Tom
Schweich, the Missouri state auditor and a candidate for governor, committed suicide
after complaining about a Republican political ad that compared him to Barney
Fife, the bumbling deputy sheriff in the old Andy Griffith show, and about a
pernicious “whispering campaign” among Republicans regarding his religious
affiliation – specifically, that he was Jewish, a heritage that, if true, would
doubtless cost him the votes of some of the electorate’s dimmer bulbs. He believed party chairman John Hancock was
responsible for the rumor.
Hancock
denied it, saying he “may have” mentioned in passing that he thought Schweich
was Jewish but that any such mention was innocent and done in the same way that
one might mention that someone was Presbyterian or Catholic, and therefore had
no anti-semitic overtones.
There are a
couple of problems with that:
- There is no “may have’ here. Either Hancock did or did not say, or
speculate, that Schweich was Jewish.
So, when he says “may have” that means he did. If he didn’t. he would have denied it.
- Schweich was not Jewish. He was a prominent member of St.
Michael and St. George Episcopal; Church in Clayton, a church that
doubtless counts among its members some staunch Republicans, prominent or
otherwise. That Hancock, party
chairman and former top political consultant whose job is to formulate and
implement the strategies that will defeat Democratic candidates, didn’t
know what religion Schweich was is simply not plausible. He did know, but brought up the Jewish
thing anyway.
- The contention that mentioning in passing
that someone is Jewish -- in general and particularly in the context of a
political campaign -- is the same as mentioning that they're Presbyterian
or Catholic is such obvious claptrap that it’s hard to believe anyone
would take it seriously. The Hancocks of this world mention Jewishness
"in passing" for one reason and one reason only: to produce a
reaction and a result -- part of a long tradition of mentioning
Jewishness to produce a result.
Hancock’s
defenders have denied the existence of any whispering campaign, arguing that it
was a delusion -- the product of an unhinged mind. Schweich’s suicide is evidence that he was, in fact, unhinged,
and there is every reason to believe that his problems ran far deeper than
distress over political advertising and dirty-tricks speculation regarding
his religion. But the fact that the
whispering campaign was not a reason to commit suicide does not mean that the
campaign didn’t exist. The fact that
Hancock speculated on Schweich’s Jewishness, even though he doubtless knew
better, is evidence that it did exist.. Further,
the state’s most distinguished Republican, former Senator John Danforth, said
in his eulogy for Schweich that such a campaign did in fact exist and he
sharply criticized his party for doing it.
Danforth may not be the party kingpin that he once was, but the idea
that he doesn’t know what’s going on in Missouri Republican circles is not
believable. He does know.
The shame here is twofold: That people resort to anti-semitic innuendo,
and that there is a market for it. They
do and there is.
