When Steve Cohen won Harold Ford’s old black-majority seat in Memphis in 2006, he said he would join the Congressional Black Caucus. It wasn’t interested.
Steve is now in his third primary race facing a candidate who says he’s too white for the job. (In 2008, Cohen’s opponent also made the case he was too Jewish.)
But now, Steve has earned the endorsement of key CBC members, including civil rights legend John Lewis, per Politico: Cohen "has secured the support of at least a dozen CBC members and is expected to hold a strong financial advantage over Herenton," it says.
Politico makes a little much of President Obama’s endorsement, I think; incumbents generally back incumbents in primaries, and candidate Obama endorsed Steve in 2008, when he faced a stronger primary challenge.
So does this portend Steve’s membership in the CBC? I would propose a trade: joint membership for Cohen in the Jewish and black caucuses, and the same privilege for Alcee Hastings, who I swear knows more Yiddish than I do.
Except there isn’t an official Jewish caucus (despite 40-plus members on the Hill) because no one wants to give anyone any excuse to rattle on about conspiracies, which says more about the ephemeral quality of "Jewish influence" than any book could.
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