Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Cynthia McKinney – Agent For R.O.V.E.

:)

The LORD works in mysterious ways, in this case through the malicious mind of U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-Carter Country). The readers are by now no doubt well aware of Ms. McKinney’s most recent adventure, but in summary here it is:

Wednesday, March 29 – Ms. McKinney enters Capitol Hill without the required identification pin for members of the House. She proceeds to walk around the security booth and metal detector, without showing any sort of identification. When a Capitol Police Officer stopped her, Ms. McKinney struck the officer in the chest. The incident was apparently caught on tape, though I have not yet seen footage of the incident.

Friday, March 31 – After consulting with her attorney, Ms. McKinney decides to hold a press conference, where she refused to apologize and instead accused the officer of “inappropriate touching”. McKinney’s lawyer accused the Capitol Police of “police harassment”.

Monday, April 3 – Ms. McKinney escalates her campaign against the Capitol Police, holding another press conference with supporters and a special interest group in order to defend her from the charges. Ironically, despite calling a press conference. McKinney refused to discuss the facts of the incident, her remarks, or to answer any questions from the press she called to the event. Not only is McKinney not apologizing for her actions, her lawyers have actually stated they may file a civil suit on the police officer for doing his job.

So there we are. Just when it looked like the Democrats had a great opportunity to make gains on the Republican in-fighting, here comes Ms. McKinney to remind us that Democrats neither think nor act as Americans do, nor pursue America’s best interest by work or example. In a post-9/11 world, someone who refuses to wear proper identification and who is so hostile towards common-sense security measures that she would strike a police officer for doing his job, cannot be seriously considered as a representative of any competent political party. That Democrats have chosen to rally around Ms. McKinney instead of rebuking her and demanding she apologize and accept the consequences of her actions, simply highlights that they cannot be trusted with National Security. Yes, it’s true that Ms. McKinney did not imperil the nation’s safety by ignoring the Capitol’s security ordinances, nor even when she struck the police officer; that was simply arrogance and boorishness. But the average American has a solid understanding of how you act when the police stop you; the elected representatives in government have a duty to act responsibly in complying with the law, as the high-profile examples they are. When someone like McKinney defies the law in this way, they set themselves apart as a mark of contempt against those standards and laws. And people who respect the laws and their standards, cannot also respect those who ignore them.

Also, Ms. McKinney’s protest against common sense and reasonable measures brings to mind other such rebellion; the reader may remember how President Clinton would ‘give the slip’ to his Secret Service protection every so often, or how Hillary countermanded security orders which she felt hampered her personal space. That was almost a scandal in Bubba's day, but now it's unconscionable for an elected official to spite the same security ordinary people take as a necessity in the post-9/11 world. Ms. McKinney has made the race to Congressional domination just a bit harder for the party of defeat and horse manure. Coming in such a time and situation as now, I find it almost certain that Karl Rove, the Phantom of D.C.'s Operetta, somehow caused it to be.

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