Think Progress

Tommy Thompson gets testy.

By Nico Pitney on Apr 17th, 2007 at 8:14 pm

Tommy Thompson gets testy.»

“Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson said today that fatigue and a persistent cold were to blame for his comment yesterday to a group of Reform Jews that earning money is ‘part of the Jewish tradition.’ ‘I was tired, I made a mistake and I apologized,’ Thompson told a group of Politico reporters and editors in an interview. ‘Have you ever made a mistake?,’ a testy Thompson demanded of this reporter.”




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40 Responses to “Tommy Thompson gets testy.”

  1. Republicans are the fear and smear party Says:

    His biggest mistake is being Tommy Thompson.


  2. Namtillaku Says:

    Mistake = Freudian slip.


  3. Raven Says:

    He’s just mad ’cause he rehearsed so hard, and the id still slipped out………….


  4. ForTruth Says:

    ‘Have you ever made a mistake?,’

    That question should be deffered to the Commander in Chimpya, king codpeice.

    I am gonna miss using terms like “the chimp”, “chimpya”, “commander in chimp”, when he’s finally gone.


  5. mongo Says:

    “Have you ever made a mistake?”

    You mean, a mistake where I make a jewish joke in front of a jewish audience?

    No. I never have made a mistake like that.


  6. Marie Says:

    He is not s serious candidate. He is a distraction - a stupid one no less. The repugs have already lost in 2008, so they are calling this one in.


  7. null Says:

    maybe wes clark had a cold too?
    what about his other ignorant pandering remarks?
    the “jewish defense league” ?
    the “jewish bonds” ?
    Helloooo


  8. bob (not the hacker) Says:

    you null,

    cite your claims or you’re void.


  9. Zooey Says:

    The snot made him do it.


  10. null Says:

    what cite? thompson said it in the same speech as the jewish money. heck i dont need to site, its got its own multiple post right here on think progress!


  11. smafdy Says:

    Thompson is a testi.


  12. JPark Says:

    #10 I think he meant the non-sequiter about Wes Clark.


  13. Joefriday Says:

    Heck, Don Imus had the flu :-)


  14. Jake, Patrick1, Firehead, and Captain Kirk Says:

    Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Jimmy Carter are worser.


  15. Zep Tepi Says:

    Say wasn’t Tommy Thompson the guy that made alot of money on the medicare part d scam?


  16. Raven Says:

    Bush’s head of the Department of Health and Human Services, he was.


  17. DS Says:

    Let’s hope he wouldn’t get tired or have a cold while President. I hear that’s hard work even for healthy guys who go to sleep before 8 PM and takes lots of vacations.


  18. Roger Says:

    Tommy Thompson - a fellow of infinite “test.”


  19. Raven Says:

    Testy Tommy Thompson
    tried terribly
    to tolerantly treat
    Talmudic temple-goers,

    and failed.


  20. shane Says:

    You guys are smokin’ tonight!


  21. Raven Says:

    (whatever blows your hair back……:)


  22. FTGOP Says:

    It was the chip in his arm.


  23. numfar Says:

    I remember when Reggie White made a similar statement. His statement also included Asians and Mexicans, if I recall correctly.

    Hearing him (Minister of Defense) speak the words, I attributed it to, for lack of a better description, “innocent ignorance”, as opposed to bigotry or malice. I call it that due to my experience with my grandparents. They are very kind, accepting people and would turn no one away. However, the generalizations and stereotypes learned in their generation don’t go away easily, thus when confronted with something new or different, it’s sometimes difficult for them to incorporate it into their worldview.

    I know nothing of Governor Thompson, so I can’t ascribe anything to his statement.

    Could it have been “innocent ignorance”?


  24. Shawn Says:

    ‘I was tired’ just like Boehner & DeLay (aka drunk as a skunk)


  25. SKdeA Says:

    I was tired! I had a cold! The dog ate my speechwriter!


  26. oldtree Says:

    the persistent issue may be something quite different. staid, stoic, set in stone perhaps? you can’t take the bigot out of the boy


  27. Kilo Says:

    Nice to see at least one blog is sticking by Politico at treating all their stories as quotable. Fabricating at least 3 stories in as many weeks put a lot of people off.

