... Desperate Cynthia McKinney: Our Dimmest Bulb
The popular spin is that Republicans, Jewish groups, conservative talk show hosts have ganged up on Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. They have slandered her in print and on the airwaves and have tossed bundles of money at her rival, former DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson. McKinney bashers sniff political blood and fervently hope that their dollars and endorsements will help Johnson ring the final curtain down on her political career on August 8.
But if McKinney falls it won't be because of a right wing, pro Israeli conspiracy to nail her. It's because top Democrats regard her as pariah, and have cut and run from her and her campaign. The first signal of that came when House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi flatly turned down McKinney's request to get her seniority spot back on a House committee after she won reelection in 2004. House Democrats say that Pelosi's antipathy for McKinney is so great that they are no longer on speaking terms.
Another signal that Democrats suffer from McKinneyitis came after her joust with a white Capital police officer in March. At her initial press conference, McKinney screamed racism, and defiantly refused to apologize. Not one House Democratic leader or member of the Congressional Black Caucus stood by her side, nor publicly spoke in her defense. Washington D.C. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton issued an ambiguous statement calling for a "resolution" of the dispute. That was the closest any Democrat came to showing empathy for McKinney. Then there's the money and endorsements question. McKinney's battle to keep her seat costs money, lots of it.
In her election campaigns in 2002 and 2004, the Caucus helped her both times. The group, as well as individual members, gave money and public support to her. This time there is no record that the Caucus or individual members have given a penny to her campaign. The dislike of her, her politics, or both, doesn't totally explain the Democrat's McKinney freeze. The nervous eye that top Democrats have cast on the fall mid term elections and 2008 presidential elections does. The elections will be free wheeling political slugfests with lots of national offices up for grabs. Bush's ratings still rest near the Ocean bottom, and the popularity of many Republicans is only a current above his. Some polls show that a majority of Americans think the Democrats can do a better job of running the government and the country than the Republicans. Democrats think they have a real shot at grabbing more House and Senate seats and even bagging the White House in 2008... the political fortunes of Democrats will rise or fall in the coming elections on how well they can convince a majority of Americans that they can run things better than Republicans. They'll have to do that whether McKinney is around or not. They'd just prefer that she not be.
http://www.blacknews.com/pr/cynthia-mckinney101.html...or everyone that doesn't like McKinney is a
racist.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
