Well Pam, this all highlights why elections are a gift for comedy bloggers like my team at Boggart Blog.
Today we concentrated on Barak Obama’s promise that Jerusalem will remain the capital of israel throughout his presidency which must have surprised the citizen’s of Tel Aviv.

Well we have ridiculed Bush because he can,‘t find his arse with both hands but it looks as if Barry couldn’t find someone eles’ arse with both hands.

But poisonous preachers will come into the field of fire soon I guess.

Ian, I gotta say, I don’t understand what you’re actually saying, but it looks like you’re claiming Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel, which, um.

...after checking your blog I find that indeed that’s your claim.

I don’t know what to say.

Ah, apparently the international community doesn’t recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. I didn’t realize that. Still, given that the US does, it’s hardly something to criticize Obama for…

...unless you’re a tool.

(There are other things to criticize Obama for in that speech, just to be clear.)

Pam,

Back in late April or early May, Cohen made a rather unfortunate analogy comparing Hillary’s continued presence in the race to Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction.  Shortly after that, an op-ed piece ran in the WaPo from Ellen Malcolm (IIRC), the president of Emily’s List. Among other things, she used this as an example (correctly IMO) of the sexism directed at Senator Clinton.  Cohen apologized and retracted the statement, but it obviously wasn’t enough.

Why back such a divisive candidate if your primary issue is already supported? Is there something missing from this picture that we should be aware of?

Well I could of course just be confused, but my distinct impression was that the timing of Emily’s List’s endorsement in this race indicated that they did this specifically and directly in retaliation for a problematic comment Steve Cohen made about Hillary Clinton. (It looks like Cohen made the comment about May 10, Emily’s List stepped in about May 30. Tinker’s been in the race since at least February…)

It looks like the next time I get a fundraising letter from Emily’s List, I’m tearing it up and sending it back to them.

That said, I still don’t see how backing Tinker is helpful given the level homophobia and anti-Semitism out there, left unchecked.

You’re quite right.  Cohen’s not my rep (I live at the other end of the state), but I’m fairly sure he is pro-choice and at least acceptable (and likely better than that) on other women’s issues.  This is largely (another) fit of pique.

It’s particularly disappointing in light of the fat that 81% of my fellow Tennesseans voted to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage in 2006.  Ironically, that high number was due to the presence of Harold Ford on the ballot resulting in record turnouts by African Americans.  (That’s something I’ll never be able to wrap my mind around.)

re: Harold Ford

Yup, he certainly did.  Apparently he’s deaf, too.  That’s the only thing that could explain his salivating over Huggy Bear’s “speechifying” skills on Tuesday night.

We had two really lousy candidates for Senate from the major parties (which happens way too often here) in ‘06.  So (if I may paraphrase a slogan from my political infancy), I felt totally vindicated in going “Clean for Green”.

Sarcastro,

I was born and raised in Chattanooga and came of age in the Bookie Turner era.  In fact, one of my proud moments was being arrested at a civil rights demonstration in Warner Park and being loaded into the paddy wagon by Bookie hisself.

Corker was an extremely weak candidate, which is one reason Ford was able to come within 3 points of beating him. It was like watching Arnold Stang and Wally Cox trying to go 10 rounds (google, youngsters). He’ll be a one-term Senator.  Of course, this being Tennessee, odds aren’t in favor of his replacement being much better.

Maybe someone else remembers better than I, but I think Emily’s List backed Tinker two years ago when Cohen won the first time, and the campaign was just as bitter - White Jew trying to take Harold Ford Jr’s seat, we can’t have that.
Steve Cohen is one of the most progressive politicians you are going to find in the South, maybe even the entire country. He will fight for equal rights for everyone.

Ford’s political strategy was always sound. He was safe in his district because he had the family political machine and considerable resources, and he was very good at constituent service.

Then he built a moderate-to-conservative voting record with a goal of building his statewide electoral majority for the Senate.  There was always kind of a tension between Ford and the CBC and liberal groups, because he was far to the right of them, but he was also a handsome, telegenic, media-savvy black congressman.

The Ford family political engine didn’t have much track to run on outside of Memphis, and he built his statewide platform on his own.  His district is majority black, but blacks are less than 15% of the electorate in Tennessee, which meant his Senate aspirations were always contingent on white votes, and Tennessee is a pretty conservative state. Aspiring to a statewide office as a black guy in that state is very difficult, and you don’t accomplish it as a “progressive.” Many Democrats in places like Tennessee are further to the right than Northeastern Republicans.

Ford almost won though, and to beat him, Bob Corker ran one of the dirtiest, most contemptible campaigns since Bush’s SC smears against McCain in 2000.  Corker got over the top with a desperate last minute race-baiting campaign in conservative, white East Tennessee, by blanketing the air with TV spots implying that Ford liked having sex with white women.

