Andrew Sullivan Apologizes for Comparing Larry Summers to a Christ Killing Jewish Moneylender in a Hieronymus Bosch Painting

For this Andrew Sullivan got some grief from at least one reader, and has apologized on his blog:

Oy. In my survey of Getty photos for the Face Of The Day, I thought that one of Summers was a gripping and surprising portrait. Then a reader emailed me the Bosch and I too was struck by the similarity. I can see now why you might see things the way you did. But it was in no way intended. I’m sorry if anyone was offended. I’ll try and be more conscious of these things in future.

I find Sullivan’s apology a bit grudging, and even patronizing and disingenuous. Really, is a Harvard educated fellow like Sullivan truly this tone deaf to antisemitic imagery? Well, an apology is an apology. It was nice that he didn’t dig in his heels and try to defend the “humor” that he was supposedly so innocently trying to convey.