Yes, the Democratic primary has entered its manic and ugly phase. Yes, I’d dearly love to see Bernie show some sign he truly cares about getting either Democrat into the White House before any other ambition. And damn-straight I’m ready to just make it all stop.
But it could be worse. We could have to face this from one of our own candidates:
“It’s a wonderful, wonderful holiday for our friends in the Jewish community – the Passover,” Kasich told reporters after emerging from the matzah bakery, a box of the fresh-baked stuff in hand.
Yes, Jews are known to love The Passover, almost as much they love The Pre-Election Drop-By from vote-seeking politicians.
…Kasich then launched into a brief appraisal of the links between Passover and, um, the blood of Jesus Christ.
“The great link between the blood that was put above the lampposts” – er, you mean doorposts, governor — “the blood of the lamb, because Jesus Christ is known as the lamb of God. It’s his blood, we believe …” [forwarded by a valued BJ reader]
Putz doesn’t even begin to describe the schmendrick who would say such a thing. Putz is too grand a word, to expansive. Kasich is a schmeckel, a schtickl, a petseleh, someone of so little use as to be barely worth noticing.
But oy gevalt, is this dumb! I got two words for Kasich’s advance team: blood libel. There’s no bottom to the evil that comes from associating Jewish rituals with the blood of Jesus — and no limit to the stupid it takes to wander into such a thicket. Ignorance is a pathetic excuse — to the point of being disqualifying (at least for any Jewish voter I know) in a would-be president.
It gets better, which is to say not so much worse as more bathetic. Before hitting the matzoh bakery, Kasich tried to hang with some yeshiva bochers at a bookstore who told him that they were studying Talmud, specifically, the laws of the Sabbath. Kasich’s comeback?
“You know who I like?” Kasich finally said. “Joseph. You guys like Joseph?”
Yeah, John. Just like we enjoy the top ten commandments.
It is to laugh. And to mutter a little blessing:
Thank the FSM this guy is their problem, not ours.
Image: Thomas Shields, A Fool’s Fool, c. 1887.
zzyzx
The Joseph thing is really what left me shaking my head. It’s the equivalent of me going into a Christian bible study and saying, “So I heard that this Jesus guy talked about turning the other cheek. Have you heard that?”
boatboy_srq
My fears that Kasich can be presented as the reasonable, acceptable “moderate” Republican have abated considerably thanks to this
failfestevent.Mnemosyne
I have to assume he means Joseph of the Technicolor Dreamcoat, because my Catholic brain immediately went to Jesus’s stepdad Joseph.
Poopyman
Which Joseph? The one with the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? That dude could sing.
ETA: Doh! (Mnem!)
chopper
oy gotenyu what a shmuck.
boatboy_srq
@zzyzx: For me it was the “lampposts”. I mean, the same tale is in Exodus FFS.
Soylent Green
Oy vey iz mir.
chopper
coulda been worse. he coulda been all “i hear you guys like money. is that true, do you like money?”
dedc79
I’m only surprised Kasich didn’t ask them how they decorate their Christmas trees.
LAO
My first law boss (he is now 78 years old) was a Jewish kid from Brooklyn who attended the Ohio State in the 50s — class of 1960. He said it was a strange experience because he was, for some of his classmates, the first Jew they had met. Someone even asked to see his horns.
That’s what this reminds me of.
dr. bloor
Governor Five Cents
Miss Bianca
I had heard the Kasich drive-by was bad, but I had no idea it was *this* bad.
“Have I mentioned that we LOVE you people? Say, are you looking forward to the rapture as much as we are? I mean, too bad about Jerusalem, but how about those Cubs!”
Germy
“Yeah, we killed Christ, the Jews killed him,” said Lenny Bruce. “And if he comes back, we’ll kill him again!”
chopper
@boatboy_srq:
♪ ♫ Hello lamppost, how’s it goin’, I’m here to watch your lamb’s blood flowin’ ♬
Mnemosyne
If anyone is ever in search of an entertaining Yiddish/American Jewish phrase book, track down a copy of Every Goy’s Guide to Common Jewish Expressions. His explanation of “shpilkes” alone is worth the price of the book.
