Things Nikki Tinker Doesn't Know About

Nikki Tinker has benefited from numerous attacks on Steve Cohen that have been launched by surrogates and which she has disclaimed without denouncing.

Off the top of my head:

Emily's List misrepresented Cohen's history on women's issues in a mass mailing that included Tinker's image and campaign logo prior to the Democratic primary that resulted in Cohen's nomination. Tinker claimed she had no knowledge of the mailing and refused to denounce its misleading content.

African American pastors ambushed Cohen in regard to his position on hate crimes legislation resulting in Tinker blaming the victim:

“Rep. Cohen is playing the worse [sic] kind of politics and attempting to lay his failure to have a positive and constructive dialogue with the constituents at my feet — and his accusations are pure fiction. I am not going to play the politics of divide and conquer with Rep. Cohen — my values simply will not allow it.”

The CA's former political columnist (and Tinker's sorority sister) Halimah Abdullah repeatedly (omniously and incorrectly) reported that Cohen held a press conference at his home to discuss what he termed a distortion of his record on "sex crimes" and other issues. Abdullah also minimized actual and undeniable race bating against Cohen by Candidates Ed Stanton and Julian Bolton as "accusations of race and religion baiting" and claimed that Cohen had a "quarrel" with financial frontrunner Tinker, and that Tinker (not Cohen) had subsequently become the "target of attacks." Tinker's response to all of this (by way of a spokesperson): "Nobody [in the Tinker campaign] said we were under attack... That's not what we're focusing on, and there's been no discussion of attacks."

Now there's the unquestionably antismetic "Jews hate Jesus" Flyer that Tinker is not responsible for but which clearly benefits nobody else politically. Tinker's response (complete with a creepy third-personism):

"I would not stand for any attacks on the Jewish faith or any other faith for that matter and I just want to make sure everybody knows that Nikki Tinker doesn't play those types of politics."

It seems to me that the political gains she makes from these third party attacks are the moral equivalent of receiving stolen goods. And at some point she has to do more than to blame the victim or simply deny any knowledge of the original transgression.