Paul Stock of Librairie Astro in Montreal (Quebec), Canada comments on the controversy over Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean calling Neil Gaiman a “pencil-necked little weasel” (see “Pol Hating on Gaiman”).

I must admit I was rather surprised at the fee Neil Gaiman charges for his appearances, then, considering that he seems to be booked pretty solid for years at a time I realized that he's really only getting whatever the market will bear.  He's not forcing anyone to pay him that money.  He's not holding a gun to anyone's head and he's not "stealing."  He has a product and $45,000 is what he charges for it.  In the Minnesota example, it's certainly to Gaiman's credit that he turned the fee he did get to charitable purposes.

It's also to Mr. Dean's credit that he had the sense to apologize (a bit half-heatedly perhaps) for his ill-considered statement.  Unlike Joe Krolik (see "Joe Krolik of Comics America on Politician Blasting Neil Gaiman"), I fail to see even the slightest trace of anti-Semitism in Dean's remark.  I've seen Jews characterized as lots of things, but "weasel" is not one of the common "code words."  For that matter, while Mr. Krolik is aware of Gaiman's heritage (of which there's no secret), is there any indication that Dean was aware of his "Jewish/Scientologist" background?  While it's pretty much a given that a politician score points by decrying waste of public money (often wasting it themselves at the same time), but even Tea Party extremists would shy away from besmirching any particular ethnic group.

There's probably more... oh, say, Albanian Zoroastrian voters in any district than comic book writers, and comic writers are the ones most likely to be turned off by Mr. Dean's remark.  The guy just shot off his mouth before thinking about a trivial matter, a very minor footnote to a political career.  Let's just leave it as something likely to be quickly (and deservedly) forgotten.

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