After Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) beat Democratic primary opponent Nikki Tinker in a landslide on Aug. 7 (read JTA’s story here), New York Times columnist Bob Herbert called it a victory against racism (in this case, against whites) and anti-Semitism:
In that Ninth Congressional District of Memphis, a district that is predominantly black in a city that has had its share of racial trouble — the city in which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed — Mr. Cohen won an astonishing 80 percent of the vote, sweeping all demographic categories and destroying the disgusting (yes, stomach-turning) campaign of Nikki Tinker.
For the moment, at least, we can put the Pepto-Bismol aside and raise a glass of Champagne.
The voters in Mr. Cohen’s district rejected the Tinker tactics overwhelmingly, refusing to succumb to the blandishments of racism or anti-Semitism. Instead of abandoning their congressman, they rallied around him when the filth started coming his way.
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