important this could be? I don’t think there’s buyer’s remorse yet in the black community — that’s still pretty strong.
[…]
LIMBAUGH: To some people, "banker" is code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting? He’s assaulting bankers. He’s assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there’s — if there’s starting to be some buyer’s remorse there?
[UPDATE: It turns out that Media Matters initally failed to note that Limbaugh said it was "people who have prejudice" who equated Jews and bankers.]
Is Limbaugh perpetuating an anti-Jewish stereotype, defending Jews from Obama or both?
The ADL’s Abe Foxman has issued a condemnation:
Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with his borderline anti-Semitic comments about Jews as bankers, their supposed influence on Wall Street, and how they vote.
Limbaugh’s references to Jews and money in a discussion of Massachusetts politics were offensive and inappropriate. While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans. His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
When he comes to understand why his words were so offensive and unacceptable, Limbaugh should apologize.
UPDATE II: Rush defends himself. And Norman Podhoretz backs him up also.
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