Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Well, that didn’t take long. This just in from the halls of civility: According to Jonathan Karl, of ABC News, Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) compared Republicans to Nazis on the floor of the House of Representatives last night. Of course the speech, appropriately delivered to an empty chamber, hasn’t garnered much in the way of press coverage, the press’ attention being presently diverted to fishing expeditions in Lake Beck, Lake Palin, and Lake Limbaugh.
Quoth the distinguished gas bag from Tennessee, “The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it--believed it and you have the Holocaust. We heard on this floor, government takeover of health care. Politifact said the biggest lie of 2010 was a government takeover of health care because there is no government takeover.” Leave aside for the moment the proposition that a healthcare law whose pages number in the thousands, whose obligations require tens of thousands of new IRS agents to enforce, whose provisions compel the creation of over 150 new government agencies, and whose powers are vested in executive branch agencies is somehow anything other than a government takeover. Listen to the interview Cohen gave last year in which he compares Tea Party members to the KKK, among others. What I’m wondering is, what in blue blazes are the people of Cohen’s district thinking?
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Is this guy whose son is in the hoosegow for hacking Sarah ?
Nov '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
You are thinking of David Kernell:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin_email_hack
His father is Democratic state representative Mike Kernell of Memphis.
Jun '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Thanks for posting on this, Dave.
But, as you should know by now, only the right needs to be civil and in control. They're all rich and powerful. The left, however, is passionate, artistic, provocative. Can we blame them if they get a bit ahead of themselves from time to time?
Nov '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
With Democrats and liberals, everything is a double standard and a one-way-street. They hold themselves to no standards, but loudly insist that Republicans and conservatives must adhere to the highest standards.
It is an utterly cynical tactic, taken straight from Saul Alinsky:
"The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."
As a political weapon, it is extremely powerful, as we know too well.
Jul '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Cohen's comparison of the Republicans to the Nazis is just proof that the left have never thought of their actions as uncivil. To stop using that comparison would be admitting that they were uncivil in the past.
Edited on Jan 19, 2011 at 6:18pmJul '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Meanwhile, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D - TX), informs us that repeal of Obamacare would be unconstituional:
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/01/18/sheila-jackson-lee-repealing-obamacare-is-unconstitutional/
Well, at least she's, um, thinking about the Constitution.
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Lady Kurobara: ...It is an utterly cynical tactic, taken straight from Saul Alinsky:
"The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."
As a political weapon, it is extremely powerful, as we know too well. · Jan 19 at 6:14pm
Thanks for quoting that Lady K. Jonah Goldberg's book on this general topic is indispensable.
Oct '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
And the fact that the President doesn't have a single word to say about all of this just puts to the lie almost everything he said in Arizona last week.
Which a lot of us already figured out, but it's nice for him to prove it so quickly.
Dec '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Aw, the gold standard for losing a political argument...the Nazi card
May '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Things like this make me really appreciate Newsbusters. A five minute search yields dozens of quotes that are more careless or spiteful than anything Rush, Glenn Beck, or Sarah Palin have ever said.
Politicians talk trash. Some of them - from both parties - do so in a careless or downright stupid way. It's not that big of a deal, unless you're losing all your arguments and grasping at straws. Who wants to bet Cohen gets a stern talking-to for damaging The Narrative while the Democrats' PR situation is so dire?
May '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Cohen's claim of the Republican's parroting the 'big lie' is laughable, since it is he and his fellow socialist who've co-opted the technique of the 'big lie' touting their socialist HC law. He and the Dems are shameful.
May '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Kristallnacht? ohhh its the old Hitler business
May '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Another one for Jay Nordlinger's "If a Republican had said this..." file.
May '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Another one for Jay Nordlinger's "If a Republican had said this..." file.
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
A little piece of trivia for the board: my first job in politics was interning in the Tennessee State Legislature while I was in college. I was assigned to a committee in the House, but Cohen was in the Senate at the time, and this kind of rhetoric was par for the course. His elevation to Congress was something of a feat given that his liberal Memphis district has been dominated by the Ford family (most recently, of Harold Jr. fame) for decades.
BTW, interns were assigned to committees and at the time the Dems held both houses in Tennessee. The chairman of the committee I was assigned to? None other than Mike Kernell (actually a wonderful guy, but a moonbat on the issues).
Lady Kurobara
You are thinking of David Kernell:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin_email_hack
His father is Democratic state representative Mike Kernell of Memphis. · Jan 19 at 5:59pm
Jan '11
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
So Cohen's source of political information is Politifact, just as Keven Trenberth's source of scientific information is IPCC AR4.
Give them each a point for making it perfectly clear that their sources are worthless.
May '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
Here's a clue. According to Wikipedia, is the ethnic breakdown of his Memphis district: 36.1% White, 59.7% Black.
May '10
Re: Civility Alert: Rep Steve Cohen Unhinged
It's been a mystery for some time how Cohen managed to sneak into that seat after Harold Ford left to pursue the Senate seat (vacated by Frist, won by Corker). Surely there was no shortage of black candidates. It's an issue that comes up every two years. Living on the other end of a very long state, I still hear that chatter.