And while it appears half the DHS leadership is busy trying to bugger underage girls, Balloon Juice favorite Cynthia McKinney is beefing up her nutter street cred:
Outgoing U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrence Gainer says he thinks prosecutors should bring assault charges against Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney after an incident last week in which police and witnesses say McKinney struck an officer.
Gainer told FOX News on Wednesday that he doesn’t think the police officer’s decision to stop the congresswoman, who was bypassing a metal detector while entering Longworth House Office Building, was an incident of racial profiling as McKinney claims.
The officer “didn’t see the woman wear the badge that she should have had on, and called out to her, didn’t recognize her facially, called out to her, she breezed passed, called out again and reached out and grabbed her hand, her arm. When she came around she hit the officer in the chest,” Gainer alleged. All congressional members are given a lapel pin that identifies them as an elected representative.
And Tim and I might have to create a ‘Chutzpah’ category for Tom DeLay’s reaction:
Soon-to-retire Rep. Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.) said today he would file an ethics complaint against Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D.-Ga.) for striking a Capitol Police officer should no other House member do so first.
DeLay’s comments came during a wide-ranging interview at his Capitol Hill office with reporters, including HUMAN EVENTS Editor Terry Jeffrey.
“If nobody in this House files an ethics charge, I am,” DeLay said in response to a question about McKinney. “Her behavior is outrageous. And it’s not the only time.”
Sit back and let the sheer audacity of DeLay wash over you. It really is something to behold.
Doctor Gonzo
McKinney is definitely wrong about this one. However, I do have to wonder about the ID badges that members of Congress are supposed to wear. According to what I have read, they are simply a pin, without a photo of the Congressperson or even a name. That’s not security; anybody could fake one.
Even so, that’s no excuse for her actions.
Krista
I’ve tried composing 7 responses to this so far, and still cannot find words other than…”un-frickin-believable.”
Zifnab
Well, if she’s incited DeLay to stick his foot in his mouth again, I can almost forgive the girl.
going going gone
DeLay is incapable of feeling shame. And, shame on McKinney.
shingles
So it wasn’t a runaway partisan
prosecutorcapitol police officer then.SeesThroughIt
The Daily Show had a great bit about McKinney and DeLay last night. Rob Corddry hit the nail square on the head when he said, “McKinney and DeLay are both looking the American people right in the eye and saying, ‘Why do you keep electing idiots like us?'” That pretty much says it all.
yet another jeff
I bet an ethics complaint from DeLay would be a pretty high dollar item on Ebay.
jg
AFAIK you can’t hit a cop even if they are in the wrong. Not saying the cop was wrong here. Just saying she has no excuse for striking an officer.
Mr Furious
I almost drowned in audacity in my car at lunch listening to DeLay being interview by Rush Limbaugh
Zifnab
Ewwwwwwwwwwww… DeLay and Limbaugh on the same bandwidth. Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.
GOP4Me
McKinney has a date with Gitmo. If she doesn’t have one made for her after this little incident, I still say she she should. How can we deter lawlessness amongst the general public when elected officials can slug law enforcement without any consequences? More to the point, this behavior not only encourages terrorism, obejctively speaking it IS terrorism. Police officers who work in government buildings are much less likely to perform their duties effectively if they know they can be assaulted with impunity. Al Qaeda will exploit that weakness to the hilt, and then Cynthia McKinney and her ilk will accuse the Bush Administration of a lax security atmosphere which she herself fomented and encouraged.
So, I say: send Cynthia to Guantanamo, and be done with her. Let her impress her fellow captives by swinging at our troops, though I doubt her actions will not invoke repercussions in Cuban environs.
tim maguire
If there’s going to be a complaint filed, why shouldn’t DeLay do it? He’s got the time. What with everyone else campaigning for reelecton and all.
Jim Allen
Is there anyone in this whole ridiculous kabuki that doesn’t have his/her head tucked firmly up his/her own ass?
The only one who may escape the “rectal/cranial inversion” tag is the Capitol cop, who, from the reports I’ve read, did his job correctly. Everyone else, and particularly the Congresswoman herself, not so much.
Brian
DeLay’s comment is exactly why he’s not welcome in my party any more. He can’t control himself, and this would have been one good opportunity not to cast stones and start repairing his reputation.
