Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Musing on the One Clear Meaning Of It All — Herenton v. Cohen is On!
Posted by Jackson Baker on Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 11:30 PM
Next year… Except, hold on, next year is when the race for the 9th District congressional seat is scheduled. Let’s face it: It’s always been an iffy thing. Anybody seen any Herenton-for-Congress paraphernalia? Gone to one of the Doc’s fundraisers? Seen any evidence of any kind that he’s been campaigning for anything at all —- except to stay out of the Graybar Hotel?
Yet the shaggy-dog aspect of this saga is what probably insures there will be a race between Willie Herenton and Steve Cohen. Had there been an indictment, the seriousness of that outcome would have blown away the ex-mayor’s pretensions to a congressional campaign like the diversionary balloon it was.
And had the endless, year-upon-year-upon-year stretched-out-to-the-crack-of-doom Groundhog-day threat of federal prosecution for Herenton been ended for good, that, too, would have made running for Congress an irrelevancy. The man would finally have relaxed in the relish of his soiled but now duty-free and unencumbered laurels, taken it easy and looked after his business interests for real.
It is only this end-of-chapter but not end-of-story circumstance that we are left with that makes a showdown between challenger Herenton and incumbent Cohen inevitable. The reluctance of the prosecution team and Grand Jury either to proceed with an open-and-shut conflict-of-interest case or to walk away from it altogether means that Herenton can do his sigh of relief but not hold that breath.
He will now be obliged to arm himself for what could be one last — and perhaps more animated — thrust at his freedom from the feds. Wht better hedge against new threats of prosecution than to arouse his old inner-city base with the cry of the martyr? What more potent medicine can he stew up to confound his legal adversaries than the elixir of the righteous victim?
White Memphis — only a fraction of the city, with an even smaller fraction in the confines of the 9th congressional district — is myopic in the way it sees Herenton. Yes, a goodly number of African Americans are down on the man, too — as much for his disingenuousness and his being yesterday’s newspaper as for any other reason. But come at him in any way that looks like a racial conflict or a vendetta, and Willie Herenton will start to look more like Nelson Mandela and to a larger constituency than anyone ever thought possible.
Cohen, who — let me say it — deserves to win reelection on the merits of the case, will not provoke Herenton or the former mayor’s potential base in this manner. But there may be surrogates or provocateurs who will in the many, many months that remain before votes are cast in the Democratic primary in August.
To be sure, Herenton has forfeited — or the long attrition he’s endured has undermined — any prospect of his raising real money. His campaign could only rise mighty in jihad-like circumstances — through the kind of populist whirlwind that could also blow deliberative reason plumb out of a jury pool. And shake the resolve of the man’s would-be prosecutors for good.
It is now unmistakably in Herenton’s interest to make the congressional race. And Cohen’s lot once more to prove (and maybe the congressman wants to prove) that he -- a sports nut who really does think in metaphors like this -- can face up to yet another vaunted Alabama team and rout it, too, in the same manner as before.
Comments (10)
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STEVE COHEN, YOU HAVE MY VOTE. ALL INTELLIGENT, DECENT, HONEST, VOTERS WILL VOTE FOR STEVE COHEN!
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If Herenton wins the 9th District primary, there is no chance the Consolidation will pass in November. Those outside the city limits will continue to just shake their heads in dismay, and will want no part in combining the two governments together.
Nice piece, JB. I'm hoping that his ego, now that it's had a wee respite, will decide retirement really isn't so bad after all and bail on the 9th District Race.
It could happen. It's the only thing I've asked Santa Claus for this year.
Wait a second, what's this all about?
"It is now unmistakably in Herenton’s interest to make the congressional race. And Cohen’s lot once more to prove (and maybe the congressman wants to prove) that he -- a sports nut who really does think in metaphors like this -- can face up to yet another vaunted Alabama team and rout it, too, in the same manner as before."
Are you making some comparison between Herenton and the Crimson Tide? Please, tell me that this isn't so.
Or are you making a reference to Nikki Tinker? If so, the whole paragraph is still wack sports analogy.
We both know that the circumstances surrounding Cohen's initial victory (crowded field) and his second victory ("plain lack of Tinker effort"). If he does make a go of it, Herenton will be the first real challenger that Cohen has faced since 2006.
Hey, Mediaverse, the reference is based on personal knowledge of the congressman's lingo. It's a tribute to the reputation of the mighty Tide, that's all! as far as I'm concerned, btw, the Tide can roll on this January. (I've got in-laws who are just as Bama-bound as thou art.)
"a shaggy dog story is an extremely long-winded tale featuring extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents, usually resulting in a pointless or absurd punchline"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_dog_st…
Oh God, I'm frightened of Herenton winning...because I think too many vulnerable voters will fall for him...again.
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