Tommy Thompson, birther joke denier.

Tommy Thompson, birther joke denier.

This is an interesting new wrinkle to the birther controversy that has engulfed Tommy Thompson's Senate campaign in Wisconsin. At an RNC luncheon this weekend, Thompson's son Jason made a stupid joke about sending President Obama back to Kenya. A joke that a Democratic tracker got on video.

Which makes Thompson's first public statement about the incident kind of unbelievable.



"He has already apologized, and that's enough," Thompson said at a Milwaukee news conference this afternoon. "It was an offhanded remark that somebody mentioned in the audience. If you look at the movie, he didn't say it. Somebody in the audience said it and he repeated it, and I've talked to him about it and he apologized and that's it." "My son feels miserable about it," he added.

The "movie" actually shows Jason Thompson making the lame joke. "We have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago—or Kenya," he says, after which a woman in the audience pipes up with "We're taking donations for that Kenya trip."

But here's the thing. Jason Thompson has not apologized, certainly not publicly. "Gee, sorry Dad," doesn't really count in this case. But, as far as Thompson is concerned, that's enough. He says there won't be a public apology or an apology directly to President Obama from his son. But I guess since he doesn't really believe his son came up with the joke all on his own, that's to be expected.

So I guess that makes Thompson a birther-joke denier? Or just in denial in general. He also said this at his press conference:



"It's called momentum. It's called the big mo'. It's called winning." "People are coming in, they're coming in and flocking to support me, which I think is great, because people believe in me," said Thompson. "They know the momentum is in my direction even though I'm being outspent 3 to 1. I was outspent 7 to 1 in the primary and I'm being outspent 3 to 1 now."

Now that's denial.

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