When last we heard from former Democratic congresswoman and jihad-coddling tool of anti-American transnationalism Cynthia McKinney, she was sailing to Gaza to deliver medical supplies to Hamas. The Israeli Navy turned back her S.S. Moonbat.

Alas, her Islamofascist-boosting journeys are far from over.

Over the last week, she appeared on state-run TV in Iran (video of her trashing Sarah Palin and the Tea Party here) and state-run TV in Libya:

A former U.S. congresswoman slammed U.S. policy on Libyan state TV late Saturday and stressed the “last thing we need to do is spend money on death, destruction and war.”

The station is fiercely loyal to Moammar Gadhafi and her interview was spliced with what appeared to be rallies in support of the embattled Libyan leader.

“I think that it’s very important that people understand what is happening here. And it’s important that people all over the world see the truth. And that is why I am here … to understand the truth,” former Rep. Cynthia McKinney said during a live interview.

…At one point during the interview, state TV cut to what it said were live airstrikes, hitting Gadhafi’s compound. “Is that a bomb?” McKinney asked. “I want to say categorically and very clearly that these policies of war … are not what the people of the United States stand for, and it’s not what African-Americans stand for,” she told state TV.

She’s got some nerve purporting to represent what any Americans stand for — given her unceremonious ousting at the hands of her constituents five years ago.

As for McKinney’s quest for the “truth,” this is a woman who put the capital “T” in it and continues to consort with 9/11 conspiracy nutjobs.

Flashback: McKinney’s Arab and Islamist donors.

Not since Seattle’s Baghdad Jim McDermott took Saddam’s cash and trashed America while on an Iraq junket as our soldiers prepared for war has the world been treated to such shameless left-wing treachery on foreign soil.

I wonder if she’s going to make like Dennis Kucinich and run for office again in McDermott’s home state of Washington? Tools of a feather…

Move over, Hanoi Jane Fonda. Jihad Cindy McKinney is sailing to Gaza to deliver medical supplies to Hamas.

Is it a one-way ticket? We can only hope. Via the AJC:

Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is a high-profile member of a boatload of activists that set sail Monday from Cyprus to deliver medicine to war-torn Gaza.

McKinney, who ran as the Green Party candidate for president, sees the voyage as a humanitarian mission, said her father, former Georgia state Rep. Billy McKinney.

“Her mother did not want her to go,” he said, referring to concerns at home for her safety. “But I think that certain people have missions in life and you can’t deter them.”

The activists, organized by the Free Gaza Group, said their 66-foot yacht called “SS Dignity” would defy an Israeli blockade of Gaza and ferry 16 activists and three tons of Cypriot-donated supplies. The supplies are intended to help treat the wounded from Israeli bombings against targets in Gaza, in retaliation for rocket fire aimed at civilians in southern Israeli towns.

Flashback: Cynthia McKinney’s Arab and Islamist Donors

***

Update 5:22am Eastern. Carl in Jerusalem reports that the S.S. Moonbat has been turned back by the Israeli Navy…

The yacht carrying former US Congresscritter and Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney tried to outmaneuver an Israeli navy gunboat off Gaza Tuesday morning. The yacht rammed into the Israeli gunboat, which then turned it around and sent it back to Cyprus.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the boat ignored an Israeli radio order to turn back early Tuesday. He said the boat tried to outmaneuver the navy ship and crashed into it, lightly damaging both vessels. The navy then escorted the boat to the territorial waters of Cyprus.

Protest boat organizer Derek Graham said the Israeli ship “rammed” the protest boat.
According to the ‘Free Gaza’ website of the boat’s organizers (which I will not grace with a link), the boat is now headed to ‘safety’ in Lebanon.

More from Haaretz.com.

“The time for confrontation has come for me,” Cynthia McKinney told about 60 supporters on December 4. Launching her quest for the Green Party Presidential nomination, McKinney compared her “revolution” to Haiti, Venezuela, and war-torn Cote d’Ivoire.

“Cynthia,” as she prefers to be called, spoke to a crowd of about 60 gathered at the Paige Library Building on the Campus of Texas Southern University, a primarily African-American college in Houston.

