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Indybay Feature

The Rebuking and Scorning of Cynthia McKinney

by Counterpunch (reposted)
A Washington press corps that stood idly by while Bush and Cheney plundered the country, wrecked the environment, spied on Americans without a warrant, tortured civilians and lied the country into a war that will only get worse, woke up one morning and collectively decided: "Let's all play Get Cynthia!"

Let's get her for being too outspoken, bringing up the wrong issue at the wrong time, failing to get with the program, becoming a distraction, leaving House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi beside herself with rage.

Let's get her because, hell, she practically volunteered for it, and besides, she's an easy target, standing practically alone, fired upon at will by Republicans -- who seem to think her story cancels out DeLay, Abramoff, Katrina and Iraq -- and virtually undefended by Democrats, except by the rolling of eyes heavenward, as though to say, "Oh, please! We're not responsible for HER!"

Rep. Cynthia McKinney has now apologized for her part in the face-off at Checkpoint Cynthia. It was not enough to stop the cartooning of the coverage. Already the news wires are spinning her statement as a complete about-face, an abandonment of everything else she has said about the incident. Look, she said there was racial profiling in Washington! Look, now she's apologizing!

Journalists are reporting this story as though it were their job to "get" her, breathlessly revealing that the woman who receives more hate mail than Teddy Kennedy employs a part-time bodyguard, as though it proved something about her mental state.

But note, please, Rep. McKinney did not take back anything she has said about racial profiling in the nation's capitol. And the fact remains that, while each day's mail brings a new wave of personal threats, some of the people charged with protecting her affect not to recognize her. A Republican colleague offered the suggestion that she could announce "I am a Member of Congress" each time she passes a security checkpoint. But McKinney has served for eleven years, not eleven minutes.

Here's a test of media fairness: how many times, over those eleven years, have you seen Rep. McKinney on CNN, NBC, ABC, or CBS, asked to explain her views on Iraq and the Middle East? Not once, you say? Read on for the "why come" of it all.

More
http://counterpunch.org/vest04072006.html
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by DOGSPOT
she could win the southern states - the major cities have black majorities, and she would be able to bring out the vote.
the liberals of the northeast would have to vote for her, and in the industrial cities of the modwest she would at least hold her own. she'd probably win in Indiana -

I'm serious. She should run. It would shock and frighten the sandbaggers in the Democratic party.
And that's what we need.
by Scott Watson (sowatson [at] earthlink.net)
Through all of the outrage, all of the posturing, I am sick to death of this event like many events before and no doubt the new events we have yet to endure.....I think that the McKinney farce was simply one of the biggest problems in America today - take responsibility for your actions. If we had a world where people took responsibility for their actions - Washington included - I think we would have a better society.
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