Isn’t the Democratic congresswoman from Georgia a hoot and a half? I can’t get enough of this story (from Fox):
“According to the sources, McKinney was walking into the [House Longworth Office Building on Capitol Hill] at about 2:30 p.m. EST and went around the metal detector, which is customary for lawmakers.
“The police officer apparently did not recognize McKinney and asked her to stop and walk through the metal detector. McKinney ignored the officer’s requests more than once, the sources said, and the officer placed his hand on McKinney’s shoulder.
“The sources said that McKinney then turned around and hit the officer in the chest with her cell hone.”
Ouch!
Here’s what Cynthia says:
“I was urgently trying to get to an important meeting on time to fulfill my obligations to my constituents. Unfortunately, the police officer did not recognize me as a member of Congress and a confrontation ensued. I did not have on my congressional pin but showed the police officer my congressional ID. I know that Capitol Hill Police are securing our safety, that of thousands of others, and I appreciate the work that they do. I deeply regret that the incident occurred.”
And here, according to Fox, is what Slate magazine says about Cynthia, who constantly complains about racist treatment of African-American members of Congress like her:
“In August 1993, during her first term in office, a Capitol Hill police officer tried to prevent her from bypassing a metal detector, as members of Congress are allowed to do. For years afterward, The Hill reports, the Capitol Police pinned a picture of McKinney to an office wall, warning officers to learn her face because she refuses to wear her member’s pin.”
Cynthia McKinney, you may recall, is the one who insists that President Bush had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. Slate adds:
“In her 10 years in Congress, hardly a year has gone by when she didn’t make news for an outlandish accusation or a wild conspiracy theory (ideally, as in this case, a combination of both). During a nasty 1996 congressional campaign with racial tension on both sides, she called supporters of her Republican opponent ‘holdovers from the Civil War days’ and ‘a ragtag group of neo-Confederates.’ Never mind that her opponent was Jewish. And during the 2000 presidential campaign, she wrote that ‘Gore’s Negro tolerance level has never been too high. I’ve never known him to have more than one black person around him at any given time.’ Never mind that Gore’s campaign manager was black.”
So watch it, folks, if you don’t want to knocked in the chest with a cell phone.