Posted on 08/05/2008 7:41:24 AM PDT by SmithL
Former Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey said Monday that the Nikki Tinker ad featuring pictures of a Ku Klux Klan rally and denunciations of incumbent Congressman Steve Cohen's vote not to remove the statue and remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest from a Memphis park "has nothing to do with race."
Asked if injecting the incendiary television images into Thursday's 9th Congressional District Democratic Primary contest would be seen as racially divisive, Bailey said: "That may be an ancillary side of it, but that's not the main focus, and it's not the intended focus."
Cohen's campaign pushed back vigorously on the ad, holding a press conference Saturday with many black politicians and elected officials showing their support.
"To take someone like Steve Cohen, with his reputation and experience in this community and to suggest he has any association with or should be juxtaposed to the Ku Klux Klan is outrageous," said Jerry Austin, Cohen's campaign manager.
Bailey recommended raising the issue late in the campaign this year to show that Cohen, who last week got his apology for slavery through Congress, is insensitive to efforts in July 2005 to remove what are to many the hated symbols of the Confederacy.
Cohen voted to oppose a resolution before the Center City Commission to disinter the remains of Forrest, the Confederate general linked by many historians to the early days of the Klan, "notwithstanding how he understands how strong some of us feel about it and what it symbolizes," Bailey said.
Mayor Willie Herenton also opposed efforts to remove the statue that year, saying: "digging up and moving graves or renaming city parks is not the proper way of dealing with this issue."
Bailey said the issue didn't come up in the 2006 race because he was not advising Tinker's campaign that year. Tinker's statement on the ad, released late Saturday night, 27 hours after first being contacted for comment, said in part: "The ad merely states the facts. I think the nation needs to know Steve Cohen's complete record."
King Willie’s domain eh? Why doesn’t he just issue a verdict?
I have never held Walter Bailey in high regard. He is a loud mouthed ex-politician.
Is Cohen, who is Jewish, a secret supporter of the Ku Klux Klan? Food for thought. /s
“He who controls the past, controls the future”
Orwell said that, he is quite correct, removing the body of a Nathan Bedford Forrest is over the top, he has a place in history, whether good or bad, and yet the Dhimmis cannot stand the thought that History should speak for itself, they MUST edit it to suit their agendas no matter how dubious that agenda may be.
That is a pretty racist ad.
“Mayor Willie Herenton also opposed efforts to remove the statue that year, saying: “digging up and moving graves or renaming city parks is not the proper way of dealing with this issue.” “
I never heard this. I’m stunned, er, stuned. I have to give King Willie a couple of points on this one.
Cohen, who last week got his apology for slavery through Congress...
They never learn, you cannot out hustle the race hustlers. It reminds me of Republicans trying to ‘set a new tone’, or out pander the democrats for votes, never works but they keep on trying.
Who is the racist in your view??
The blacks in Memphis are the most racist individuals in the US, hands down. Any time they get a chance to play the race card they will. Nobody will admit that when Memphis' population went 51% ethnic, the city went downhill. General Forrest died within sight of the statue that is erected to him and it is he and his wife buried underneath the statue. Leave it to racists to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a man disinterred in the name of diversity.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments and I couldn’t agree more.
Next thing you know they would want to get rid of everything that is related to Elvis in that town and say he wasn’t really the “King of Rock n Roll” Silly people trying to rewrite history!
The Democratic Party, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Unfortunately.
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