He’s almost like a child molester who can’t control his behavior.
Punchy
Ya know, Sir, ya might have had some cred had you bloviated on CNN or MSNBC or even the Weather Channel, but when you spew forth your trash, cooing about the incident on the FOX–Formenting Obnoxious Xenophobes–you’ve lost any chance that I’m going to believe any utterance that spills forth via your top hole.
Shorter: One only rambles on Faux if they’re preaching to the chior.
Sam Hutcheson
Has anyone actually seen a video of this? Did McKinney actually hit the guy, or did she whirl around and collide with him via momentum? I mean, she’s a complete nutjob (whose district is two zip codes away), but I need to see this “assault” before I believe the right wing echo chamber’s caterwauling about it.
Tom Delay is an unrepentant grifter. Nothing he does is surprising any more.
Vlad
How can he file a complaint? Didn’t he just step down?
tBone
Ya know, I like GOP4Me. He reminds me of early-era DougJ, before he outed himself as a spoof. The classics never go out of style.
Perry Como
Delay is just energized after Chris Matthews fellated him on TV yesterday.
GOP4Me
I ain’t spoofing, Steak Man. Most of the trolls around here pretend to be lefties. (I’ve always been suspicious of pee-pee gas, for one. Nobody’s THAT moonbatted!)
tBone
I never said you were spoofing, I said you reminded me of a spoof. Sadly, I have no problem believing that the GOP4Mes of the Right actually do believe that McKinney should go to Gitmo.
Jim Allen
Well, not on the left, anyway.
jaime
There’s only video of McKinney walking past security checkpoint.
Once Delay gets out of office will it be legal for me to say, ‘sometimes I want to beat that bastard senseless?’ Just checking.
And you know what encourages terrorism? Swivel chaired cowards who like GOP4Me who would never dare lift a chubby finger to “defend freedom”. Al Qaeda knows their most vociferous opponents on all the internets are just a bunch of frito eating wusses.
Brian
There’s no video because the Nation of Islam got access to the security recording via the Cogressional Black Caucus, and burned the evidence.
I heard it Olbermann’s show, ya know.
Jim Allen
Typical.
yet another jeff
Yeah, it is typical. Nation of Islam burns all the good recordings.
gratefulcub
I am assuming you aren’t talking about the Republican Party. He is still welcome there.
He is still a god to the fundies. They truly believe that he is being crucified because he is a Christian, not because he is corrupt. Not because all of his aids have plead guilty to accepting bribes. Not because his wife was paid thousands of dollars for a job on his campaign that she didn’t actually do. Because he is a Christian.
(By fundies, I don’t mean Christians.)
The next few months, we are going to see Focus on the Family and their ilk use the martyred Delay to raise money and whip up some ‘we are so oppressed’ hysteria. When he actually is indicted, and pleads guilty, and cries for the cameras, and asks for Jesus’ forgiveness, and promises to convert convicts into Christians………what will be the result.
The Delay’s and Dobson’s have manipulated so many good and devoutly religious people by using religion. What will the backlash be like? Or am I just overly optimistic that there will be a backlash?
rilkefan
McKinney’s an idiot – a highly recognizable one. That entry is a workplace where there are two kinds of stories told, one sort describing her hijinks – that’s why they had her picture up on the wall, so there wouldn’t be any question. The guy who physically stopped her is probably one or more of: abominably trained, an idiot, too unobservant to do his job, something of a racist. I’d guess “idiot” – nothing like to the extent of McKinney, but that’s on her electorate, mostly.
GOP4Me
Just as long as we’re clear, Steak man. BTW, I love you with beer and potatoes.
GOP4Me
Just as long as we’re clear, Steak man. BTW, I love you with beer and potatoes.
Yes, and people who attacks policemen should be awarded the Congressional Medal of Freedom.
Behold the loony left in all its glory.
Run McKinney for President, kooks! Please!
GOP4Me
Da=rn. Sorry for posting that first line twice. These chubby fingers often hit “submit comment” far too early.
the valrus
Who said that? What the fuck are you on?
