Durbin "Joke" Appears to be True

Oh, the wailing over Senator Dick Durbin's little joke at the ALPLM dedication Tuesday.

Here's what he said:

Judge Marovitz used to say that his mother believed that President Lincoln was Jewish. After all, his first name was Abraham, and then, to confirm it, she learned that John Wilkes Booth shot him in the temple.

I was among the first (for once) to comment on Durbin's faux pas. I the thought "shot in the temple" joke was a bit tacky for the dedication of Lincoln's presidential museum.

But here's the thing, the story Durbin told appears to be true:

The fourth son of Lithuanian immigrants, Marovitz was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. His mother chose his name, Abraham Lincoln, after attending a lecture about her adopted land. She heard about President Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves and was "shot in the temple." Marovitz explains, "She thought 'temple' meant synagogue. I don't think she ever was convinced that Lincoln wasn't a Jew."

What's really weird is a lot of right wingers are claiming Durbin's remarks were, of all things, anti-semitic. I'm not sure where they get that but I guess anything to tar a Democrat no matter how silly.

Other bloggers to weigh in thought the whole thing to be no big deal.

Eric Zorn says, yes it was tacky but not anti-semitic.

DownLeft, who was there, took no offense at all.

Predictably, talk radio was all abuzz about the incident. I didn't listen to any talk Wednesday, but I guess WMAY's Pamela Furr was quite upset (oh, those evil liberals!). Illini over at Democratic Underground posted this:

During his speech Senator Durbin told an old joke first coined by a judge named Abraham Lincoln (I forget the last name) something Jewish. The punchline of the joke is Lincoln was probably Jewish because "he was shot in the temple". OK, its bad joke that was funny when I was 13. Its not particularly funny at a dedication. But, a local shrub loving hack talk show host Pamela Furr took offense to the joke. She sent out a clip to other hacks such as Hannity, Limbaugh, and in particular Lars the liar Larson. Larson pick up the clip and jumped all over it and asked the question of whether the "liberal media" will pick up on like the Trent Lott story.

The only thing more tacky than Durbin's joke is someone trying to further their careers by faking outrage over it. I'll be nicer to Pamela here than I want to be because I didn't hear what she had to say first hand. But if Illini is right, shame on her.