(It’s not just Yiddish, which is why phrases like “from that you make a living?” are included.)
Miss Bianca
@chopper: Oh, God, that is bad. I mean…baaaaaaad.
aimai
@zzyzx: Actually, now that you mention it, I think this might be a good idea.
Linnaeus
I’d like to think that this would harm his chances with any voter not already inclined to vote for his opponent, but I doubt it will.
MomSense
Is this real life?
Lizzy L
Head/desk.
Yeah, I’m going with shmuck.
kindness
I know Jewish people live in Ohio. How can he be so ignorant?
Who saw Bernie on Larry Wilmore’s show last night? You know, I like Bernie but I don’t get how he could be such a mensch. Bernie said he could get his programs through a Republican Congress because of his winning mandate. Oy Vey! Where to start? Look at how Republicans treated Bill Clinton’s mandate. Look how they’ve treated Obama’s. In 2000, Dubya received 2,000,000 fewer votes than Al Gore and Republicans called that a mandate.
Bernie. I agree with many of your wishes but wishes ain’t going to bring home the bacon. Way too much magical thinking and hand waving going on in Bernie’s mind. Me thinks his ego is getting the best of him and he’s surrounding himself with true believers.
I’m voting for Hillary in the CA primary. I hope Bernie tells his worst supporters to vote for the winner of the nomination. The crap I’m reading on FB is killing me.
aimai
@Mnemosyne: For people who love language and philosophy I would also like to recommend a surprisingly brilliant book Born to Kvetch. It is an absolutely wonderful book and it explains, in a very lively way, just why so much Yiddish and American Jewish expressions are backwards or negative in structure and feeling. There’s so much in here I can’t even begin to scratch the surface but Wax, the author, is an absolute genius. Its a great book.
evap
Reminds me of a story my dad used to tell. He grew up in Alabama and was the first in his family to go to college — he went to the University of Chicago on the GI bill. At his going-away party, an uncle drew his aside and told him that he had to be careful in Chicago because there are a lot of Jews there. And the problem, said his uncle, is that you can’t tell them from anybody else! Mind you, this was 1946…
Phylllis
Old Testament, New Testament, what’s the diff, right?
gf120581
@kindness: Bernie’s legislative plan seems to be along the lines of getting a bunch of people to demonstrate outside Mitch MvConnell’s window.
I guess the possibility of Mitch closing his window and ignoring them never crossd his mind.
RSA
Which makes it kind of strange how roast lamb is a traditional Easter dinner. Okay, sacrifice and all, but odd, right?
Betty Cracker
Always wondered about all those lamp posts in the ancient hieroglyphics. It all makes sense now.
LAO
@aimai: seconded.
Emma
Someone mentioned this little kerfuffle in the comments last night — only in passing, mind you, and only the Joseph part — and I was just… I’m trying to think of a way to put it. Is there a word in any language that combines gobsmacked and exhilarated? Because I couldn’t believe the man was such a moron but at the same time was watching his presidential hopes flush down the toilet.
Betty Cracker
@RSA: Nothing at all weird about butter lambs, though!
Timurid
Now that is Felony Bigfooting…
“Sure, your weird Jewy holiday is kind of OK… but let’s talk about MY religion.”
gratuitous
Jesus jumped-up Christ on a trailer hitch. Kasich is so dumb, he doesn’t have an inkling about how dumb he is. It’s a low bar, but I guess his actual comments weren’t any worse than, “Hey, do any of you guys know Jerry Lewis? Funny man, huh?”
dedc79
@aimai: I have a copy of that book on my bookshelf that I’ve never opened. You’ve convinced me to take a look at it tonight.