    Not Nico though. After all, that’s his bread and butter.

    ps. How sure are we that Thompson didn’t claim the Jews were behing 9/11 ? Sure, words to that effect don’t appear in what you’ve quoted but that’s no problem right ?


  28. Topper Harley Says:

    Today, Tommy Thompson said it was hard weeerk being a good Ole’ boy. To quote Tommy, “Well I get up in the morning down about a fifth of whiskey, and then I’m off to a Klan, urghh I mean a minute man rally.”

    HaHa. But c’mon folks doesn’t everybody say racist things when they catch a cold. I know that when I feel a cold coming on I have a habit of telling people, “I know black people, I have a lot of black friends.” (saracasm on)


  29. Kilo Says:

    Today, Tommy Thompson said … “Well I get up in the morning down about a fifth of whiskey, and then I’m off to a Klan, urghh I mean a minute man rally.”
    Comment by Topper Harley — April 18, 2007 @ 6:36 am

    Just to recap…
    Making a reference to the fact a sitting Democrat Senator actually was a klan member would be an example of attacking the messenger.

    Implying that a Republican candidate is currently a member of the klan based on apparently nothing at all, not a problem.


  30. Topper Harley Says:

    #29
    Comment by Kilo — April 18, 2007 @ 8:20 am

    I guess sarcasm isn’t a strong point for you or any other neocon troll. By the way kilo, the neocons are as racist as America gets. And thats the truth.


  31. Pete Bogs Says:

    a cold? he could have at least said it was booze, like Mel Gibson explained his anti-Semitism…


  32. Proud Dem Says:

    Let’s see…the excuses for stupid remarks so far have been…

    “I was drunk”
    “I had a cold”
    “I was abused as a child”
    “My mother never loved me”
    “The aliens sucked my brains”

    Shall we continue?


  33. Kilo Says:

    Comment by Kilo — April 18, 2007 @ 8:20 am
    I guess sarcasm isn’t a strong point for you or any other neocon troll.

    Nor you. Nor irony apparently. Or rational thought for that matter.
    What is it with you idiots who can not once ever rise to a conclusion other than criticism=neocon-rethuglican-etc.

    Was there something overtly neo-connish in me pointing out that 8 seconds before reading you implying this guy was a klan member one of your fellow readers was pre-emptively complaining that Byrd would be called this ?

    No ? Anything else ?
    You’d be looking though a lot of archives to find me ever expressing support for a neo-con or a neo-conservative. But that’d be an issue only if you were going to make an educated guess wouldn’t it. Fkall chance of that occurring here.

    By the way kilo, the neocons are as racist as America gets. And thats the truth.
    Comment by Topper Harley — April 18, 2007 @ 8:38 am

    Well no, it’s not.
    You don’t find neo-conservative-specific principles championed amongst any of the most prominant right-wing hate organisations.

    You don’t find the most overtly racist policies in your nation’s particularly racist history being traced to neo-conservative ideology.

    You can certainly claim the Bush administration has been the worst ever in your history, as all and sundry do, but I’m yet to see anyone even float the notion that they even rate in the most-racist stakes.

    Be an absolute gem of a discussion if they did. I can’t recall this many brown faces on Clinton’s staff. That’d be an awesome exercise in wingnuttery.

    Hope you get it off the ground. Try emailing ‘Nico’ here at TP. He’ll print any bullshit claim on the front page.

    In fact if you factor-out the token joy at having conservatives in power of the lot for 6 years, you’ll find racist right-wing extremists thoroughly unhappy with neo-conservatives, considering that even in their small minds keeping brown people walled off in Mexico ranks as burning issues 1, 2, and 3, and not even that issue was delivered in the duration.

    So I guess BS is a particularly strong point for you.


  34. Mary Poplins Says:

    #23 numfar

    I live in WI and Tommy Thompson was Governor for 14 years. He ruined our state financially. I don’t know what he was talking about Jewish Bonds. He was going to run for Herb Kohl’s senator seat but his family did not want him to run. He is a total joke. He will never, never, never be President in 2008.


  35. nellieh Says:

    He has a cold and made a mistake and wants to be President. If he gets a cold as President what mistake will he make? Start a War? Sorry, thats already been done. Maybe something really egregious like approve stem cell research.