GOP4Me
Da=rn = Darn. Stupid chubbiness, if only I could stop myself from eating liberal babies I might not gain so much weight! The taste is addictive! When you factor in my lazy willingness to let others be smitten by McKinney instead of myself, obesity is inevitable! Curses! Curses!
rilkefan
Plenty of idiots get elected. Odd that this is considered news.
jaime
With a disgraced soon to be former Congressman pulling the Ken Lay defense and saying he had no idea that there was a criminal enterprise being run directly out of his office, and a spokesman for Homeland Security arrested for kiddie touching, it’s amazing that there’s all this focus on Cynthia McKinney.
tBone
Judging from your last post, I think you should stick to non-alcoholic beer.
jaime
What else are you gonna focus on, the awesomeness that is Iraq? Gas prices at 3$ a gallon? The crappy weather? People losing their pension? Tom Delay being nailed to the cross solely for his love of Christ?
We’ve got to be distracted people. A Democratic Congresswoman struck a cop!!!!!!!! And the party of Henry Hyde, David Duke, and three blacks are absolutely OUTRAGED that anyone could dare call them racists.
Look. Shiny.
tBone
That’s because you libruls have no sense of priority. Cynthia McKinney is an imminent threat to this country, and if she isn’t shipped off to Gitmo the terrorists will have won.
jaime
Why are we attacking the kiddie toucher simply because of his conservative kiddie touching ideas and his love for kiddie touching Christ?
p.lukasiak
would anyone give a damn if we were talking about a white male GOP congresscritter instead of a black female Democratic congresscritter?
yeah, maybe it would get a mention on Olberman, and The Daily Show, and a few lefty blogs would write about it. And the story would be dead.
But its ONLY because we are talking about a black female democrat that John Cole feels the need to post about it days and days after it happened.
GOP4Me
It was implicit in saying that attacking people who attack policemen is what really encourages terrorism.
I’m high on life. And love of country and Jesus, if those counts. What are you on, valrus?
jaime
Apparently white male Republicans can seduce 14 year olds online and no one would care.
gratefulcub
And because she is claiming racism.
Don
Oh PUHLEEZE. I’m left of center and I’m still aghast over this.
Mine you, I think the really interesting news to come out of this is that one of the 535 clowns who help direct security policy DON’T HAVE TO SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF IT THEMSELVES. If you needed any more indication of why the TSA gets away with making our lives so fuck-all miserable, this is it.
John S.
If McKinney were a Republican, rather than play the sex/race card she would have publicy extolled the Capitol police for the excellent job they are doing and how not even she – a Congresswoman – could slip past their watchful eye.
Of course, privately, she would have ruined the officer’s life and made sure he never worked in that town again.
p.lukasiak
And because she is claiming racism
This incident occurred on March 29. McKinney issued a statement about it on March 29 that had nothing to do with racism, and was quite conciliatory. It was only when the far right wing, and the GOP leadership of Congress, decided to make this an issue that McKinney brought up the fact that there was a racist/sexist component to this.
Again…. this story is OVER A WEEK OLD — and let John Cole and his Red State/LGF/FreeRepublic buddies are still flogging it.
If it was a white male GOP congresscritter, Cole would not be writing about it a week later. For Fuck’s Sake — did Cole even mention the Manning Memo?
jaime
Which one? Payton, Eli, or Archie?
SeesThroughIt
But what set DougJ apart was he was good at restraining himself just enough, whereas GOP4Me doesn’t know the meaning of the word and just goes full-bore, making him too outraged by half to be a DougJ-quality spoofer. He’s definitely made strides recently, but this is a perfect example of where less would be more. DougJ would simply say, “McKinney hates law enforcement and is therefore objectively pro-terror.” GOP4Me goes off on this extended spittlefest about sending a Congresswoman to Gitmo. It’s just a bit too much to be truly effective.
By the way, I find the “DeLay is being attacked because–and only because–he’s a Christian fighting for Christian things” defense to be pathetic and pathetically predictable. Who couldn’t see that one coming a mile away? And who couldn’t see that there’s a segment of the population stupid enough to actually believe it?
Pooh
The Pooh’s of the Left have awarded Cynthia McKinney the coveted ‘Asshole of the Week’ Award
Some Other Brian Guy
So we’re still talking the death penalty here for what McKinney has done, right?
Richard Bottoms
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We’re still going to roast the GOP’s balls in November.
