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It all started with a phone message left for a Chicago lawyer.

"My name is Frank McEntee and I saw you on TV. I guess being Jewish is all part of it, right? Why don't you get your bags packed and get back to Israel where you f—— belong. Because you are one f—— parasite, one f—— Jewish parasite. And if you have any question as to what a Jewish parasite is, a Jewish scumbag, someone who should end up in the ovens in Germany. OK!

"You should have been sent into the f—— ovens. So if you have any question about that, my number is 777-1969 — and I'll be glad to explain to you what a Jewish f—— head is, OK. Anyway, take care and have a wonderful Jewish Friday."

Sound like lawyer-bashing from a down-and-out fellow angered at a TV commercial? It apparently did to famed syndicated columnist Mike Royko.

Royko's Feb. 18 column in the Chicago Tribune referred to McEntee as a two-job "mope" who "had a few drinks to wind down" one night.

While winding down, a TV commercial for bankruptcy lawyer Melvin Kaplan caught McEntee's attention. Having been through a painful bankruptcy experience himself, he apparently wasn't too happy to see a lawyer touting the process on TV.

So he phoned the number on the screen and, according to Royko, "drunkenly ranted about why he thinks the lawyer's commercial message stinks."

Royko admitted that McEntee's comments were "disgusting, obscene, abusive, anti-Semitic and stupid."

And Royko didn't quote them because doing so "would cause even the slightest sympathy for [McEntee] to evaporate."

But even if the call was all the things Royko conceded it was, was it also a felony? For what Royko called a "dumb, alcohol-laced, insulting phone message," a "boozy phone call from someone who didn't like a TV commercial," McEntee was charged with felony hate crime for telephone harassment.

The Tribune columnist said McEntee pleaded guilty, was given probation and was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

McEntee is being sued by Kaplan in a separate civil action because the statute allows anyone "suffering injury to his person or damage to his property as a result of hate crime" to go to court on the grounds of emotional distress.

"It seems harsh to brand a man a felon for remarks he made to an office voice-mail machine. And, after he pleads guilty, to punish him further with a civil lawsuit," Royko wrote.

"Think about it: a felonious hate crime for insulting a lawyer in a late-night TV commercial."

Was McEntee's message more an act of stupidity than an illegality? Has hate-crime legislation gone too far? Is this a case of political correctness gone awry?

Or is vulgar, anti-Semitic telephone harassment exactly the type of act that should be declared a felony?

Under the Illinois statute, "a person commits hate crime when, by reason of the race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin of another individual or group of individuals, he commits assault, battery, aggravated assault, misdemeanor theft, criminal trespass to residence, misdemeanor criminal damage to property, criminal trespass to vehicle, criminal trespass to real property, mob action or disorderly conduct…or harassment by telephone."

Royko questions whether it is "possible to commit a hate crime against a TV commercial."

But McEntee never once mentioned TV commercials or bankruptcy lawyers in his message. He didn't drunkenly rant "about why he thinks the lawyer's commercial message stinks," as Royko said.

He told Kaplan's answering machine that, as a Jew, Kaplan should pack his bags and go back to Israel because he is a "Jewish parasite — someone who should end up in the ovens in Germany."

Kaplan feels McEntee's "tone and message was not only vile, but arrogant and threatening. There were no alcohol-slurred words, just a very clear menacing message desecrating the memory of my dead parents and recalling the horrors of the Holocaust."

Kaplan contacted the Anti-Defamation League in Chicago, where he was encouraged to pursue the case criminally. Harlan Loeb, the ADL's Midwest civil rights director, said that once he read the transcript of the voice mail, "I was more than convinced we made the right recommendation to pursue criminally."

He said Royko's essential point, that it was an over-application of hate crime laws, is incorrect, since telephone harassment is included in the hate-crime statute.

"The idea of selective prosecution, which he urges implicitly, is unacceptable," Loeb said.

"In the abstract, [Royko] makes a compelling argument. Anything taken to the extreme threatens its integrity. But if you read the call, it clearly violates the harassment provision in using the phone for inappropriate purposes. It's very easy to see the egregious and offensive nature of the call."

Since Royko's column appeared, not only in Chicago but in newspapers around the country, Kaplan, "an attorney for 38 years" said he's received numerous anti-Semitic messages via mail and telephone. He's also received letters from Jews who wrote that he should "be a mensch" and leave the guy alone.