  36. Topper Harley Says:

    #33

    Hey Kilo, you neocon assmonkey. Which party purged African American votes in Florida counties during the 2000 elections. That’s right the neocons. Which party allowed only one or two voting machines in urban areas of Ohio that were highly democratic so African Americans had to stand outside for up to four hours to vote. That’s right, neocons. Who left thousands of African Americans stranded after hurricane Katrina. That’s right neocons. Kilo, you have zero credibility. Good luck in 08′ you neocon assmonkey, cause the neocons will be out.


  37. Kilo Says:

    Hey Kilo, you neocon assmonkey.

    Yes crazy non sequitur man, you rang?

    Which party purged African American votes in Florida counties during the 2000 elections. That’s right the neocons. Which party allowed only one or two voting machines in urban areas of Ohio that were highly democratic so African Americans had to stand outside for up to four hours to vote. That’s right, neocons.

    No you’ve screwed that up. You wanted to be posting examples of non-whites who vote republican being targetted.
    All you’ve done here is cite examples that neoconservatives hate votes for democrats. Well fk me, really ?

    BTW, Ohio has majority black populations in urban areas ? Who knew.

    Who left thousands of African Americans stranded after hurricane Katrina. That’s right neocons.

    Sorry ? Have we established that the next time NO gets flooded this will be because of the racism of Democrats ?

    Kilo, you have zero credibility. Good luck in 08′ you neocon assmonkey, cause the neocons will be out.
    Comment by Topper Harley — April 18, 2007 @ 12:26 pm

    WTF do I care ? I’m voting in 07 and there are currently no neocons anywhere, to be voted in or out.

    BTW the answer to my question about whether observing common hypocrisy is a neo-con-only ability the answer is apparently an enthusiatic “yes!”.


  38. Ian Thal Says:

    As I read more and more, I determined that Tommy Thompson is not an anti-Semite, but an idiot who knows very little about Jewish people. He inverted the anti-Semitic cannard about Jewish money, thinking he was paying his audience tribute, and he was relying largely on White Republican fantasies about what Jewish voters really want.

    This article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency had some good howlers.

    Even funnier, is “Friendly advice to American candidates trying to woo the Jewish vote” by Shmuel Rosner in Ha’aretz.

    That said, knock it off with the “Neo-Con” stuff. The Republicans may act like a monolith but in reality, they are actually a coalition of different ideologies. The Neo-Conservatives are almost exclusively concerned with foreign policy: economic globalization, and projection of American power. They are imperialistic omphalloskeptics, but probably the least self-consciously racist faction in the Republican coalition.

    If you don’t understand the Republicans, you can’t truly defeat them, and you are forced to wait for them to defeat themselves– by proving that their ideas don’t work in the real world. Isn’t that what happened?


  39. William Says:

    Most of the thirty-eight commentors on Tommy Thompson’s stupid remark have taken the Stalinist Kool-aid. Almost to a person, each comment indicated how dumb most people are when it comes to American politics. There is no Democrat party in this country now. Over forty years ago, it was discovered that the World Communist Party had as one of its forty some-odd goals was to take over one of the United States’ political parties. Guess which one it destroyed? If you thing it starts with a “D” you are correct. If you doubt me, google “45 Comunist Goals”, and you will find it.

    Yes, there are a bunch of stupid Republicans in office. Getting a Democrat into the presidency in 2009 will be the death knoll of this great country. If the Jewish people keep drinking the Kool-aid, they can help this happen.


  40. William Says:

    Most of the thirty-eight commentors on Tommy Thompson’s stupid remark have taken the Stalinist Kool-aid. Almost to a person, each comment indicated how dumb most people are when it comes to American politics. There is no Democrat party in this country now. Over forty years ago, it was discovered that the World Communist Party had as one of its forty some-odd goals was to take over one of the United States’ political parties. Guess which one it destroyed? If you think it starts with a “D” you are correct. If you doubt me, google “45 Communist Goals”, and you will find it.

    Yes, there are a bunch of stupid Republicans in office. Getting a Democrat into the presidency in 2009 will be the death knoll of this great country. If the Jewish people keep drinking the Kool-aid, they can help this happen.



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