REALITY CHECK: U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, said he hopes an Obama administration economic stimulus program could mean road projects, runway renovation at Memphis International Airport and a third bridge across the Mississippi River at Memphis. He also cautioned against being overly optimistic. “It’s not going to be like Camelot,” Cohen said of the incoming administration. Cohen also gave his two cents about a recent dustup at the White House. -- PHOTO BY BILL DRIES

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, told the Memphis Rotary Club this week he was never asked to leave the White House. And he did find the Memphis ornament by local artist Carol DeForest on one of the White House Christmas trees before a run-in with an usher.

“Any reports to the contrary are false,” Cohen said during the Tuesday appearance Downtown. “I was not the first Congressperson in history ever to be asked to leave the White House – not because there have been others, but because there haven’t been any.”

He also said President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were “gracious and wonderful” hosts during the party for members of Congress.

Accounts suggesting Cohen had been ejected after the encounter with the usher continue to nettle Cohen as he heads into a second term representing the all-Shelby County 9th District.

Years to remember

In that first two-year term, Cohen said his vote for a more than $700 billion bailout, or what he termed a “rescue,” of banks and other financial institutions was his most difficult vote.

“I am somewhat disappointed in the way it’s been administered,” he said. “I don’t know that we have gotten as much done as we would have liked to have done.”

Cohen also predicted some kind of similar bailout or rescue for the auto industry “will come to pass” either through Congressional approval or by Bush tapping the first installment of bank money now available.

He said a failed auto industry would affect Tennessee just through the loss of tax revenue from car sales in the state, not to mention the ripple effect it would have on auto suppliers and the Saturn plant in Spring Hill.

Cohen plans to add a new legislative director to his Congressional office and said the office will be more responsive to constituents. Since Barack Obama’s election as president last month, Cohen’s office has been handling, among other things, lots of resumes from Memphians who want to work at some level in the new administration.

Cohen likened Obama’s nearly completed cabinet selections to the cabinet of President John F. Kennedy.

But later he told The Daily News that there are some expectations that probably aren’t realistic about the new administration.

“I think there are expectations for this new admnistration that are probably overly optimistic,” Cohen said after his speech. “It’s not going to be like Camelot and all of the leaves are going to fall in neat little piles. But there’s gong to be progress made. Most change comes about in an evolutionary manner, not a revolutionary manner.”

The year ahead

Like other members of Congress, Cohen is preparing for the new administration’s economic stimulus proposal, which has been likened to the public works projects of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

“It’s going to mostly be infrastructure, things like highways – maybe (Interstate)-69, maybe the beginning of a new bridge across the Mississippi River, a third bridge … (and) a runway that we’re working on to improve at Memphis International Airport. … That’s the two major infrastructure needs.”

Cohen said he is also working to secure some measure of federal funding for the renovation of Elvis Presley Boulevard in Whitehaven to go with a planned expansion of Graceland into the centerpiece of a tourism development zone. Also, he is working on federal funding for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Cohen is also nearing the end of an election year that had its share of tension, despite the handy margin by which he beat Democratic primary challenger Nikki Tinker and then independent Jake Ford in the November general election.

He still sounded like a candidate in campaign mode this week as he touted the bill he sponsored and which was passed apologizing for the institution of slavery.

The resolution’s passage in a July vote became part of the campaign maelstrom. But Cohen said he has no regrets about sponsoring and shepherding the legislation, for which he was honored in Spain earlier this month.