Cohen is much more liberal than Ford, and very liberal even for a black urban district.  Of course, Cohen won in largely the same way the white candidate on “The Wire” won the mayoral seat in Baltimore; the black majority splintered among several black candidates, and Cohen consolidated white Democrats and a sliver of the black vote to come out on top.  And Cohen can afford to be liberal because has no Senate aspirations.

Why back such a divisive candidate if your primary issue is already supported?

Here’s the beginning of Emily’s List’s mission statement:

EMILY’s List members are dedicated to building a progressive America by electing pro-choice Democratic women to office.

It seems to me that there are three equal priorities here:
1) Electing pro-choice candidates.
2) Electing Democrats
3) Electing women

Cohen is not a pro-choice, Democratic woman.  Where’s the controversy?

I’m not a huge Emily’s list fan. I’m not a Democrat. And I happen to think that single-issue groups (to the extent that they’re useful) are most effective when they’re not tied to a particular party.

But Emily’s List has made their goals clear and, in this race, they’re following them. If you don’t like it, don’t support them.

Tinker’s campaign and surrogates have engaged in disturbing tactics

Is there a material connection between Rev. Moore and the Tinker campaign?  Or is the Rev. a repugnant, bigoted loon who has a problem with Tinker’s opponent?  Are they on the same side or are they actively working together?  It’s bad not to repudiate something repellent, but it’s more bad to perpetrate something repellent, and from this piece it’s hard to tell that the “disturbing tactics” are the work of the “campaign and surrogates.”

Mitchforth, thanks for the primer on the Fords and the perils of trying to balance larger aspirations with local service.

Mitchforth,

I do love it when New Yorkers lecture us natives on our politics. Makes me want to put my shoes on and everything.

In fairness to Ford, he was also saddled with the fact that two of his family members were indicted as part of the Tennessee Waltz influence peddling sting.  And while the race-baiting was the worst, Corker started slinging mud much earlier by implying Ford wasn’t a real Tennessean because he had attended university and law school out of state.  Corker himself never graduated from college.  He was one of those “bidness” men the R’s seem to think so highly of.

Ford was a smart politician (hooking up to the DLC and the Clinton wing doesn’t look quite so astute now) in that he knew what he had to do to give himself a chance in the statewide race.  I do understand that someone who holds my POVs cannot get elected in this state to dog catcher.  I always go to the polls carrying a clothespin for my nose.  That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Sarcastro,

Bookie was a character. His given name was James so the source of his nickname was pretty obvious.  His brother Gene ran Turner Funeral Home.  My uncle and the man who would become my father-in-law drove ambulances for Turner during the Depression.  When the body business was slow, the Turners used to ambulances to run bootleg whiskey.

I seemed to spend a lot of time in paddy wagons during that period of my life, so I may have shared public conveyances with your dad.  Fortunately, the circumstances never led to any state-sponsored vacations.

Phil, Sarcastro - would you mind not using the term “paddy wagon”?  It’s an ethnic slur across a large part of the English speaking world.  Thanks.

Cohen is not a pro-choice, Democratic woman.  Where’s the controversy?

You mean other than the gay-baiting and the anti-Semitism?

Donna:

Phil, Sarcastro - would you mind not using the term “paddy wagon”?  It’s an ethnic slur across a large part of the English speaking world. Thanks.

Hm. It seems that there are no terms for that particular type of vehicle that aren’t ethnic slurs. The Wikipedia article claims that it’s also called a “mother’s heart” (because there’s always room for one more), but the usage isn’t cited.

I kinda feel like a jerk for asking, but… which ethnicity does the term attack?  My impulse is to guess the Irish, since “paddy” was a derogatory name for the Irish in 19th and early 20th century America, but I’m guessing that’s not right. 

This seems like something I probably should know, but I don’t.

Donna,

FWIW, there’s a company based in Ireland call Paddywagon Tours (http://www.paddywagontours.com/). There’s also a group called Paddy Wagon that records Irish folk music (http://www.paddywagon.net). So it would appear that umbrage isn’t universal.

Another suggested derivation is from the padding used to liner the interior of the wagons to prevent injury in horse-drawn days. Granted is seems a stretch but it is possible. I could use the term Black Maria, though I doubt that’s any better and would only be received with blank stares anyway.  “Vehicle used to transport arrested persons to jail” is awfully damn clumsy (being facetious, pace).

I apologize for offending you.  It wasn’t intentional.  My biological father was of Irish descent and I didn’t intend to disparage my ancestors.

Cohen is not a pro-choice, Democratic woman.  Where’s the controversy?

But the issue is not whether they ought to endorse Cohen, it’s whether they ought to endorse his primary opponent.  Being a prochoice, Democratic woman is supposed to be necessary but not of itself sufficient to earn an endorsement.  Imagine a hypothetical prochoice Democratic woman who is openly racist, or corrupt, or simply batshit crazy—ought they to endorse her?

