My wife decided to turn off cable television about six years ago. For six years we have not had commercial TV in our home. One of the many great decisions my wife has talked me into over the years. As a result of this decision I get my news from the Internet. Which means, I have a lot of control over what I read about and what I don’t. Since I consider politicians a large waste of time, I seldom bother reading ‘news’ articles about them. News is in quotes because it seems a misnomer to me. What politicians do or say is very seldom news.
This past week I enjoyed an all expenses paid trip to San Diego, courtesy of the United States Navy. Living in the Bachelor Enlisted Quarters with little to do I ended up watching the TV network news. The timing was impeccable as it allowed me to follow in some detail the antics of one Cynthia McKinney, Congress Person from the 4th district of Georgia.
McKinney attempted to pass around the metal detectors in a Capitol building while not wearing the lapel pin that is required by protocol. When the Capitol Police called after her to stop she ignored him. Three times. When he touched her (apparently grabbing her arm) she spun around and struck him with her cell phone. For a week McKinney cast disparaging remarks on the officer, accusing him of racial profiling, racisim, stupidity, incompetence and that’s just the short list. Then, in a sudden about face, McKinney goes to the floor of Congress and, sort of, apologies for the whole thing. Pick any one or several of these articles for verification of my retelling.
So much that surrounds this story embodies the very epitome of the public face of American Politics. McKinney held news conferences almost daily, appeared on news shows as often as invited, not to tell her version of the events. She wouldn’t answer those questions. Rather, she repeated over and over her allegations that the officer involved was racist and the Capitol Police department as a whole, incompetent. Incompetent in that they should require members of their force to know by face and name all 535 members of the Congress and do away with all other processes of identification for members of Congress.
I got a real kick out of this Op-Ed piece which blatantly states, US news should be paying attention to all the Republicans who are in trouble and ignoring this Democrat who is making a fool of herself and a mockery of Washington. They blame the media for attending and televising the press conferences that McKinney called. I suppose they have it half right.
Finally, after being shunned by fellow Democrats, openly ridiculed by Republicans, told to clean up the mess by the Congressional Black Caucus (is there a Congressional White Causcus? Hum?), and the start of a grand jury investigation, McKinney offered an ‘apology’ that would have made Bill proud. In her statement she says that she regrets the incident occurred (no ownership), regrets its escalation (no ownership of that escalation) and that there should have been no physical contact (which sounds like yet another accusation). “And,” she said, “I apologize.” For what? It doesn’t sound like you think you did anything to apologize for.
The issue here is that a very small woman who is overly impressed with the office she has managed to ascend to had her pride injured and tried to restore her ego on the backs of the men and women who make it their career to protect our elected officials, with their own lives when necessary. She backed down from her childish and racist behavior only after it became apparent that it was detrimental to herself and others.
Aloha
[posted with ecto]
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