Arriving 10 minutes after the 7 p.m. scheduled start time, McKinney sashayed through the crowd smartly dressed in a colorful pants suit and scarf. Personally greeting each attendee, she handed out pastel flyers emblazoned with the words, “Leading a Peace Slate to Reclaim our Nation.” She looked each potential supporter in the eye, with a big smile, and said, “I really need your support.”

McKinney has taken this message on the road through several states, explaining Green Party members had always supported her candidacy, and she had always shared the party’s philosophy. “They [the Green Party] first asked me in 2000 and again in 2004 to become a part of their national drive,” McKinney told an audience in Illinois recently. “With the Democratic Party having left so many of its base supporters behind, the appeal of the Green Party was one that I could hear.”

She brought a similar message to Houston on December 4th. After two brief (and dynamic) left-wing artists – a poet and a gospel singer – Cynthia took the stage. Her speech was short: 20 minutes tops, and rhythmic – no stuttering; she didn’t miss a beat.

Announcing her campaign to reach all “51 States including the District of Columbia” explained: “I’ve belatedly become a member of the Green Party…No other platform speaks to the African American community as acutely as the Green Party platform.”

Asked about Barack Obama, McKinney echoed a theme from a controversial 2002 Black Congressional Caucus speech. She said, “Look at the Colin Powells, the Condeleeza Rices, the Ward Connerlys…We have to be careful with the black people who are put before us by the media.” She went on to speak of “COINTELPRO,” which she described as a 1960s-era covert plan launched by the CIA to replace Dr. Martin Luther King with a more moderate voice. Apparently, in McKinney’s mind 40 years later, Barack Obama is the CIA’s replacement.

A 20 mile stretch of I-285 — a main thoroughfare that connects downtown Atlanta to the suburb of Stone Mountain — was renamed the Cynthia McKinney Parkway in 2000 after the congresswoman secured $14 million in federal funding for DeKalb County to upgrade what was then called Memorial Drive.

Georgia House Rep. Mike Jacobs is supporting a state resolution proposed last year that calls for the parkway to revert to its original name.

“If had I had to pick any road in the state of Georgia to strip the name from, this would be it,” said Jacobs, who represents part of DeKalb County. “The original name of the road is Memorial Drive, which is named for the men and women who died protecting our freedom.

“Who’s more deserving? I think the question answers itself.… [And] in light of the fact that her commitment to the state of Georgia is nil, we should re-double our efforts to remove her name from a state road.”

It takes a lot of cleanser to erase an unhinged legacy. Good luck, Georgia.

Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has registered to vote in California, where some want her to run for president as a Green Party candidate.

McKinney posted a letter on her Web site last month saying she has no interest in the Green Party nomination. But in recent weeks, she has appeared at fundraisers in California, where a group called Run! Cynthia! Run! is trying to draft her as the party’s candidate in California.

McKinney’s name already is on the ballot in California, along with six other Green Party candidates, including Ralph Nader. She and the others were nominated by a Green Party convention in September.

The fact that McKinney’s name remains on the ballot has given supporters hope, said John Morton, a California Green Party delegate.

“She’s got us all guessing, but she hasn’t removed her name, and that’s a good sign. I talked to her last week and she said she’s very interested but not ready to make an announcement.”

Her location of registration? Marin County, naturally.

Ed Morrissey cheers crazy Cynthia on:

Oh, please, please, please, I’m begging you Green Party advocates, get Cynthia to sign on the dotted (and dotty) line. Please have her run as a third-party candidate for the Greens. Let her stand up in the debates and give her conspiracy-theory tirades and her tortured explanations for assaulting the people trying to secure Capitol Hill on her behalf. We can even give her father some screen time to explain how the Joooooooos are out to get her.

Seconding that nomination…

Via The Crypt:

On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) got into a loud, angry dispute with a U.S. Capitol Police officer at the security checkpoint inside the entrance of the West Side of the Capitol. On Friday, Shays, a veteran lawmaker, offered a public apology for the incident and said that he wants to meet with the officer personally to reiterate how sorry he is.