Bruce Moomaw
If Cynthia McKinney didn’t exist, the GOP would have had to invent her. Zapping that idiot is a Sister Souljah moment for the Democrats.
KC
I say throw McKinney and Delay in a cage together and let ’em go at it. My money’s on McKinney.
Bruce Moomaw
“Sit back and let the sheer audacity of DeLay wash over you. It really is something to behold.”
Of course, if he didn’t have such audacity and total shamelessness, he would never have gotten as far as he did. That, after all, is always the story with psychopaths.
By the way, while we’re on the subject of psychopaths, take a look at the new story in the New Republic’s “The Plank”, in which one of Abramoff’s associates tells of seeing him and Ralph Reed make a deal with the ambassador of Sudan (at a Redskins game) to lobby energetically for Sudan’s government in order to “blunt the influence of Christian groups” in attacking the genocide in Darfur. If these guys were fictional, they would be dismissed as ridiculously implausible inventions…
Pb
Now here’s a Congress member who knows when to wear the Congressional lapel pin / faux “identification badge”!
jaime
This is really pissing me off that there is this moral equivalency now between Cynthia McKinney scuffling with a cop, Tom Delay selling votes to the highest bidder, and now THREE child molesters in DHS.
Putting them in the same story equates them to a degree which is reprehensible and a real distraction from real news. You must’ve got a bonus from Pajamaline this month, John.
Let me suss this out, apparently a black congresswoman grabbed by a cop who didn’t do his job in recognizing her went over the line in throwing a punch at him, and then not apologizing profusely to the right people in the right way is…
much more important and bigger news than the most powerful Republican in the House giving up his seat because one of his most important aides just plead guilty to trading votes for dough IN HIS OFFICE and promised to cooperate with federal prosecutors the very same same week…
and the people assigned to protect us from terrorism and disasters of all kind ARE FUCKING CHILD MOLESTERS?
Shame on you.
Zifnab
Hey, hey, hey. People have been molesting children for generations. And selling votes to the highest bidder is a time honored tradition in the US House. But none of these things affect our national security like assaulting our proud men in blue. Sure, some people might point out that McKinney is a middle-aged woman and her kung-fu punch was on par with a love tap. But to have this much Republican scandal in one day without plastering headlines of a Democratic scandal of equal if not greater importance would be exhibiting extreme media bias.
Frankly, I’m surprised at so many of you for spending a single moment of your time contemplating the fall of the formerly most powerful man in Congress or commenting on what’s turning out to be some sort of child pornography ring going on in the DHS when every ounce of your energy could be focused on something far more morally repugnant.
Clearly, you’re all still trapped in a pre-9/11 mentality.
tzs
Omigod, they actually are making it into a federal case:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060406/ap_on_go_co/mckinney_scuffle
Honestly, with all the other stuff going on out there, (Iraq, the deficit, etc.), can’t we find better things to do with taxpayers’ money?
Richard Bottoms
Throw her out. Who cares. It affects me not one whit. I am sure her embarrased constituents will be glad to see her replaced.
In the meantime 2300+ dead, 17,000 wounded, billions squandered. Just a reminber how unimportant Cynthia McKinney is. Also about as relevant to as Ward Chruchill the demonic professor seemed to be just a while ago.
Who gives a shit.
Some Other Brian Guy
What else are we going to do with it?
I mean the courts have to do something. They just can’t sit around and act like no crime is happening. And the only other alternative is to investigate Republican Corruption.
Couldn’t do that.
Wouldn’t be prudent.
RonB
You can’t make shit like this up!
Oh, wait, you just did. Wow.
ppGaz
According to MSNBC today, about half of members do not wear their ID pins. Apparently this causes no problems for anyone most of the time.
According to the Constitution, members cannot be arrested or detained when moving to and from their work while Congress is in session.
Being civil, being nice, or being socially acceptable in any way is not a qualification for membership, nor a requirement for any citizen’s behavior, that I am aware of.
Mr. Bottoms, though, seems pretty eager to join the trend to throw away liberties and protections in favor of something he finds more important … although I can’t tell by reading his post, what that might be. Apparently if a person is “embarassing” she should be “thrown out.”
