House Apologizes to African-Americans

Today the U.S. House of Representatives apologized to African-Americans for slavery and Jim Crow. I thank them for apologizing on my behalf since I had something to do with it. I would honestly think there is more our congress could be doing than engaging in election year politics, which is exactly what this was. The resolution was wordsmithed by none other than Steve Cohen who faces a run off election in his district.

"The House "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the
United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who
suffered under slavery and Jim Crow."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_go_co/slavery_apology

Cohen is a rank and file democrat according to Govtrack's own analysis who votes 96% of the tie along party lines. He is far left of center.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=412236

He hasn't done anything in the House worth noting. Steve Cohen has sponsored 21 bills since Jan 4, 2007, of which 15 haven't made it out of committee (Average) and 2 were successfully enacted (Average, relative to peers). Cohen has co-sponsored 980 bills during the same time period (Average, relative to peers). [On 4/2/08, the numbers were updated to consider companion bills in the other chamber identified as "identical" by the Congressional Research Service when determining if a bill was enacted or made it past the introduction stage.]

Cohen is facing a challenge from Nikki Tinker, a relative unknown to politics, who took 25% of the Democratic vote in 2006. Cohen has a party line history in congress who is considered by Nancy Pelosi as the "conscience of the freshmen class" of the 110th Congress. He's avidly against the Iraq War. He helped Pelosi gain her seat as House Speaker, hence the help on passing his resolution to cater to his constituency back home. He also sits on the Judiciary Committee and is responsible for blocking so many of Bush's nominees. He is also a huge Obama supporter. Finally, when asked what his biggest role might be in a second term, "But first and foremost, he wants to be instrumental in ending the war in Iraq." Well, I guess ending the war is more important that winning... no wonder he's an Obama fan.