Tom Levenson
@aimai: Just bought. Thanks. Got the Kindle edition, which is how I mostly roll these days, but the cover photo on the dead-tree version is worth the price all on its own.
Ohio Mom
I saw the video of Kasich with the yeshiva bochers at the bookstore on another site. I despise Kasich but still, it was painful to watch him make an utter fool of himself.
But no worries, everyone he spoke to today is a reliable Republican voter and would vote for John if his dream comes true of finally having his genius recognized and being given the leadership role he deserves (just like Joseph!).
Miss Bianca
@evap: I remember my mother telling me that she had quit one of her first jobs in high dudgeon – this probably would have been in the early 40s – at a shoe store because the owner, who was Jewish, allegedly thought that she was too, and made the miscalculation of telling her so! It blew my mind – I just *could not believe* she would have taken offense at it! That was before I fully grokked how ragingly anti-Semitic WASP culture was at the time.
gogol's wife
@kindness:
Do you really mean mensch?
gene108
@chopper:
At least he didn’t go on about who murdered Jesus…that’d be worse…
SiubhanDuinne
@aimai:
One of my favourite books! Glad to be reminded of it, thanks.
burnspbesq
No offense intended to Kay or any other Ohioan here, but how in heaven’s name did your lot see fit to elect this clown to office.
Booger
Hey, but have you heard the one about the two corinthians?
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
I’ll have to add that to my reading list — it sounds like it’s right up my alley. I’m not Jewish myself, but I grew up in a majority-Jewish town and have Jewish family members, so I’m interested on an anthropological level.
Roger Moore
@kindness:
Which is fine, because it wouldn’t be kosher anyway.
Calouste
@gogol’s wife: I think she meant klutz.
lollipopguild
Why yes Gov. Dumbass, Joseph is the guy who told the folks in Egypt to store their grain in the pyramids.
indycat32
I know next to nothing about the Jewish religion, but it seems I know more than Kasich. And although I haven’t been inside a church or touched a bible in over 50 years I know it’s Second Corinthians, not 2 Corinthians.
Miss Bianca
@aimai: Looks very cool…I think you’ve just set off a group read!
lollipopguild
@Booger: Two corinthians walk into a bar?
Mustang Bobby
What a shande.
Mnemosyne
@indycat32:
I think people who watched The Ten Commandments Easter weekend know more about Judaism than Kasich. The depth of Republican ignorance still astounds me sometimes.
gene108
@Booger:
Yeah, they walk into a bar. The first orders H2O, the second says, “hey, I’ll have some H2O too”, takes a gulp and dies.*
* I know it’s usually about chemists, but a classic is a classic.
tarragon
@burnspbesq:
My Jewish family in Ohio openly call him a moron. I’m guessing he did it without their support.
aimai
@Tom Levenson: You will love it,Tom! Its right up your alley.
patroclus
This seems like a scene from a Woody Allen movie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I haven’t seen any recent numbers, but for a while he had an approval rating north of 60%, I believe
MattF
Kasich’s ignorance and anxiety here raise some… um… let’s say ‘amber’ flags. I mean, Ohio’s a big state, right?
kindness
@Roger Moore: I grew up in Tarrytown. Westchester County. About 1/3 of my friends were Jewish and just about all of them ate bacon.
redshirt
Yeah, yeah, where’s your Moses now, see?
raven
@patroclus: Life seems like scenes from Woody Allen movies.
Mnemosyne
@redshirt:
Fun fact: not only was Edward G. Robinson Jewish, he got his acting start in Yiddish-language theater in New York.
evodevo
@Miss Bianca: Yes. This. I’m just surprised he didn’t wander further into the thicket and talk about how important it is to preserve Jerusalem because the Mt.of Olives is where Jeebus will return before?/after? Armageddon, etc. etc. Your average Xtian knows almost NOTHING about his own religion, not to mention the one that birthed it LOL. Talk about tone deaf.
