We’ve all seen some nasty primary fights, but I can’t think of any recent examples that got as ugly as the fight in Tennessee’s 9th congressional district. The Memphis-area district has a majority African-American population, but recently elected Rep. Steve Cohen (D), who is white and Jewish.<\/p>\n
His opponents in the area are now distributing a shocking flier, painting Cohen as a Jesus-hater<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus,” blares the flier, which Cohen himself received in the mail — inducing gasps — last week.<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n Cohen’s main opponent in the August 5 Democratic primary in his predominantly African-American district is Nikki Tinker, who is black. The Commercial Appeal wrote an editorial in Wednesday’s paper condemning Tinker for not speaking out against the anti-Semitic literature.<\/p>\n “What does Nikki Tinker think about anti-Semitic literature being circulated that might help her unseat 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen in the Democratic primary next August?” the editorial asked. “The question goes to the character of the woman who wants to represent the 9th District, and 9th District voters deserve an answer. But Tinker declined to return a phone call about the flier.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When reader D.L. first alerted me to this story, my first thought was, “How disgusting.” At no point did it occur to me to think, “I wonder what Barack Obama thinks about this.”<\/p>\n