COHEN’S CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: AN ELECTION-EVE BATTLE ON TWO FRONTS
Memphis Flyer
oid=oid%3A46959
Aug 6 2008
TN
Even as one 5 o’clock local newscast was summing up a bizarre
development in the 9th District congressional race as a matter of
incumbent congressman Steve Cohen "losing his cool," a veteran
observer, looking at the same scenario from an ideological and
disinterested distance, saw the case in point in another light
altogether.
"I think it probably helped Cohen," said John Ryder, a well-known
local Republican and a GOP national committeeman. Like numerous other
Memphians, Ryder saw the TV footage of the congressman physically
ousting an uninvited Tinker supporter who, posing as a photo-journalist
and documentarian, was attempting to infiltrate a group of newsmen
convened at Cohen’s Midtown residence for a press conference.
"Maybe it’s a guy thing, and it goes beyond black and white," said
an admiring Ryder. "I think all of us around here realize that you
can’t just meekly put up with the presence of a hostile invader in
your own household."
Cohen’s close encounter occurred on the eve of what he hopes will be a
vote of confidence in Thursday’s Democratic primary. The set-to with
Peter Musurlian, a Californian of Armenian descent, occurred near
the beginning of the Wednesday morning press conference, called by
the congressman to rebut the second of two unusually virulent attack
ads this week from opponent Nikki Tinker.
Given the nature of the response to the new ad, which caused Tinker
to be all but repudiated by a major supporter, Cohen may have come
out ahead on that front as well.
A New Attack
Challenger Tinker’s first ad, appearing over the weekend, had
criticized Cohen for withholding support from a proposal to disinter
the late Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Among other
things, the commercial yoked the congressman’s image to that of a
hooded Klansman. The new ad, beginning with the voice-over of a child
at prayer, asserted that "the real Steve Cohen" was not the man who is
"in OUR churches clapping his hands and tapping his feet" but "the
Senator who thought OUR kids shouldn’t be allowed to pray in school."
It was arguable whether the "OUR " denoted "African-American" or
"Christian" or perhaps both, though the respected pundit Joshua
Marshall of the Talking Points Memo Web site was among several
observers who wasted no time pronouncing "anti-Semitism" to be at
the heart of the ad.
The two ads together meanwhile earned Tinker the stern disapproval
of the feminist PAC Emily’s List, which makes a point of supporting
women running for public office and had been one of her major nominal
sources of support. Said "Ellen Malcolm, the group’s president: "We
were shocked to see the recent ads run by the Nikki Tinker for Congress
campaign. We believe the ads are offensive and divisive. EMILY’s
List does not condone or support these types of attacks." (Though
Tinker has not, as of yet, been dropped altogether from the pro-choice
group’s roster of endorsees, she has been removed from the "Featured
Candidates" section on the Emily’s List Web site.)
Cohen had begun explaining to the journalists gathered in his den his
objections to Tinker’s new ad (among other things, he called himself
"a supporter of school prayer" and maintained that the 1997 state
Senate vote alluded to in the ad concerned a technical church-state
issue), when there were sounds of a disturbance in an adjoining room.
That turned out to be Musurlian, who had been in Memphis this week
confronting Cohen in the course of the congressman’s scheduled campaign
events. Cohen would later say that Musurlian has been stalking him
in retaliation for his role in defeating a House resolution that
would have formally condemned Turkey for its genocide against ethnic
Armenians almost a century ago. The Armenian activist had gained
entry into Cohen’s house and, claiming to be a legitimate media
representative, was involved in a heated argument with two of the
congressman’s aides, who tried to prevent him from disrupting the
press conference.
Ultimately Cohen himself, clearly perturbed, entered the anteroom
and, in the course of a shouting match, partly coaxed Musurlian and
partly shoved him through a doorway and out of the house. "He’s out
of here. Let’s start over," Cohen said. He then resumed the press
conference as scheduled – though he and everyone else present knew
that its subject matter had been superseded.
So Who Came Out Ahead?
What Musurlian gained from all of the above was some random video
of the unfriendly encounter which presumably can be put to use by
assorted Armenian pressure groups in their continuing full-court press
against Cohen’s reelection campaign. (Should such footage prove usable,
however, it would possibly undermine Musurlian’s claim that Cohen or
his aides had managed to "break" his video-camera.)
The Armenian also got the chance to speak at length about his cause
in an impromptu press conference of his own across the street from
Cohen’s house afterwards. Mursulian confirmed that supporters of the
Armenian cause like himself had contributed to Tinker’s congressonal
campaign (to the tune, Cohen would tell his press conference attendees,
of $30,000). He said that Cohen had been targeted not merely because
of his opposition to the resolution condemning Turkey but because
the freshman Memphis congressman had been a leader in quashing it.
What Cohen gained from the encounter was, first of all, the opportunity
to vent against a group — mainly composed of "outsiders," he
said – who had been tormenting him for weeks through a variety of
means, including longish, literal-minded non-sequitur screeds in
the blogosphere. He also got a chance to affirm that, while he was
against the war in Iraq, he wanted to safeguard and provision the
American troops there. He said his position on the Armenian resolution
had been partly determined by advice from General David Petraeus,
commander of the ground war, who had stressed to Cohen the importance
of not alienating the Turks, de facto allies who maintained a reliable
supply line to American forces in Iraq.
Cohen may also, as the Ryder comment indicates, have earned some macho
points for his do-it-yourself eviction – especially since Musurlian
was, on the clear evidence of the widely seen video, a stout sort who
enjoyed several pounds and more than a few years on the slightly built,
middle-aged congressman.
It was somewhat harder to see what down-in-the-polls challenger Tinker
may have gained from the day’s events – though her new ad, coupled
with her previous one, may have helped cement her pre-existing hold on
those voters for whom racial and religious loyalties outweigh all other
factors. But she has clearly lost traction with such undecided voters,
black and white, as subscribe to the amenities of polite discourse –
elements of which, in shadow form, survive even in politics. Even
Tinker’s true believers, if such really exist in the strict sense,
might have trouble exculpating her from charges of, consecutively,
race-baiting and Jew-baiting.
And there are quarters of the 9th District, as elsewhere in the
universe of Democratic voters, where there is no conceivable disgrace
like that of being designated "Worst Person in the World" by MSNBC
commentator Keith Olbermann,, who scoldingly bestowed the dubious
award on Tinker Wednesday night.
— Jackson Baker is senior editor of The Memphis Flyer and a
contributor to Memphis magazine. His primary concerns are political
coverage and general news; other duties include editorials, op-ed
contributions, and the paper’s online edition. He has worked as a
reporter for the Arkansas Gazette and as an aide in the U.S. House of
Representatives in Washington, D.C. He was a panelist on the WKNO-TV
series, Informed Sources and an assistant professor of English at the
University of Memphis. Jackson has won numerous journalism awards,
including four Green Eyeshade Awards from the Society for Professional
Journalists. A frequent TV commentator, he has written for such
periodicals as Time Magazine and the New York Times. He is married
and has four children and two grandchildren. He lives in Cordova.
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