Iowa Old Lady
@kindness: My husband once broke the news to his Jewish roommate that Canadian bacon really was bacon. The guy was crushed.
raven
@Mnemosyne: He doesn’t look too good in Trumbo.
redshirt
@Mnemosyne: Glad you got the reference! Wasn’t sure it’d translate via text.
I also think I’m doing a SNL version of Edward G Robinson, maybe via the Simpsons. Not sure.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
I didn’t see “Trumbo,” but I’m a little surprised. Of course, the one clip I did see had Trumbo going ballistic because they interrupted his writing for his daughter’s 16th birthday, so I’m not sure Trumbo was that great a guy.
lowercase steve
@RSA:
Considering that the Eucharist is symbolically (or to Catholics literally) the body of Christ and at the last super Jesus says, “take this, my body, and eat it,” I think it is entirely appropriate symbolically.
And some Christians do make the analogy between Passover and Jesus’s death…the blood above the doorpost marked the believers and spared them from death and so to does acceptance of Jesus’s sacrificial blood save them from eternal death or hell depending on the version.
But yeah…Blood Libel…never wise to go there.
Punchy
“Hey, you two with the curly things in your hair and the half-shell on your head….wanna come join me for a cheesy pork sandwich and a huge glass of skim milk?”
kdaug
@Betty Cracker: yeah. Argon, daughter of Zeus? Or was that Tungsten?
lowercase steve
@kindness:
Mensch literally means “man” but is “a person of integrity and honor.” Generally “that guy is a real mensch” is a compliment!
Iowa Old Lady
OT, but I just got a different kind of phone call from Mr IOL’s workplace. He’s out of town and this was a robocall saying it was a test of their emergency notification system. I know universities are doing that now for events like active shooters, but I’d never heard of it from a company.
jl
Lamp posts?
Kasich should have personalized the Old Testament celeb to talk up to be relevant to his own campaign. I would have gone with Jacob, or Ahab.
Kasich probably did the clumsy interfaith reach out (or around?) to gussy favor with the Xtianists, who think he is a real, non-fake, moderate, and therefore of the devil.
JaneE
In all fairness, Kasich probably does know less than nothing about Jews or Judaism. His briefers need to get better information before they send him out on a photo op.
? Martin
@burnspbesq:
Answered by LAO at 10:
Those wholesome heartland values resonate.
Gin & Tonic
@Punchy: The (possibly apocryphal?) John Lindsay story, eh?
kdaug
@jl Don’t sell them short. They can see the sodium arc light of liberty in his eyes.
eclare
@Mnemosyne: Same here!
Frankensteinbeck
Wow, that… that’s bad. It could have been worse. He could have gone for the actual blood libel. That’s… the only way I can think of it being worse. Even jokes about greed wouldn’t have been worse. I was raised Jewish, and this patronizing ‘Your religion is an inferior version of ours’ shit is offensive as Hell and Jews are all too familiar with it.
I have also lived in an ultra-orthodox village and have family there. They (the rest of the ultra-orthodox there, not my family) loathe ‘Obama Bin Ladin’ and whether a politician agrees that the only way to save Israel is to kill all Muslims and Arabs everywhere is high on their political priority list. This has been a painful election for them, because Trump scares them shitless. It doesn’t matter how hostile he is to Muslims. They read ‘Hitler’ all over him and are sure the Jews will be next. Cruz is only barely better. And now this?
Chris
Remember Rand Paul wandering into a black university and blowing people’s minds with the revelation that black people used to vote Republican? They never learn.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
Okay, I just looked at the trivia on IMDb — Edward G Robinson never named names despite it being shown in the movie. The trivia even says so. WTF? I know you can’t slander the dead, but seriously WTF?
low-tech cyclist
And here I’d been under the impression that Kasich had a few working brain cells in his head. So much for that idea. As a Christian, I felt really, really embarrassed by this jackass.
