Political Pyro

On August 4th, incumbent Jewish congressman and Barack Obama supporter Steve Cohen won the Democratic primary against his racist black opponent, Nikki Tinker, in a landslide: 79 percent to 19 percent. This is what congressman Cohen was up against:

“He’s not black and he can’t represent me, that’s just the bottom line.”
– Minister Robert Poindexter

From Newsbusters 7/30/08:

We are, each year, treated to national media reports on race relations in this country and they invariably discuss white America coming to terms with other races in this country. Very, very rarely does the media ever report on other races coming to terms with white America.

It is not really relevant, frankly, to point out that most black voters are going to vote in droves for Barack Obama. Regardless of his race, black voters would vote for the Democrat. But when you read about Congressman Steve Cohen’s race in Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District, you really are confronted by both racism and anti-Semitism in a way we rarely think about in this country. And the media is silent. Barack Obama is silent.

From The Jerusalem Post 8/10/08:

The advertisements also led the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who had previously stayed out of the race, to speak out on Thursday against the smears.

“These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee,” Obama said in a statement. “It’s time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country.”

The statement was not an endorsement and did not mention Cohen by name. Cohen’s campaign manager, Jerry Austin, said Thursday he didn’t think it was going to make much difference in the race because by the time it was issued many people either had already voted or weren’t going to hear about it before the polls closed.

Cohen supported Obama during the senator’s primary campaign and spoke on his behalf at an election panel at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual conference last spring.

Nice timing, Barack. Wait until voting day to denounce (in a statement no less, without mentioning names) the racist and anti-Semitic attacks against a Democratic incumbent who has supported you since last Spring… who introduced you at an Anti-Defamation League conference to boot. That’s great loyalty. Great leadership.

But the controversy doesn’t stop there. In 2006, Cohen implied that he wanted to join the Congressional Black Caucus.

He was turned down because he was white.

From Politico 1/22/07:

As a white liberal running in a majority African American district, Tennessee Democrat Stephen I. Cohen made a novel pledge on the campaign trail last year: If elected, he would seek to become the first white member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Now that he’s a freshman in Congress, Cohen has changed his plans. He said he has dropped his bid after several current and former caucus members made it clear to him that whites need not apply.

“I think they’re real happy I’m not going to join,” said Cohen, who succeeded Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., in the Memphis district. “It’s their caucus and they do things their way. You don’t force your way in. You need to be invited.”

Cohen said he became convinced that joining the caucus would be “a social faux pas” after seeing news reports that former Rep. William Lacy Clay Sr., D-Mo., a co-founder of the caucus, had circulated a memo telling members it was “critical” that the group remain “exclusively African-American.”

Other members, including the new chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., and Clay’s son, Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., agreed.

“Mr. Cohen asked for admission, and he got his answer. … It’s time to move on,” the younger Clay said. “It’s an unwritten rule. It’s understood. It’s clear.”

The bylaws of the caucus do not make race a prerequisite for membership, a House aide said, but no non-black member has ever joined.

Post-racial America… How sweet it is.