Love-Hate Mail

The case against Cooper
Jeff Woods' article mocks those of us who feel we need representation more in line with the voters of our district ("Accountability Never," Oct. 1). He downplays criticisms of Jim Cooper for both his obstructionist efforts to delay and kill a true public option and "for renewing the Patriot Act, for warrantless eavesdropping, against timetables for withdrawing from Iraq and for funding the war without conditions." Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how is your Democratic representative?

Barack Obama carried Tennessee's 5th Congressional District by nearly 15 percent. Whether our politicians like it or not, this is a progressive district. Cooper claims Accountability Now's efforts are of no concern, telling the Scene, "I don't have to respond to them if they don't live here. I respond to my constituents. I respond to people who live here." He might respond to us, but we are certainly not getting the answers we want. I know that I, and many others, have both written to Cooper and visited his offices, where we've been treated cordially, been given a pat on the head and fed a line of wonky obfuscation. We voted overwhelmingly for Obama's agenda, specifically health care reform, and Cooper is clearly not impressed.

Cooper claims his "co-ops," an idea nearly universally derided as a cost restraining measure, are the only way to pass a bill. Even though there has been virtually zero interest in any part of Cooper's plan, he still insists it is the only way. I might be willing to forgive Cooper's naivete as a typical politician's fantasy of glory, a pitiful congressional Walter Mitty, except that Cooper has pulled this routine before. He was one of the leaders in the successful effort to derail health reform under the Clinton administration and deny coverage to millions of Americans. Fifteen years later, he is doing it again.

And while it's heartwarming to see the local party coming to Cooper's defense, keeping outside interests out of our politics, I wish they were so willing to decry the people who are truly Cooper's most steadfast supporters, namely the insurance companies and the medical industry; they have donated over a million dollars to "our" representative. Woods even has them saying, "Special interests would pour cash into his campaign and deny it to his opponent." Doesn't that make you proud we are keeping out the interlopers who want to... gasp...provide more affordable insurance to Americans? Cooper doesn't represent the people of his district, he represents the for-profit medical industry.

Will a primary opponent be able to defeat Cooper? Probably not, but neither Hillary Clinton or Joe Lieberman were supposed to lose either. I know it's uncouth to practice real democracy in America, and Cooper—a legacy politician gifted a seat off his father's reputation—certainly doesn't approve, but many people in the 5th District would join me in supporting a credible candidate against Cooper.

Is it possible that in an intramural battle the seat could be lost to a Republican? Yes, but even if we got someone as conservative as Marsha Blackburn, Cooper has been far more instrumental in hindering the most important piece of progressive legislation since the Johnson administration than they could hope to be. It's one thing to vote against the bill, it's quite another to try so obviously to destroy it from the inside.

Memphis managed to replace Harold Ford with Steve Cohen. Maybe it's time for the 5th to make an upgrade as well.

Avi Korine
Nashville

Take that, Paulking
Paul King's admonition that you all need to become more conservative, so as to better reflect the city's political leanings, suggests either that Mr. King doesn't pay very much attention, or that he lives in Brentwood, not Nashville ("Love/Hate Mail," Oct. 1). While Tennessee as a whole has become increasingly conservative, Nashville continues to lean left on most all issues, and vote that way at election time. Not as much as committed leftists like myself would like, but far more so than folks like Paul King seem prepared to admit.

It seems as though Mr. King should spend less time making cute little swipes at the former vice president (and cribbing from Rush Limbaugh in the process, what with his pithy use of the form, "algore") and a little more time getting to know the city he lives in. Or, as I'm guessing, the city he visits whenever he wants something other than chain-restaurant food and strip malls, but which he long ago ran from in favor of a sterile, monocultural suburb where he wouldn't have to bother with people who were different from himself....

Tim Wise
Nashville

An issue that unites, not divides
Thank you Walter Jowers for your recent story and confessions concerning felines and duct tape ("Sticky Kittens," Oct. 1). It made me laugh, what a gift for today.

Kitty Munson
Nashville

Correction
The credit was accidentally left off last week's photo of Jeff Obafemi Carr ("Cat on a Cold Wet Roof," Oct. 1). The photo is by Martin Brady.