If the GOP had a clue, they’d simply not run anyone for President this year. Their down-ballot candidates would likely do better without an albatross at the top of the ticket.
kindness
@Iowa Old Lady: I’m so thankful I had that upbringing. There is a whole bunch of Jewish food I love that did not get served in my very WASPy home. Never liked Gefilte fish though. The breaded coating was always so gloppy I didn’t like the texture.
raven
@Mnemosyne: I think it’s pretty good but he did become crazy obsessed with writing in order to make some dough. Robinson in portrayed as a lefty who turned to save himself.
Miss Bianca
@jl: You know who *else* shed blood on lamp-posts…
Shana
@kindness: There’s no breaded coating on gefilte fish that I’ve ever had. What were you eating?
Heliopause
Well, yes, it’s pretty dumb for a politician to go there.
On the other hand, I’ve got bad news for you. It’s simply a fact that core Christian doctrines, including the sacrifice of Jesus, are associated with Jewish rituals. If that’s evil then so be it, but your beef is with Christianity writ large, not with Kasich, who correctly (though clumsily and inadvisably) articulated the common Christian interpretation of the Gospels.
Turgidson
@gf120581:
McConnell and the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver wouldn’t just ignore a bunch of millenials and hipsters protesting outside their offices; they’d consider resisting them to be a noble badge of honor and fundraise off of their “brave” resistance.
The “what if Bernie won?” question would make me pretty nervous, if he was actually on track to win the nomination, which he’s not, no matter how many times the BernieBros claim otherwise. What happens when he demands that Congress pass a bill guaranteeing free college, or single payer, or breaking up the big banks, and they inevitably tell him to go pound sand (particularly if the GOP is still in control of one or both houses as is likely)? Does anyone really think Bernie’s millenial enthusiasts actually would flock to Washington DC in the tens of thousands and set up camp at Paul Ryan’s doorstep demanding action? And even if they did, why would he give a shit? And when Bernie almost inevitably fails to deliver the unicorns he’s promising, does that cohort keep fighting for and with him, or do they go home and pout and lose interest in voting? The experience of the Obama years makes me cynical about the power of Bernie’s “revolution” to change jack squat, even if they do win, and even if they do as Bernie suggests they would and protest en masse outside the capitol building.
In spite of all the unpleasantness, I still like Bernie and think he would almost undoubtedly be a better benevolent dictator than Hillary would. But his campaign at this point is sort of like what might happen if a popular liberal blogger ran for president and somehow caught fire. A well-intentioned mess.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
Yeah, it was … not that simple. Did they at least show that it was Robinson’s 4th time in front of Congress and that Trumbo was already in jail?
It also seems weird that they chose to excoriate the Jewish guy who loaned Trumbo money and not the numerous Gentiles who did direct harm, but anyway …
Sad_Dem
@RSA: Not to mention that communion is ritual cannibalism?
NotMax
@Shana
*light bulb illuminates over head*
That’s what has been missing from every state and county fair in the land – the deep-fried gefilte fish stand!
;)
@kindness
No breading at Passover time, as coating or otherwise. (Matzo meal wouldn’t work, either.)
Sad_Dem
We shouldn’t be so hard on John with those gotcha quotes of dumb things he said. After all, when he’s saying at hotels, he tips the Hispanic maids because they work so hard. He said so!
Mnemosyne
@Heliopause:
It’s a little offensive to say it to actual Jewish people, though. Hey, let’s talk about all of the stuff we swiped from your religion so we could put our own spin on it!
Turgidson
@Chris:
The media thought Rand “Drone Striking a Convenience Store Robber to Death Is Fine” Paul was so brave and interesting when he did that, too.
