REACTIONARY "DEMOCRATS" USING ANTI-SEMITISM AND HOMOPHOBIA TO STIR UP DIVISIVENESS IN MEMPHIS

We're all so happy that we helped grassroots progressive Donna Edwards displace a corrupt reactionary Insider in this week's Maryland primary. But it's a two-way street. The corrupt reactionary Insiders are also working surreptitiously to defeat progressives. And I haven't noticed Steny Hoyer or Nancy Pelosi or Emanuel rushing to the defense of Blue America-endorsed Congressman Steve Cohen in Memphis. Steve is under the most vicious imaginable attack by the very worst elements in American politics. But you don't need to imagine; just look at the flier up top.

"Rev." George Brooks of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, far from Cohen's congressional district, has admitted that he is responsible for the vicious and divisive anti-Cohen propaganda hit piece. There is an August 5 primary coming up that pits Cohen, one of Congress' most outstanding progressive freshmen, against Nikki Tinker, a reactionary supported by the odious Harold Ford Machine, the idiots at EMILY's List, and the DLC. Brooks produced and distributed the flier on Tinker's behalf and says "he sent the flier because the 9th Congressional District is 'about 90-something percent black.' According to the latest U.S. Census, in 2000, the district was 59.7 percent black... The Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, released a statement in Atlanta Monday condemning the flier, saying, it 'makes an outrageously false claim about Jews' attitudes toward Jesus, and it attempts to drive a potentially dangerous wedge and incite tensions between African-Americans and Jews in Memphis.'" Other Tinker fans disguised as men of God have attacked Cohen because he voted-- like all but 14 Democrats-- to include gay men and women in the Hate Crimes bill. The Tinker supporters have tried using this as a wedge issue against Cohen, failing to mention that every single African American member of Congress voted for it and the only Democrats who voted against it are the same ones who always oppose the kind of progressive legislation meant to right the wrongs that have been perpetrated against minority communities.

Yesterday's Memphis Commercial Appeal has condemned Tinker and her backers in the attack on Steve.

What does Nikki Tinker think about anti-Semitic literature being circulated that might help her unseat 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen in the Democratic primary next August?

A fair question, which Tinker declined to answer this week after a flier stating that "Steve Cohen and the Jews Hate Jesus" began circulating in Memphis.

The question goes to the character of the woman who wants to represent the 9th District, and 9th District voters deserve an answer. But Tinker declined to return a phone call about the flier.

I expect Ford and the DLC to make a tremendous effort to defeat Steve in August. Let's see if he and the DLC have the decency to denounce this hatred. Any help you can give Steve at Blue America will be greatly appreciated.