Steven cohen

One of Gov. Jon Corzine's biggest allies in Washington is U.S. Rep. Steven Cohen (D-Tenn.), who as chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee probing federal monitor contracts has become a thorn in the side of the Republican candidate for governor, former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.  New Jersey Democrats may be asked to return the favor sooner rather than later as Cohen finds himself in a genuinely tough re-election bid: a white Jew in a heavily Christian African-American majority district, he faces former five-term Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton in an August 2010 Democratic primary.

"This seat was set aside for people who look like me," Sidney Chism, a black County Commissioner who is managing the Herenton campaign told the New York Times. "It wasn't set aside for a Jew or a Christian. It was set aside so that blacks could have representation."

There was a line from Man of La Mancha: whether the pitcher hits the stone or the stone hits the pitcher, it's going to be bad for the pitcher. 

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee didn't really land a punch at former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie during his testimony today on federal monitors and deferred prosecution agreements, and it is fair to believe that he was asked to appear because he is the Republican nominee for Governor of New Jersey.  No new information came out of the hearing that had not appeared in the media months ago.  But for the next day or so, there will be stories that talk about Christie giving a no-bid multi-million contract to John Ashcroft and others, and that's not his best case scenario.  It might not matter that Christie completed his 2 ½ hours of testimony relatively unscathed.  What matters is that he was there, talking about issues unrelated to New Jersey's economy and the record of the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Jon Corzine.

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