Tom Levenson
@Heliopause: Yes. Amazingly enough, I’ve had some exposure to Christian doctrine (and, FWIW, have filmed inside the Vatican on more than one occasion…which I guess is not worth very much). The association of Christian belief and events within the Gospels with Jewish ritual and practice is well known to most Jews. The problem here is the association of a reference of the blood of Christ to the Passover ritual at a matzoh bakery. The blood libel accuses Jews of sacrificing Christian children to use their blood in the baking of matzoh — and nothing ever good came of that association. If you didn’t know that, and hence the cringe (or worse) that comes from Kasich’s bumbling Christ-splaining, now you do.
Cermet
Hey, he could have said something like “You know, I’m circumcised, too; bro.”
Heliopause
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, which is why Kasich, as a politician, should have avoided the subject of particular doctrines altogether. But at the same time I find interesting the attempts to paint episodes like this as the failings of an individual, when in fact what he articulated Is core doctrine of the country’s most popular religion.
lollipopguild
@Cermet: At that point the proper response would have been “Prove it”
Barney
Of course he likes Joseph. Joseph was the guy who took advantage of a starving populace to force them to hand over all their goods to the Pharaoh, so that they and their families were serfs for ever more. Fred Clark explains it well: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/03/13/jesus-is-not-like-joseph-god-is-not-like-pharaoh/
KS in MA
@Booger: LOL!
Heliopause
@Tom Levenson:
Yes, I understand all that and am more than happy, speaking for myself, to leave those doctrinal issues entirely out of polite conversation. But just to make clear, this isn’t simply a matter of a bumbling GOP politician expounding an evil which knows “no bottom,” it’s a core doctrine of hundreds of millions of your fellow citizens. It’s point and laugh to some extent, I suppose, but it’s also something that’s always right there just below the surface.
Mnemosyne
@Heliopause:
Well, if I remember my CCD classes correctly, the core doctrine is, “New, Improved Judaism.” Which is why it’s weird and rude for Kasich to say it out loud to actual Jewish people. It’s like saying to a black audience you really like Pat Boone’s version of “Tutti-Frutti” and thinking that it gives you a point of connection with them.
Miss Bianca
@Heliopause: I guess I have to say that *any thinking Christian* – with the accent on the “thinking” – ought to know enough history to realize that this reference would be…problematic.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
And, as Tom said, bringing up Passover and blood at a matzoh factory is particularly tone-deaf. In one of the Anne of Green Gables book, they refer to a tactless undertaker as “someone who’s always talking about ropes in a house where someone hanged themselves.” Kasich is the same kind of guy.
JustRuss
Man, so much election left to go. Time to invest in face-palm futures.
RSA
@Betty Cracker: Weird and wonderful, I’d say.
@lowercase steve, @Sad_Dem: Yes, I agree that the symbolism is there. I’d have to guess (having been raised Catholic and knowing a lot of Catholics) that a lot of it goes unrecognized.
WaterGirl
@Punchy: Most of the comments on this thread have been great, but I snorted when I read yours. I guess you should be flattered? :-)
Mnemosyne
@RSA:
The biggest fight during the Reformation was over transubstantiation — that is, whether or not the communion wafer is literally transformed into the body of Christ or only symbolically. You may be surprised to hear (as I was) that the Catholic Church is on the “literal” side and Catholic communion is cannibalism. But they seem to have kind of downplayed that detail post-Vatican II.
debbie
Before it was explained to me, I thought blood libel was the murder of Christ by Jews. When I heard what it actually was, I was really pissed, I’m still trying to figure out how anyone could believe in blood libel. If they’d looked at a sheet of matzoh, they’d know that pasty white color couldn’t possibly have any blood in it.
hellslittlestangel
Molotov, Mr Kasich, Molotov.
Jack
@MomSense: or is this fantasy?
J R in WV
@Heliopause:
Kasich’s interpretation in New York City of the Christian Gospels is heretical, as far as I know, and so is yours. But there are lots of different generically christian sects, and many of them disagree violently about the interpretation of the message of the scriptures.
BruceJ
@Jack:
“Caught in a landslide….of republican stupidity…”