Cynthia McKinney's home town paper doesn't think much of her assault and moonbattery.

McKinney's haughty position — that every Capitol employee ought to know her by sight and that she should never have to endure checkpoints like the riffraff — evinces the arrogance and ego that voters expect from elected officials. It may be inconvenient for self-important people such as McKinney to stop and show their IDs, but it's essential in these scary times of terrorist bombings and anthrax attacks...

...In the past, McKinney has complained that she's mistaken for the "hired help" in Washington. In the next election, DeKalb residents can help clear up that confusion by putting an end to McKinney's employment with them.

I wonder who they endorsed when she ran?

[Update, after a little research]

I thought that I recalled something like this. Even if no charges are filed, this might be even better. Article I, Section V says:

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.

If assaulting a congressional cop isn't "disorderly Behavior," what is? I doubt if they could get enough Donkey votes to actually toss her, but it would be entertaining to force the Dems to take a vote on it. They'd have to choose between offending their black base (though I don't know how much general black support she gets) and the rest of the country, who can see that she's a loon. It could be a "Sista Soulja" moment for them, though.

[Wednesday morning update]

Cynthia Tucker is unimpressed as well:

If you're going to call a press conference and muster such prominent supporters as Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover, you ought to be sure the issue is important enough to command national attention. You should save that sort of clarion call for the most serious matters — renewing the Voting Rights Act or raising the minimum wage so that more black men can support their children. The precious spotlight of national news coverage should not be wasted on a spoiled and demanding congresswoman who thinks she's the Soul Queen of Capitol Hill.

Nor should the Abrams tank of political warfare — the charge of "racism" — be rolled out to fight every minor battle. Racism is a shadow of its former self, but it lives yet. You see it in the high rates of harsh discipline meted out to black boys in public schools. You can also see it in the disproportionate numbers of black men sent to prison for crimes they didn't commit.

Certainly, the legacy of racism is alive and well. You can see it in the self-destructive behavior of so many young black men — the internecine violence, the distorted self-esteem, the worship of thug culture. You can see the legacy of racism in the enduring rates of poverty and poor health among black citizens.

But McKinney's trumped-up charge of racism merely cheapens the term, so that it's less effective when it's needed to discuss genuine discrimination.

Yup. And this is hardly the first time that this has happened, by either Ms. McKinney, or her partners in crime, such as Al Sharpton.

Don't forget the $1,000 she used from a taxpayer funded congressional office supply fund to fly Issac Hayes in for some to-do. After she got caught, her staff said they would reimburse the fund. Why did she do it in the first place and how cavalier is she with other sources of money that isn't hers?
Fits nicely with her Don't hafta, don't wanna, I'm Cynthia meme.

Funny thing, you don't see the bash Tom Delay crowd saying much untoward about Ms McKinney.

Why is it that the blacks of America think they hold a "racism trump card" in their hand to wave any time they feel? And why does the rest of America allow them to? When you look into the history of any race, there are times when they are in slavery, sometimes by their own race, sometimes by other races. In ancient times, warriors enslaved the peoples they conquered and sold/traded their captives as they saw fit, kings and queens enslaved their own people or forced them into becoming serf's to work their land. The Ancient Egyptians openly traded their own people in slavery.

It just seems pointless to me that ANYONE in today's society would use racism as an arguement or an excuse. In the USA there should not be anyone labeling themselves as African American, Asian American, Indian American, etc. We are all just Americans. Do you think the insurgents in Iraq are looking through their rifle sites and thinking to themselves "I don't want to shoot that African American because of his people's history of slavery"??? No. That insurgent looking down the sights of his rifle is probably thinking "I am going to kill that American".

The other countries of the world don't seem to care if your black, white, yellow, red or brown. They just care if you are American, English, Chinese, Russian, African, Iraqi, etc. Why do fellow American's care what race other American's are? Why do fellow American's allow the few minorities amongst all races to set rules and standards for all the different races of Americans? It makes no sense that the majority of American's allow it happen.

In a society that constantly looks toward the future, the past sure does affect the present in ways that will ever darken our future.

"Why is it that the blacks of America think they hold a "racism trump card" in their hand to wave any time they feel?"

While noting that not all African-Americans resort to this (though there is an irreducible minimum of occasions when it really *is* a matter of race), it's done simply because it works.

Not that that makes it right or rational, now mind you...

"And why does the rest of America allow them to?"

A fear of being percieved as racist, no matter how incorrect that may be. And sometimes, as the accuser often knows, like many other dispute settlements, it's more expedient to give in, and move on. (Again, not that one shouldn't stand on principle...)

"Do you think the insurgents in Iraq are looking through their rifle sites and thinking to themselves "I don't want to shoot that African American because of his people's history of slavery"??? No. That insurgent looking down the sights of his rifle is probably thinking "I am going to kill that American".

Indeed so. Though the North Vietnamese, and North Koreans (in the USS Pueblo Incident) wern't above trying to use a variation of the Race Card in propoganda films involving their black US prisoners. They knew what the social situation over here was, and what audience they were playing to.

We may remember a comment Muhammad Ali had on the matter, back then...