I am writing this against the advice of my colleagues from Bay Area for Bernie. I accept full responsibility for it.

In the middle English poem Canterbury Tales, Geoffry Chaucer compares a character, Alison the miller’s wife, to a weasel, “hir body gent and smal.” Alison being a femme fatale and the hero of the story, and me being a devoted lover of Middle English poetry, I don’t generally think of weasel as a slime word. If you call me a weasel, I’ll probably thank you.

Until, that is, the word “weasel” is paired with the word “Jew,” as it recently was by the conservative radio host Michael Savage. What a nasty, musty and impotent libel. It’s like being at the Thanksgiving table hearing my uncle talk about the homos. Or having a snail meander across my foot. It’s gross, sometimes infuriating, but I could crush it in a heartbeat.

The Republican Party has completely lost its mind. Not Republicans – there continue to be decent, hardworking Americans (salt of the earth and all that) who don’t pay any attention to the rancid nuclear waste that spews from the mouths of their self-appointed representatives. But the most visible among them are also the most vitriolic among them. And Michael Savage just gave away the game. Ben Carson doesn’t want Muslims; Michael Saves doesn’t want weasel Jews. I suppose we are to live under religious establishment after all.