Steve Cohen And The Anti Defamation League, And Yet One More Opportunity To Backtrack On MSNBC--Fail!

The ADL was not impressed by Rep. Cohen's behaviour:

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

No matter how strong one's objections to any policy or to the tactics of political opponents, invoking the Holocaust and the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people is offensive and has no place in a civil political discourse.
 
Using the Holocaust as an analogy to express frustration or comparing false information to the anti-Semitic blood libel or to Goebbels' genocidal propaganda is inappropriate and serves only to trivialize the dangers of anti-Semitism and the unique tragedy in human history that saw the murder of six million Jews and millions of others.
 
We respect Representative Cohen's right to engage in vigorous debate about health care policy.  We hope he will reconsider his offensive statement and we urge all members of Congress to reject such odious comparisons.


At least, that may have gotten his attention. Still a thunderous silence from his fellow Dems--the ones who scream about civility...

So, he trundles hisself onto the Ed show...

..and Ed (a member of the Politburo Left, if there ever was one...) throws him softballs to see if he won't back down. And, Cohen begins to make noises that sound like he might regret what he said. Remember, in his world, words don't have meaning--they're just noises you make to get people to let you have your way today. He almost almost almost makes it over the hedge, almost gets it done, and then at the very very end, the RealSteveCohen comes charging back. He takes one final swipe at GOP Congressman Mike Pence:

I think Mike Pence said he often wants to be concise, careful, and consistent. Well that’s someone who I’ll never mention again who lived in the previous century who worked for bad people. That’s what he did.”

In the end, he never regrets a bit of it. So much for civility.

Where's Paul Krugman, who railed about civil discourse? Miz Nancy? Anyone out there amongst the Literati Of The Left? Anyone, save the ADL?

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HT RedState

Steve Cohen On CNN: John King Gives Him The Opportunity To Backtrack...

...to no avail.

Cohen just kept on insisting that he was justified in his poisonous rhetoric, rejecting King's gentle suggestions that reasonable people may conclude he was comparing his House GOP colleagues to Goebbels.

King even cited words Cohen had recently published about civility in public discourse, which his words on the floor of the House totally discredited. It only made Cohen more adamant. The interview ends with Cohen comparing himself to film maker Mel Brooks, and King finally loses patience by pointing out that Brooks is a comedian, and that Cohen is supposed to be engaged in serious political debate.

One would think...but then again, this is Steve Cohen, and Tennessee Democrats, and House Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi. OS has yet to see any Democrat distance himself from these horrible remarks by Cohen, or his aggresive re-assertion of the same.

Is there anyone, anywhere amongst the Dems willing to say: 'Yes, he's in my party, and no, he does not speak for me. There's no excuse for this behaviour on the House floor.' How about his Democrat colleagues in the Tennessee delegation, like Jim Cooper of Nashville?

(Sound of crickets chirping...)

Is there perhaps a rabbi anywhere who might wish to point out that just being a member of the Almighty's Chosen doesn't confer a special right to engage in this behaviour?

Is there an historian, or ethics professor in any Tennessee university (or any university), willing to speak up about this sort of thing?

Cohen is a Member of Congress. As citizens of Tennessee, we have a right to expect a grownup to show up on the House floor. Even Mel Brooks would be preferable, because he at least can tell the difference between Nazis and people who happen to disagree with his point of view.

Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, Equating GOP Stance On Health-Care Law To Joseph Goebbels

Really, you just can't make this stuff up. From ABC News, today.

ABC News Jonathan Karl reports:

The newfound civility didn’t last long. Political rhetoric in Congress doesn’t get much nastier than the words of one House Democrat during the debate on repealing the health care law.

In an extraordinary outburst on the House floor, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) invoked the Holocaust to attack Republicans on health care and compared rhetoric on the issue to the work of infamous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

“They say it's a government takeover of health care, a big lie just like Goebbels," Cohen said. "You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually, people believe it. Like blood libel. That's the same kind of thing. And Congressman Cohen didn’t stop there.

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," Cohen said.

Cohen made his comments late last night, but they have attracted no attention because his speech was made to a virtually empty House chamber with no reporters around to watch.

Well, someone was present to pass it along. OS believes it would be a good thing for this little gem to circulate and circulate and circulate, especially through the ranks of the Tennessee legislature charged with apportioning districts based upon the 2010 census. For the first time since post-Civil War Reconstruction, Tennessee has a Republican governor, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate, and large majorities in both houses. Time to begin cleaning up over 140 years of mess left behind by the Democrats.

The Congressional Districts of Tennessee are obvious Democrat gerrymanders, which finally failed to produce the expected results in 2010, because the voters outside of Memphis and Nashville had finally had enough, and the old-boy Dems got out of Dodge before they had to face the voters.

Memphis is a classic 'rotten borough', essentially ceded to the Democrats since the days of the Crump machine. It is a dependency of the Welfare State. The crime is awful. The corruption is rampant, and has long been blatant. OS has visited there on days when the racial tension was so thick that no blacks and whites would even look one another in the eye at the grocery checkout line.

Steve Cohen is a proud product of that machine.

When Memphis sneezes, West Tennessee gets a cold. OS thinks it's time that Greater Memphis (including good portions of Germantown and Cordoba, to where the middle class fled to avoid the crime and decay) should be included in the Congressional district that the Hon. Mr. Cohen would find himself attempting to win in 2012. Things would get interestinger and interestinger for him in a non-fixed election.

This speech is, well, shameful. Has one Democrat at either state or Federal level stepped up to disavow those remarks, and scold Cohen in public? Miz Nancy, you there? Paul Krugman? Former Governor Bredesen? Former Speaker Naifeh? Former State Senator Roy Herron? Anybody?

Don't hold yer breath waiting fer it, ya'll. Cohen is the face of the Tennessee Democrat Party, in full flower. Listen and judge.