Tenn. Democrat faces lawyer who linked him to KKK

Source: The Associated Press

After a racially charged Democratic primary campaign that turned particularly ugly in its final days, voters will decide Thursday between a Jewish incumbent congressman and a black opponent who ran a television ad juxtaposing photos of him and a hooded Ku Klux Klan member.

Democrat Steve Cohen is the first white congressman from Memphis in more than three decades and one of only two white congressmen representing a majority black district.

The ad was run by his chief opponent, Nikki Tinker, a corporate lawyer whose supporters argue the 9th District in Memphis should be represented by a black candidate.

Low turnout was predicted for the primary, which will likely decide the next congressman in the heavily Democratic district that has returned incumbents to the House since 1974. The district is 60 percent black and 35 percent white, and Cohen won his first term after a 2006 primary in which a dozen black candidates, including Tinker, split the vote.

Tinker said her ad linking Cohen to the KKK for opposing a 2005 effort to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from a downtown park "merely states the facts. I think the nation needs to know Steve Cohen's complete record."

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/08/07/ap5302114.html

large city: sadly, the race card is always played and folks are always pandered to in an attempt to obscure real issues. :D

and yes it is. the logic that an african-american should represent a district because the district is primarily black would make as much sense as someone saying obama shouldn't be president because america is primarily white.

:D

I mean (and I speak as a Jewish White Woman) for years African Americans have had no choice but to be represented by White men. For too long whites have ignored or been insensitive to the concerns of African Americans. So, there is a difference.

That being said, Tinker's supporters make a ridiculous statement. The same applies to women's issues and female candidates. Perhaps we should have a woman president since there are more women than men in this country. I don't remember this being part of Hillary Clinton's campaign. She's smart enough to know better.

We should look at how an elected officials represent their constituency. One can't assume that just because a person is African American, he/she is good for other African Americans. Think JC Watts and Alan Keyes. One can't assume a "White" person won't look out for his/her African American constituency. There are several white people in the Senate and Congress who have high ratings from the NAACP.

But, it is not really the same, just as while it may not be OK when Chris Rock (for example) uses the N word, it is different than when a white comedian uses that word.

I pray for the day all Americans can look beyond the color of skin, ethnicity, and religion and judge a person solely by the content of his/her character. But I'm indeed sorry to say that our nation and people, as a whole, have been very slow to, how shall I put it, grow up. :D

And reconsidered for a variety of reasons, one of which was all my black friends telling me they felt white, there.

:shrug:

Why? So as to avoid angering Turkey, which is a major pal of Israel. There are many bullshit artists like this guy who are progressive only when it suits them. Typical bourgeoisie politicians, the pair of them.

For my part, I wasn't even aware of the issue until Cohen kicked a documentary filmmaker out of a press conference at the Cohen home. Most Memphis voters are probably more concerned about the economy, the high crime rate, the city school system, and the more immediate, day to day concerns involved in living and working here.

Linking a Jew to the Klan by association is just as idiotic as linking a black man to it by association.

Ugh, this is one of those things where if the people in the district vote for her, they truly deserve her.

Christine Kreyling
Published on August 09, 2007
... S.A. Bierfield, a Russian Jew ... <and> ... radical Republican, .. owned a dry goods store in Franklin, employed an African American clerk and had many African American customers. In 1868, a mob dragged him through the streets, tortured him, and then shot him dead ... http://www.nashvillescene.com/2007-08-09/news/six-feet-under/

Dramatic Encounters: The Jewish Presence in Twentieth-Century American Drama, Poetry, and Humor and the Black-Jewish Literary Relationship
Book by Louis Harap; Greenwood Press, 1987. 180 pgs

On the night of August 15, 1868, a masked mob of Ku Klux Klansmen broke into the drygoods store of S. A. Bierfield, a Russian Jew, in Franklin, Tennessee, and fatally shot both Bierfield and his Black clerk, Lawrence Bowman. The reason given by the lynchers was a false charge of Bierfield's implication in a murder a few days earlier. But as the New York Times reported about a week later, the real reason for the lynching was that Bierfield was "an intelligent advocate of the present reconstruction policy of Congress and a friend to the freedmen of his neighborhood, among whom--he being a merchant--he commanded quite a trade, and perhaps found it expedient to keep one from among their number in his employ." A Nashville newspaper account stated that Bierfield was "an active and prominent Republican, having considerable influence with the colored people. . . . Our informant says that was his only crime" ....
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=26256707

“These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. 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,” Obama said.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Obama_condemns_ad_against_Jewish_candidate.html?showall

She sounds absolutely vile. Hope she's soundly beaten in the primary.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3749425


this is a live link:

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/category.asp?C=124702

NBC affiliate in Memphis Tenn.. WMC-TV
80% OF PRECINCTS REPORTING
Steve Cohen* (D / Inc.) 42,664 79%
Nikki Tinker (D) 10,189 19%
Joe Towns, Jr. (D) 808 1%
James Gregory (D) 164 0%
Isaac Richmond (D) 160 0%