By: Tolu Olorunda
The sectarian conflict between Tennessean congressional candidates - Nikki Tinker and Rep. Steve Cohen - has reached new and unprecedented lows. In a series of tit for tat and war-like attacks, one side seems to be crying foul at the very existence of the other. Nikki Tinker, a Black Woman, who is running for the Congressional seat of the U.S. House of Representatives, District 9 in Tennessee, - presently filled by Rep. Steven Cohen - has been subjected to a barrage of vitriol and invectives, for doing what every other politician does: Using resourceful ads to outline, illuminate, and sometimes animate the political differences between opponents. Within the last week, two political ads created by the Nikki Tinker for Congress campaign has been criminally scrutinized and held up to a pedestal that is virtually unprecedented in the realm of politics. The first ad - of great dispute - featured a former Memphis County Commissioner, Walter Bailey, exposing a 2005 vote, in which Rep. Stephen Cohen, cast the lone-vote in opposition to a proposition that would have re-named a public park, formerly named after a serial slave-trader and Confederate Army Lieutenant General, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Bailey afterward posed the timely-question; "Who is the real Steve Cohen?" Unfortunately, to some, this was an unforgivable act of "race being injected into the campaign." The logic in that is miserably-tortured and contains no sincerity. The second ad - of equal contention - posed the same question as to the true identity of Rep. Cohen; charging the one-term Senator with 'two-facing' his Black constituency. The ad proclaims; “While he’s in our churches clapping his hands and tapping his feet, he’s the only senator who thought our kids shouldn’t be allowed to pray in school. Congressman, sometimes apologies just aren’t enough.” The controversy that overwhelmed the ad, seemed to emanate from the use of the word "our" to describe the Black community in Memphis -- with an implicit suggestion that Cohen is therefore, 'other.' In a predictable move, the Cohen Campaign and its supporters whipped-out the ever-friendly Anti-Semitism card to bully and berate Ms. Tinker. Nevertheless, no such Johnny-come-latelies we're as eloquent last week, when Senator John McCain (presumptive Republican Presidential nominee) and his campaign used code-words of explicit nature, to describe Barack Obama (presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee) as "foreign" and "different."
Following Tinker's recent successes in the polls, there has been a decipherable coalition of online Magazines and Mainstream Newspapers in the interest of destroying the credibility and candor of the African-American congressional contender. Online prints have accused her of everything from "playing the race card" (whatever that is) to hateful, vile, nasty and Anti-Semitic rhetoric against her Jewish opponent. Strangely, all such attacks come with no substantive proof that validates the strong charges. On his MSNBC show yesterday, Keith Olbermann - the liberal pundit - called Nikki Tinker the "Worst person in the world," for what he deemed, "a very disturbing meaning" packaged in the aforementioned ads. Unfortunately - and I might be wrong - I don't recall Olbermann displaying the same amount of emotional-fortitude in defense of Harold Ford Jr last year, when Ford underwent a similar experience, in which a Republican Party-sponsored ad, featured a naked white woman, claiming to have met the then-unmarried Senator at a "Playboy Party." The infamous ad wrapped-up with the same woman, beckoning the Senator, saying, "Harold, call me."
It is pretty apparent that Rep. Stephen Cohen is aware of his shortcomings and his inability to satisfy his predominantly Black constituency. As he noted in 1996, "It is impossible for a person who is not African American to get a large vote in the African American community . . . against a substantial candidate. The fact is, I am white, and it doesn't seem to matter what you do." It is also unequivocally clear, that Cohen is both ambiguous about his chances in this election, and threatened by the compelling-nature of Ms. Tinker. This inferiority complex is what has driven Cohen - and his campaign - to hurl blatant untruths at the Tinker Campaign -- with the hope that frivolous distractions would overwhelm this congressional-race, and ensure that issues of material-value are obscured and abandoned. Nikki Tinker, in all her foibles, has been an audacious and relentless combatant of inner-city crime and violence. With a strong record that delineates that commitment, it comes as no surprise, that rather than debate Tinker on the issues of delicate concern to Black folk, Stephen Cohen would rather mis-characterize his opponent, and malign her with the single-most indelible and toxic labeling an individual of African descent can be tagged by: Anti-Semitism (Just as Min. Louis Farrakhan).
While Rep. Cohen is content with subjecting the past to a fiery furnace, one must be accutely aware of his overt history of political-opportunism and race-exploitation. The Blue-Dog Democrat from Tennessee has consistently bathed in the muddy waters of George Bush, and was unabashed in putting up a picture of himself and the president on his website. With a long and winded history of staunchly opposing the Armenian Genocide, one is left to marvel at the level of audacity and gull, with which Mr. Cohen has slammed his dominating Congressional rival on issues of human rights. One must also be reminded of the crocodile tears shed by Rep. Cohen, after his numerous unsuccessful and ineffable attempts, towards being the "first white member" of the Congressional Black Caucus; at which in an embittered tone, he subsequently stated; “I think they’re real happy I’m not going to join… It’s their caucus and they do things their way. You don’t force your way in. You need to be invited.” More recently, is the transparently politically-calculated move by Rep. Cohen, to propose a bill that would apologize for the enslavement of Africans in America, and promote “reconciliation, justice, and harmony for all of its citizens.” Although the bill was passed, it was however, widely seen as a strategically set up move - like a well laced alley-oop - in time for August 6 Primary Election Run-off against his African-American opponent. Upon its passage and ascertained insignificance, many believed, that perhaps to persuade his Black constituency, and prove that, at the very least, he is willing to propose flattering-but-feeble legislations in time for the next Congressional election cycle, Cohen had once again engaged in the old game of political-expediency.
Whether Nikki Tinker is pronounced the victor, or Rep. Cohen bullies his way back to the top, one thing is for certain: politicians would do anything to win; even if it means spitting in the face of their constituency.
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