JustASC

The ADL is demanding an apology from Rush Limbaugh for these remarks:

Limbaugh told his listeners: “To some people, banker is a 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.”

[Media Matters has the clip from the January 20 edition of his show.]

What’s notable about Limbaugh’s remarks is that it appears he’s trying to be  sensitive to the Jews — you know, “Obama is going after the bankers, so that’s got to be bad for the Jews, since people think all Jews are bankers.”  For the logic to work, Jews would need to accept that the anti-Semites are right– we are a bunch of bankers. Its sort of like telling a woman that dogcatchers hate women because a lot of women are dogs. 

Limbaugh went here before, when he equated the Democrats and the Nazis because both “were opposed to Jewish capitalism.” Again, you have to accept the anti-Semitic premise to accept his logic.

Or he might have meant this: When Obama  talks about bankers, he really means Jews. I think Jews do a pretty good job of de-coding anti-Semitic talk on their own, without Limbaugh’s help. As far as I can tell, Limbaugh is the first to make the connection — which makes him more the purveyor than the whistle-blower.

It reminds me of one of my favorite bits from The Odd Couple. In a flashback during episode 77, Felix and Murray the Cop are in the army together. Murray is down in the dumps, and Felix asks if it’s because the men are making fun of Murray’s big nose. Murray says, “I didn’t know the men are making fun of my nose!” “They are,” says Felix. “I heard them. One said it looked like a two-car garage.”