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RJC: Hastings and Cohen “offensive”

By Eric Fingerhut · September 25, 2008

The Republican Jewish Coalition is responding quickly to Rep. Alcee Hastings’ (D-Fla.) comment that “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks” at Wednesday’s National Jewish Democratic Council conference. It calls that remark and Rep. Steve Cohen’s comment that Jesus was “a great Democrat” inappropriate and offensive. Here’s their release:

Washington, D.C. (September 25, 2008) – Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Executive Director Matt Brooks responded today to comments made yesterday by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN):

CNN reported yesterday that Rep. Hastings, speaking to the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), said, “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.” Addressing the same panel, Rep. Cohen called Jesus “a great Democrat.”

“Representative Hastings stooped to the worst kind of divisive politics yesterday.  Hastings’ unconscionable remarks do nothing but sow seeds of fear and divide people,” said Brooks.  “There should be no place in our country for this sort of political discourse.  We can constructively disagree on the issues without denigrating others.  As for the comments made by Rep. Cohen, I do not believe the NJDC would have been as permissive if it had been a Republican calling Jesus ‘a great Republican.’ This sort of rhetoric is inappropriate, offensive and should be repudiated.”

Full CNN story below:

(CNN) - Rep. Alcee Hastings told an audience of Jewish Democrats Wednesday that they should be wary of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin because “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”

“If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention,” Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday. Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,” Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause.

After telling attendees that the most important thing Jewish and African-American Democrats could do to support one another was to get Sen. Barack Obama elected president, Hastings had one more message: “For those of you like me that supported Sen. Hillary Clinton, she lost! Get over it!”

Hastings was joined on the panel by Rep. Steven Cohen of Tennessee, who is Jewish and represents a majority African-American district; Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, who is African-American and whose district includes many of the significant sites in the 1960’s civil rights movement; and Georgetown Law Prof. Peter Edelman, who was a legislative assistant to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Cohen, who recently remarked that Jesus Christ was a community organizer, took his comments about the founder of the Christian faith further Wednesday. “A lot of what Jesus talks about is wonderful,” Cohen said. “Talks about helping people and lifting them up and caring about people who are sick and all those things. He’s a great Democrat.”

The panel was part of the National Jewish Democratic Council’s annual conference. The Jewish Democratic group recently voiced criticism of Palin’s invitation to an anti-Iran rally timed to coincide with Mahmoud Ahmedinajad’s visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Palin’s invitation was withdrawn by the rally’s organizers after Hillary Clinton announced that she would no longer be attending the event.

The support of Jewish voters is shaping up to be a highly sought after prize in the general election match-up between Sen. Obama and Sen. John McCain. Jews have historically favored Democrats by wide margins in recent presidential races. But, the McCain campaign is making a concerted effort to go after the loyal Democratic constituency and Obama has been plagued by false Internet rumors that he is Muslim which have had particular salience in the Jewish community.

1 Comment | Share This | Florida, NJDC, RJC, Sarah Palin, Steve Cohen

Matthews to Cohen: Hitler and Jesus are off limits

By Ron Kampeas · September 11, 2008

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) backed off likening Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, to Jesus, saying the comparison was a mistake.

Cohen, who is Jewish, told the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday that Jesus, like Obama, had been a “community organizer” and that Pontius Pilate was a governor – leaving unsaid but understood the parallel to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential pick who had mocked Obama’s community organizer past in her speech last week to the Republican Party convention.

Chris Matthews carpeted Cohen on “Hardball” on Thursday in a short segment that seemed to have been arranged solely so Matthews could, well, carpet Cohen.

Here’s the transcript of the exchange, courtesy of the Federal News Service:

MR. MATTHEWS: Congressman Cohen, was Jesus a community organizer? I thought he was a carpenter.

REP. COHEN: Well, he was several things, but he was an agent for change and he was outside the system. I certainly didn’t mean to compare Barack Obama to Jesus as a –

MR. MATTHEWS: No, Al Sharpton is a community organizer. Jesus was a carpenter.