Phil - I know that no offense was intended, and I didn’t take any, but I thought you might want to know.  I actually used to believe the folk etymology myself, but even if it weren’t incorrect (sadly, because it’s kind of awesome) the term is still pretty offensive to a lot of people. 

I’ve heard “police wagon” or “police van”, and those terms seem to work well, but acronyms seem to enjoy some popularity on this here series of tubes, so maybe VUTTAPTJ will catch on.

Well, I’m part Irish, and I always called them paddy wagons.

The association has been so lost in the mists of time that people don’t even get the reference. And the Irish joined the ranks of the “white” so long ago that it’s lost its sting for anybody who’s not itchin’ to be insulted.

And I’m a Tennessean, and Nikki Tinker deserves….

Well, I don’t know.

Steve Cohen served in the State Senate for years, and he’s worked his ass off for the people of Memphis.

As for the Ford Family, only Harold Senior is worth a damn. He was the guy who first won the seat after the Voting Rights Act, and he knows what’s important.

And when I hear anything about Memphis city politics, I give thanks to the Lord above for Hizzoner The Great Beverly Briley, who managed the only reasonably successful merger of city and county governments EVAR!

I was kinda sad to see the old East Nashville posse fade, though. Bettie Page!

hamletta - I am going to have to respectfully disagree.  Plenty of people I know, actual Irish people as well as Americans of Irish extraction, are insulted by the term “paddy wagon” despite not “itchin’ to be insulted.”  And while in Tennessee the Irish may just be considered “white”, in many parts of the Northeast that is a ridiculous claim to make.  There is still considerable anti-Irish bias over a lot of the U.S.  You aren’t helping by insisting it doesn’t exist, and then using the same derogatory terms used by people with that bias.

Donna,

I was born and raised in Tennessee and lived here all but 5 years of my adult life (I’ll turn 60 in 3 months). Ethnicity isn’t a clearly delineated thing here and through most of the South primarily, I think, because most Southern cities don’t feature the ethnic neighborhoods that began with the first wave of immigrants and have prospered for over a century of more.  It’s not that folks don’t know where they came from, but that ethnicity is for the most part diffuse and not concentrated. But we need to remember that our experience here isn’t necessarily true for other regions.

Furthermore, we should be sensitive because we have our own form of ethnic bias to deal with, not as immigrants but as Southerners.  When I was young, my liberal friends and I had to band together regardless of ancestry to defend ourselves against the condescensions and slurs of Northerners. From the experience of my late brother-in-law (a Vanderbilt graduate) who, when in basic training in the ‘60s, was asked by two New Yorkers in all seriousness if he had indoor plumbing and a paved road in front of his house to the assumption I was greeted with as a teenager with when my family moved to Ohio that I was a budding Bull Connor in training.

Granted these incidents and others don’t rise to the level of violence that greeted the first wave of Irish Catholics in Boston (and Robert Young’s speech to, ironically enough, a young soldier from Tennessee in the 1947 film Crossfire is an eloquent if somewhat melodramatic reminder for any who need reminding).  But they are certainly enough to help us not forget that there are other forms of prejudice beyond racism that permeated the South I grew up in.

Phil - I am not trying to downplay any other form of bias or prejudice.  I am only 26, and have always lived in the Northeast, with the exception of some brief stays in Berkeley.  So it is natural that I would be unaware of the particular biases you’ve dealt with.  And it sucks that you’ve dealt with them - they shouldn’t exist.  I appreciate the fact that I asked you to stop using a term that’s widely considered offensive here, although obviously not in TN - thank you.  I hope that if the tables were ever turned, I could be as gracious as you have been, both in seeing another point of view and in tactfully pointing out your own.

I appreciate the fact that I asked you to stop using a term that’s widely considered offensive here, although obviously not in TN, and you did - thank you.

Uh, sorta forgot that key part!

Donna,

I am not trying to downplay any other form of bias or prejudice.

Absolutely did not take anything you said that way and did not intend the tone of my response to indicate that. 

I won’t swear no one would be offended by the term down here. I’ve never seen it and I’ve never heard that vehicle called anything else.  But that’s a far cry from saying no Tennessean - native or transplant - would take offense.

Plus there is absolutely no doubt that “breeding” matters to the upper crust country club set.  We still have our “coming out” balls for debutantes and it’s very clear you have to one of the “right” families to get your daughter presented.  Why you would want to do that to your daughter is another question.  Hell, Charleston holds the St Ceclia Ball every year and you can’t even find out the location unless you belong to the fraternity. 

You’ve been most gracious yourself.  Having a conversation like this across generations and different cultural experiences always gives me hope.  Thank you.

Phil - You’ve been most gracious yourself.  Having a conversation like this across generations and different cultural experiences always gives me hope.  Thank you.

Likewise!  I have a sometimes forget that plenty of people on our side don’t match my demographics (young, northern, slightly nerdy liberal academics); I think on sites like Pandagon it is easy to lose sight of that fact, given that comments don’t come with age/race/education/gender/orientation/whathaveyou keys.