ANTI-SEMITIC POLITICAL FLIERS IN TENNESSEE

Volunteer State Hate (WSJ-BOTW)
Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee is a rarity in Congress: a white lawmaker representing a majority-black district. First elected in 2006 to fill the vacant seat of Harold Ford Jr., Cohen faces a primary challenge this summer from a black candidate, Nikki Tinker. The Washington Post's Mary Ann Akers reports that the campaign against Cohen has gotten unusually ugly:

"Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus," blares the flier, which Cohen himself received in the mail--inducing gasps--last week.

Circulated by an African-American minister from Murfreesboro Tenn., which isn't even in Cohen's district, the literature encourages other black leaders in Memphis to "see to it that one and ONLY one black Christian faces this opponent of Christ and Christianity in the 2008 election."

Akers also quotes from an editorial in the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

Last summer Cohen came under attack from black ministers who challenged the congressman's support for federal hate crimes legislation to protect gay rights. The paper wrote that the "real motive" behind the ministers' attacks was revealed later by Rev. Robert Poindexter who, according to the Commercial Appeal, said of Cohen: "He's not black and he can't represent me, that's just the bottom line."

Poindexter seems to have a misconception about the nature of political representation in a democratic republic--namely, that his congressman's job is to represent him "as a black" rather than as a citizen. Yet it is this same misrepresentation that has led to deliberate efforts to draw "majority minority" districts like the one Cohen now defends.

As for the anti-Semitic flier, it is evidence of the folly of thinking that a society can practice identity politics without opening itself up to the ugly side of such politics.

NASHVILLE SUDDEN JIHAD SYNDROME PRECEDED BY ANTI-SEMITIC DIARTRIBE

Nashville Cabbie Made Antisemitic Remarks Before Attack (LGF)
Remember the incident earlier this month, when a Nashville cabbie got into a “religious argument” with two passengers, and ended up running them down with his cab? Remember how vague the initial reports were?

Here’s why: Man hit by cab after driver made anti-Semetic [sic] comments.

A Nashville cabbie made anti-Semitic statements and praised Adolph Hitler’s campaign against Jews during a religious argument that culminated when he ran over one of the passengers as he left the taxi, witnesses said during a hearing today. The cab driver, Ibrahim Ahmed, said Hitler was “trying to rid the world of Jews,” the alleged victim, Jeremie Imbus, told the court.

“I just remember ...(being)... I guess the word is ‘shocked,’” Imbus said of the Feb. 18 incident.Imbus and his friend Andrew Nelson, both of Ohio, had come to town to visit a friend and had been out drinking in downtown bars earlier in the evening. Imbus, who was wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, said he couldn’t remember much about the night.

But his friend, Nelson, said he pulled Imbus out of the cab as he kicked at the back of the cabbie’s seat. Both men the took off running, he said.

Nelson heard the vehicle accelerate and then saw the mini-van hit his friend, he testified. Imbus suffered a broken leg, a fractured pelvic bone and several other injuries.

Ahmed, 37, was working for United Cab Co., at the time. He faces charges of attempted criminal homicide.