Well, I find Mr. Bottoms embarassing and I demand that he be thrown out. I find all embarassing persons no longer acceptable. I insist that all embarassing persons be grabbed by police officers and if they resist, throw them out. Because, you know, America requires propriety and decorum at every turn, in every place, at all times.
Some Other Brian Guy
Who, check out what Crazy Curt Weldon had to say today.
Interestingly enough, I have not seen any condemnation of Crazy Curt by any righty bloggers today. Once again, further proof that they support being crazy.
Andrew
Isn’t it a simple tautology that anyone going around the security checkpoint without identifying themselves is in fact breaching the peace?
funkyb0ss
Has anyone seen the story humaneventsonline.com reported on any major (or mid-major) outlet?
Just askin’…seems to audacious to be true
Santa Claus
Spoofin’, like pimpin’, ain’t as easy as it looks, dude.
Ho ho ho ho ho!
ppGaz
How rude, my post was only like two inches above. Okay, I’ll say it again:
As I said, per MSNBC, HALF the members don’t wear their IDs and apparently there are no problems. The security people just recognize them.
But for some reason, they have a hard time recognizing McKinney. Why would that be?
ppGaz
John Cole knows who I am. Ask him whether he thinks I’m a spoof. And while you’re at it, have him send along the same report on you.
And how many times do I have to fucking tell you, the letters are initials? Real initials belonging to me, a real person, mister GOPGOfuckyourself.
HH
McKinney still wins the all-time audacity sweepstakes…
HH
” Some Republicans are doing cartwheels up and down Pennsylvania Avenue right about now. Why? Because just like when Newt Gingrich stepped down several years ago, a lightning rod has been removed. Democrats are now being deprived of their bogeyman. DeLay had been in the news for all sorts of reasons…none of them good. His resignation takes him out of the headlines. So while Democrats did take him down, Republicans are relieved to see him go.”
Mickey Finn
I see where some GOP congress critter has called for a ‘probe’ of the DHS pedophilia incident. Glad to see the Republicans have finally discovered an affront worthy of investigation. A cynic might say they’re only doing it to get a peek at the evidence. I’m sure their copies of the Starr Report must be…uh…worn out by now,
yet another jeff
Ok, I’ve been seeing that phrase for years and it usually makes no sense in the context used. So, McKinney should be disavowed for her extremist views?
Andrew
If they are recognized, then a positive identification has been made. If, for whatever reason, they do not recognize a Congresscritter, they are clearly justified in stopping them. Whether it is McKinney’s fabulous new hairstyle, or the fact that she went through very quickly, they did the right thing in stopping her. If there was a conspiracy by the police to keep the black (wo)man down, then punish those held responsible. Given McKinney’s history of being an idiot, I lean towards the lack of identification being either completely innocent or a purposeful attempt by McKinney to cause conflict.
Some Other Brian Guy
BTW, if you still think this McKinney thing hasn’t turned into a racist argument…
http://www.strangepolitics.com/content/item/115223.html
This crap is all over the righty blogs.
Richard 23
Although irrelevant, a number of people here are declaring that McKinney is an idiot for reasons other than this incident.
I was wondering what she has done that qualifies her as an idiot. A few outrageous examples would suffice. Just curious.
Devil's Advocate
The rightnutters are harping on the Mckinney story in the — vain — hope that it wil distract the thinking public from the real issues: the greed, thieving, incompetence, cronyism, and corruption, that are rampant in the Republican-controlled Congress.
As for the DeLay, he is just behaving like the sociopath that he is. Only now that he has fallen from power, he looks like a pathetic fool. We all should laugh at his threat to file an ethics complaint against McKinney. DeLay the bully is lashing out, out of desperation. He is cornered, so like a vicious hyena, he tries to bite one last time.
ppGaz
So, is that what this is about? Not about her access to her job, not about a system that apparently routinely handles the passage of something like 250 members who don’t wear their ID’s, not about getting the facts about what actually happened at the gate, not about the possible idiocy of the officer (since we have no information about that) or his behavior, not about anything … but your opinion that McKinney is “an idiot” and therefore …. what?
What a crock of shit. What reason do I have at this point to believe that this whole incident is not grounded in one simple fact: The capitol police just don’t like her.
