Just Desserts: Cohen Beats Tinker

There is a little justice in the world:

Rep. Steve Cohen, who won just 31% of the primary vote in a crowded field in 2006, beat former Congressional aide and attorney Nikki Tinker by a 79%-19% margin to retain the Democratic nomination in Tennessee's Ninth District. In the Memphis-based seat where about 60% of the population is African American, a white Jewish Democrat winning a second term by such a vast margin came as a surprise to many.

Tinker, who is African American, went on the attack late in the campaign, using language and images in advertisements that invoked the Ku Klux Klan and toed other racial lines. But Cohen, a former State Senator and local official for three decades, confidently predicted victory all along, and turned some of the attacks back against Tinker.

That is a whopping defeat for Tinker and her black racist views. It is hard to think that the reaction against black racist Jeremiah Wright didn't have just a little to do with this as well. Blacks do not want to be associated with paranoid racist ravings any more than Whites do (even more so you would think, given their history of being victimized by racism), so they rightfully rejected it.

Congratulations and kudos to Steve Cohen, and the good people of Tennessee's Ninth District (you know who you are).

P.S. Naturally, the New York Times somehow forgot to mention any party affiliations in this very ugly Democratic race (ahem).

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