Not a Big Truck

Obama denounces the ads, but not Tinker.  I know it is probably not his responsibility to denounce what is happening in Memphis, but if local Republicans were using such tactics, I feel like Democrats would want Republicans on the national level to denounce them. I think it was right for Obama to comment on this situation–perhaps he should have been a bit more forceful in doing so–especially in light of the fact that he presents himself as a post-racial candidate.

Race has been a recurring theme in this campaign season and not just on the national level.  I saw this story today on The Politico (both in The Scorecard and Jonathan Martin’s blog).

I know very little about Memphis politics and will refrain from commenting too much on this.  But, I did think this was interesting. Based on the reporting on these two blogs, it seems that Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen has been a fairly typical liberal Democrat during his two years in Congress and during his time in state politics. He represents the 9th District, which is a prodominantly African American district in Memphis. Recently, Cohen received national attention for putting forth a resolution in the House apologizing for America’s involvement in the institution of slavery.

Cohen, however, who is white, is currently facing a tough primary challenge from Nikki Tinker, an African American woman.  The winner of this contest will likely win the seat in November.  Cohen and Tinker have done battle before (according to Martin, they each sought the seat in 2006).

Recently, however, the campaign took a nasty turn. Tinker put on an ad that, in no subtle way, attempts to paint Representative Cohen as a racist. (Take a minute and watch the ad, which can be found using either link above.)

The advertisement takes Cohen to task for being the apparent lone vote against some non-binding policy that would attempt to gather support for removing the spectar of former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest from a city park.  It does seem odd that Cohen voted against renaming the park/statue.

What are his reasons?

Some of the comments that I have read suggest that his vote may have been motivated by procedure–this was not a matter for his commission, but rather the city council and mayor’s office.  Other explanations indicate that Cohen did not want to divide the city racially and that with the confederate general and his wife buried on the premises, removing the statue, renaming the park, and relocating the grave sites seemed to be a less than ideal method of dealing with the issue.

I think that it is certainly worthwhile and reasonable to question why Mr. Cohen voted against removing the statue. In the limited research that I have done, I am not sure if I am entirely satisfied with the reasons (part of this may simply be that I have not found adequate documentation of the meetings or what renaming the park would entail from a legal standpoint). But, even if the above reasons do not suffice, I think that to suggest that he, a liberal, Jewish Democrat with a ”consistently strong civil rights record,” harbors KKK sympathies is a bit of a stretch.

As Cohen, stated “The Klan hated Jews, and killed Jews as well as African Americans. [The ad] is somewhere between ignorant and unacceptable.”

Again, I do not pretend to be well-informed on the politics of Memphis or of these candidates.  But, this advertisement goes way too far into the land of Rove.  This is the sort of misleading, personal assualt that reasonable people of both parties–and all races–should condemn.

(If anyone has anymore information on this issue, on the advertisement, on Cohen’s vote back in 2005, please feel free to leave a comment.  I would be interested to learn more and, indeed, to be corrected.)