Both Sides Of The Fence
Steve Cohen never planned for this Holocaust comment to get this much media coverage. He thought it would be played on channels 3,5,13 and 24 here in Memphis. He didn't expect CNN,Fox and MSNBC to get on board and give the story life. Now he has to quietly eat crow and apologize to the Republicans and the Jewish community. As long as he was only swindling blacks they ignored him. His true colors are now showing. Every time he is interviewed he takes back more and more of what he said. I predict we won't be hearing from him much in the near future. He'll be doing his best to play both sides of the fence.
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Otis L. Sanford: Voters may tire of Cohen's combativeness
By Otis L. Sanford
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Posted January 30, 2011
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen is right. He never called Republicans -- those who are tea partiers or those who are teetotalers -- Nazis.
He never even uttered the word Nazi and he did not mention Adolf Hitler's name. Yet, the three-term Memphis Democrat has been roundly criticized for invoking Nazi imagery in a speech Jan. 18 on the floor of the House in which he called out Republicans for spreading "big lies" about the federal health care law.
I was one of those critics, in a commentary for WREG News Channel 3. I said Cohen's comments bordered on being reprehensible. Upon reflection, the remarks didn't just reach the border. They crossed the line.
And the more he tried to defend them, the more Cohen found himself flailing knee-deep in semantics and hypocrisy.
In the House debate on whether to repeal the health care law, Cohen's goal was to expose conservative Republicans for repeatedly mischaracterizing the bill's intent.
"They say it's a government takeover of health care -- a big lie, just like Goebbels. You say it enough -- you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie -- and eventually, people believe it.
"Like blood libel -- that's the same kind of thing. The Germans said enough about the Jews, and the people believed it, and you had the Holocaust. You tell a lie over and over again..."
The name Goebbels refers to Joseph Goebbels, who was Hitler's propaganda leader in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
"Blood libel" was a term Sarah Palin used while she clumsily defended herself against accusations that she had contributed to the climate of incivility in U.S. politics. The term historically refers to the false allegation that Jews in the Middle Ages had killed Christian children to use their blood for Passover meals.
Cohen, who is Jewish, has taken plenty of heat for his remarks. The National Jewish Democratic Council issued this rebuke: "As we have said repeatedly, invoking the Holocaust to make a political point is never acceptable -- on either side of the aisle. Cohen's comments and similar comments made by others are not helpful as our leaders and citizens conduct a joint effort to advance civility in our political discourse.''
But in a letter to the editor in The Commercial Appeal last week, Cohen argued that the news media, particularly this newspaper, had distorted his words.
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"I never called my Republican colleagues or opponents of health care reform 'Nazis.' In fact, I didn't even use the words 'Nazi' or 'Hitler.' I would never consider doing such a thing. And I did not compare the Holocaust to the repeal of health care."
No, he did not. But as Cohen knows full well, politics is all about inferences. And explosive rhetoric that invokes hateful and terroristic acts, past or present, can sometimes torpedo a political career.
When Cohen ran for re-election in 2008, his opponent in the primary election, Nikki Tinker, authorized a TV ad in the waning days of the campaign implying that Cohen was a Ku Klux Klan sympathizer. It featured Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey criticizing Cohen for opposing the effort to take down Nathan Bedford Forrest's statue and rename the Memphis park named in honor of the one-time Klan leader.
The spot contained a photo of Cohen alongside a hooded Klansman. Days later, his campaign responded with indignation.
"To take someone like Steve Cohen, with his reputation and experience in this community, and to suggest he has any association with or should be juxtaposed to the Ku Klux Klan is outrageous," said Jerry Austin, Cohen's campaign manager.
Tinker did not appear in the ad, but it ruined her political career.
Of course, that's not to suggest that Cohen's political future is in jeopardy. He has won re-election twice by huge margins. Last year in the primary, he defeated former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, who had never lost an election, in a landslide.
Ninth District voters obviously like how he represents them in Washington. But like Herenton, whose combative style finally wore thin with voters, Cohen could face the same prospects one day if he remains unwilling to tone down the harsh rhetoric and biting sarcasm.
Appearing with Anderson Cooper on CNN days after the House floor speech, Cohen refused to acknowledge that he had compared Republicans opposed to the health care law to Nazis. "I didn't intend to do that and I don't think I did," he said.
When Cooper persisted, Cohen finally responded, "I won't say it again, but I was right."
And in his mind, he always is.
He had a townhall meeting this morning with maybe forty people crammed in his downtown office. The topic was social security whem the future of 110,000 children is being debated.
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