Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) spoke at the dedication of the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, along with President Bush and others. Sen. Durbin mentioned that the new president of Ukraine recently spoke of a government “of the people, for the people,” or, as Durbin put it, “The words of the Gettysburg address still echoing across the planet.”

Then, according to Copley News Service and the State Journal-Register, Sen. Durbin threw in a story about the late federal judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz of Chicago, whose collection of Lincoln books is included in the new library’s holdings.

Judge Marovitz used to say that his mother believed that President Lincoln was Jewish, Durbin said. After all, his first name was Abraham, and then, to confirm it, she learned that John Wilkes Booth shot him in the temple.

This is funny?

A prominent Democrat joking about a Republican president’s assassination.

Guess we shouldn’t be surprised.

(Hat tip: Reader Scott)