REP. COHEN: Well –

MR. MATTHEWS: I just think it’s – well, how do you make – why do you come up with comparisons like that? I thought the rule was stay away from Jesus; stay away from Hitler. These comparisons never work. I’m not giving you a hard time, but metaphors in that category are generally very dangerous.

REP. COHEN: They are dangerous, and I shouldn’t have done it. The first minute of my speech was accurate, and it was the disingenuousness of the Republicans condemning community activists, who brought about much of the change in America. I’d seen a bumper sticker on my e-mail that morning from an activist friend in Memphis. Those things are more for activists and less for congressmen, and I’ve learned from this particular speech.

Matthews then graciously (to Cohen, anyway) segued into a softball about suspicions among Democrats that deriding “community organizers” - former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was even harsher than Palin in his convention speech - was racially charged. That let Cohen get in some campaigning - a sweet chaser after the bitter admission that he had gone too far with the Jesus analogy (and that it had been inspired by a bumper sticker!)

MR. MATTHEWS: Congressman, do you think the phrase “community organizer” is meant to suggest a kind of inner-city, big-city, ethnic, black, if you will, background and somewhat different or remote from the experiences of voters they’re trying to reach? In other words, are they setting up a caricature here through innuendo? Remember welfare mother? Remember how Reagan would talk about the young buck with his – I remember how Reagan used to do it – the young buck with his food stamps buying a bottle of gin. That was a fairly innuendo there. Is that – is this another one of these welfare mothers, community organizers, code phrases?

REP. COHEN: I believe it is. I saw (New York) Governor (David) Paterson reference that. And I felt it when I saw Governor (sic) Giuliani make the comment, as well as Governor Palin. Community activists, community organizers, do a lot of good in helping feed people, helping to take care of health needs, Habitat for Humanity efforts. And if you look at Dr. King and Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth, they’ve done so much good. That’s where change comes from. But I think it is a way to categorize somebody as a liberal, a leftist, an inner-city person. And that’s wrong. You know, Cesar Chavez helped farmers in California, and there have been efforts to help the people in the rural South as well.

Even sweeter, Matthews sent props to Cohen’s hometown before sending him on his way:

MR. MATTHEWS: Well, there’s nothing wrong with Memphis, is there? Congressman, thank you very much –

REP. COHEN: Memphis is great.

MR. MATTHEWS: Thank you for coming on and taking – explaining the whole thing.

The question remains, though - is this the first time a bumper sticker was read into the Congressional Record?

3 Comments | Share This | Republican convention, rudy giuliani, Sarah Palin, Steve Cohen

Cohen accepts Jesus - as a metaphor

By Ron Kampeas · September 10, 2008

Looks like U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) took the Christ talk to heart. Last month, the Memphis lawmaker trounced an opponent in the Democratic primaries after she failed to convince Cohen’s majority black constituency that he wasn’t “Christian” enough to represent them.

Cohen, among the first Jewish Dems to endorse the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), took aim Tuesday at Republican vice presidential pick Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, who has mocked Obama’s background as a community organizer. Cohen, echoing a trope that arose almost as soon as Palin (and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani) initiated the dig last week, argued that Jesus might have been considered a community organizer - and pointed out that Pontius Pilate was a governor.

That’s already raised hackles among Republicans who are crying religious bias. And considering the hits Cohen took, he should be careful with religious analogies - this is the ad his opponent ran against him.

Republicans should be careful crying bias, though: the legitimate point Palin and Giuliani were making, that Obama lacks executive experience, might have effectively been made picking at any of the many jobs on the candidate’s resume: Law professor (12 years) state legislator (eight years) U.S. Senator (four years) law firm associate (11 years) author (two best-sellers.) Yet Giuliani and Palin somehow picked the one job, community organizer (three years) that screams “African American.”

2 Comments | Share This | barack obama, Congressional races, John McCain, Presidential Race, Republican convention, Sarah Palin, Steve Cohen, Tennessee