Referring to comments Steve Cohen made in a talk-show interview last week as "racially charged," local TEA-party congressional candidate Donn Janes is holding a press conference this afternoon with members of The Mid-South TEA Party and the Fayette County TEA Party. At 4:15 p.m., they will be at the Clifford Davis/Odell Horton Federal Building, where Cohen's local 9th Congressional District office is located.
Janes is running as an independent in the 8th Congressional District, and one of the Mid-South TEA Party's leaders, Jim Tomasik, has been helping the Janes campaign. It seems like an odd tactic, attacking a candidate running in a different election, but perhaps Janes, who lives in suburban Brighton but works at Hilton Hotels Corp. in Memphis, believes he can add much-needed name recognition by portraying himself as Cohen's foil.
Cohen's interview with The Young Turks radio show has attracted national attention because of his strong comments, though his office would take issue that his comments were racially charged. In the interview, Cohen suggested that TEA Party members are motivated by a fear of diversity.
Cohen's answer to the first question:
Cohen's answer to the second question:
Cohen's actual opponent in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary, former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, said he can "understand some of the anxieties and frustrations that some Americans have with our policies. But I don't share them." Herenton also said: "They're angry. And they're expressing it, perhaps, in ways in which do not represent civility."
For Stephen Fincher, the farmer and gospel singer from Frog Jump who is the National Republican Congressional Committee's chosen candidate in the 8th Congressional District race, Janes's attention to Cohen might come as a relief. Janes and the Mid-South TEA Party have been relentless in attacking Fincher and his family for taking millions of dollars in farm subsidies, as well as his campaign's reliance on fundraising from other farmers who have received millions of dollars in farm subsidies.
Janes is running as an independent in the 8th Congressional District, and one of the Mid-South TEA Party's leaders, Jim Tomasik, has been helping the Janes campaign. It seems like an odd tactic, attacking a candidate running in a different election, but perhaps Janes, who lives in suburban Brighton but works at Hilton Hotels Corp. in Memphis, believes he can add much-needed name recognition by portraying himself as Cohen's foil.
Cohen's interview with The Young Turks radio show has attracted national attention because of his strong comments, though his office would take issue that his comments were racially charged. In the interview, Cohen suggested that TEA Party members are motivated by a fear of diversity.
Cohen's answer to the first question:
The Tea Party people are kind of, without robes and hoods, they have really shown a very hardcore angry side of America that is against any type of diversity. And we saw opposition to African Americans, hostility toward gays, hostility to anybody who wasn't just, you know, a clone of George Wallace's fan club. And I'm afraid they've taken over the Republican Party.
Cohen's answer to the second question:
I think it's cultural and these people are ready to be led by the nose and they're being led, and it's just to be against Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and the different people, the diversity that's exhibited in this present White House. And it could've been any issue, it could be immigration, it could be cap and trade, whatever it is that could get them off. And they'll push them to, whatever levers it is, and they just, their world is changing, and they can't understand it. They don't like it.
Cohen's actual opponent in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary, former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, said he can "understand some of the anxieties and frustrations that some Americans have with our policies. But I don't share them." Herenton also said: "They're angry. And they're expressing it, perhaps, in ways in which do not represent civility."
For Stephen Fincher, the farmer and gospel singer from Frog Jump who is the National Republican Congressional Committee's chosen candidate in the 8th Congressional District race, Janes's attention to Cohen might come as a relief. Janes and the Mid-South TEA Party have been relentless in attacking Fincher and his family for taking millions of dollars in farm subsidies, as well as his campaign's reliance on fundraising from other farmers who have received millions of dollars in farm subsidies.
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