Notice I did not mention whether she is “likeable”. Or nice. Or fair to them. Or anything. Since none of those things are qualifications for office, or for access to the facility, or for passage, or for fair treatment. Nor are they relevant to this discussion.
The Other Steve
That’s their game. To get people to turn on one another.
It’s the politics of divisiveness.
Bruce Moomaw
On the subject of both DeLay’s audacity and Robert Novak’s level of reliability, see Jason Zengerle’s delicious entry in the New Republic’s “The Plank” this morning:
“It’s always tempting to write undeservedly nice things about someone after his death (or after his retirement from Congress under a cloud of ethics problems), but Bob Novak seems to have gone overboard in his encomium to Tom DeLay. My favorite part?
” ‘There is no sign of extravagant living on DeLay’s part–only bad judgment. DeLay told me last year that he accepted lobbyist-arranged golf abroad because that was his only chance ever to play a game he dearly loved. The shrewd congressional leader did not perceive the dangers facing him when he took that course.’
“Mike [Crowley] has already called Plank readers’ attentions to [an] AP article which is chock full o’ signs of DeLay’s extravagant living. I gather Novak hasn’t seen it. More interesting, though, is Novak’s acceptance of DeLay’s claim that he played golf on lobbyist-sponsored trips abroad because that was his only chance to get out on the links. I guess Novak forgot that DeLay’s home in Sugar Land is ON A GOLF COURSE.”
As for the queries as to why McKinney should already have been regarded as a nutball: remember that she first got the boot from Congress (by another black woman in the Dem primary) for her insistence that (1) Bush probably knew about the 9-11 attack in advance (which of course explains why Cheney was in the White House while the jetliner was apparently headed for it, and why Rummy was in the Pentagon when that plane actually hit it); and (2) that all charges that she WAS a nutball were part of a giant Jewish conspiracy against her. She’s done about as much for the Democrats as Robert Dornan did for the Republicans.
Don
Except we don’t know how they handle the situation and McKinney has a known history of being a pain in the ass with a sense of superiority. I don’t like it on DeLay, I don’t like it on her. Even if these guys are closet bigots who can’t tell the difference between black woman it doesn’t change the fact that they’re assigned to police the people who enter the building and keep it safe. If they can’t recognize her she should flash her ID. Creating incidents that distract from their core job is bad for everyone.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Calling being asked for an ID when entering a government building because you weren’t recognized a racial issue cheapens the real challenges that people face every day.
ppGaz
Right. We will drive our law enforcement activities on the basis of who has a “known history of being a pain in the ass.”
Or, we could require that organizations made up of adults, like the House, and the Capitol Police, work out ways to solve these problems without looking like damned fools, behaving like children, and tying up law enforcement resources to make political points and get on tv.
But of course, this is Blogapaloozaland, where the appearance of things is always more important than anything else. It’s the reversal of the old reality.
Today, the Message is the Medium, you see. What “message” are we sending our children? Our police? Our congressional members? Our cable tv outlets? Our enemies?
Look, tell the FUCKING police department to handle the problem without making a big fucking mess of it, or else fire the whole damned lot of them. We own the capitol, they work for us. Get the job done, and quit whining about how some of the people there are a “pain in the ass.”
You are protecting the most valuable public property. You should be able to deal with a “pain the ass” without throwing the cuffs on everyone who is difficult. If you can’t do that, then GET THE FUCK OUT and let me bring in people who can.
Back to you.
The Other Steve
Doesn’t matter.
The response to her nutballiness was completely out of proportion.
Rome Again
Don’t ever let it be said that GOP4Me overreacts much.
I hope that there is a God, and he holds you to the same standards you expect others to be held to. Guantanamo for simple assault (she hit him in the stomach, she didn’t shoot him in the face, geez)?
Rome Again
Well, I don’t know anything about that, but I can tell you that I used to be married to a state legislator’s son, and one day about twenty five years ago, both my in-laws, my parents, my hubby and myself piled into my father’s Cadillac to go to our penthouse in Maryland for the weekend. My father got pulled over for speeding, and the officer was going to give him a ticket until my father-in-law got out of the car, and suddenly the ticket became a non-issue while the policeman was drooling all over himself.
kl
You could even go so far as to call her a nutter with attitude!