Tommy stumbles early

I understand that conventional wisdom is that Tommy Thompson's presidential campaign was over before it started, but I wonder if it will be formally ended by his remarks before the Religious Action of Reform Judaism. Perhaps he'll get lucky and the story will remain lost behind the Virginia Tech tragedy.

Tommy undoubtedly meant well when he said that earning money was "sort of part of the Jewish tradition" but the statement is uncomfortably close to the libel of Jews as greedy and rapacious. His apology made it worse. He was, he claimed, only referring to the "success of the Jewish religion."

While I have some Jewish ancestry, I am not an expert in the Jewish religion. But I know a bit and I do not remember the sacred admonition to get rich.

It's hard to care much about this in light of what happened yesterday in Blacksburg and perhaps Tommy is so far off the GOP radar screen that no one would have cared anyway. But this is A-ball politics and won't play in the Show.