Shays reportedly grabbed the officer during the dispute over whether the officer should allow a group of tourists to enter the building, said several sources. Tourists are not allowed to use the West Front entrance, but Shays was trying to bring the group through that entrance anyway. The officer refused to allow them in, and Shays then “yelled and screamed” at the officer, including using profanity, the sources said.

Shays is the GOP Cynthia McKinney. A Capitol diva. A legislative Lindsay Lohan in a suit and tie. But he’s just the latest in a long line of Beltway Brat Packers. Here’s a flashback to a column I wrote in 2002 about bipartisan buttinskis in Washington:

***

Feb. 22, 2002
Battle of the Beltway buttinskis

There’s a word for people like Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who got caught last week cutting in line at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

The word is buttinski.

Beltway buttinskis can’t wait around like everybody else. Long lines are for little people. Beltway buttinskis are Very Important Persons with very important places to go. Such as political fund-raisers. That’s where Secretary Thompson was headed last Friday when he and his security detail elbowed their way past passengers who had been waiting to board for 40 minutes. After customers complained to the airline and to the media, HHS spokesman Tony Jewell told the Associated Press that Thompson “feels terrible.”

At least Thompson apologized. Kind of. And at least no one was physically hurt. Thompson acted badly. But when it comes to the Beltway sport of boorishness, Democrat buttinskis beat Republicans hands down in the medal count.

Bronze goes to Rep. Patrick Kennedy for his run-in at the Los Angeles airport two years ago. Rushing to catch a plane back to D.C. after attending a Hollywood fund-raiser, Kennedy attempted to ram his oversized luggage through an X-ray machine. When a female security guard tried to stop him, Kennedy flashed his congressional ID card as if it were an FBI badge. When Della Patton continued to block him from passing through the checkpoint, Rep. Kennedy shoved the 58-year-old woman backwards. The entire episode was captured on videotape. Kennedy later explained that he had a Very Important speech to give the next day.

The L.A. city attorney’s office declined to file charges, but ordered an informal hearing in which Kennedy “apologized” in person to Patton. He offered her $25,000 to fend off a civil assault and battery lawsuit, but the guard refused. The matter is scheduled for trial this summer. In true buttinski form, Kennedy (son of Sen. Teddy Kennedy) blames the victim. A legal brief filed in the case argues that Kennedy manhandled Patton in self-defense! Moreover, Patton “voluntarily and unreasonably proceeded to encounter a danger which was known to her,” Kennedy’s lawyers claim. They have a small point. Given the congressman’s membership in a liberal political dynasty famously plagued by scandals with women, maybe Patton should have known that Kennedy spelled trouble.

Silver goes to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for her treatment of police officer Ernest Dymond. Last fall, Sen. Clinton and her entourage reportedly rolled through a security checkpoint at Westchester County airport – injuring Dymond as he tried to stop them. A Secret Service agent was driving Sen. Clinton, en route to a fund-raiser, in a large black Ford van. According to Dymond, the agent was on his cell phone as he motored through the sensitive checkpoint (the airport was on high alert for terrorists). Dymond was forced to shout and bang his shoulder into the van to make it stop. He told the Washington Times that Clinton’s driver was “quite agitated” when asked to show his identification. Dymond, who never received a word of apology from Sen. Clinton or anyone else on her staff, was taken to a hospital for treatment of bruises.

But not even St. Hillary can outdo Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. As chronicled by The Houston Press and The Weekly Standard, the Texas congresswoman is the gold medalist of Beltway boors. She has terrorized her office staff, airline staffs, and foreign dignitaries with world-class megalomaniacal antics. When she didn’t like her seating placement at a formal dinner in Africa with Prince Charles and Nelson Mandela, she parked herself in the chair of a high-ranking Nigerian official and refused to move. “Don’t you know who I am?” she reportedly shrieked at flight attendants who didn’t serve her the right food. “I’m Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.” And when she didn’t get chauffeured to a civil rights commemoration, she yelled at an aide: “You don’t understand. I am a queen, and I demand to be treated like a queen.”

That’s the Washington way. Rep. Lee’s only mistake was saying out loud. For the line-jumpers and elbow-jabbers in power, “public service” means never having to say you’re sorry for behaving like a royal pain in the … buttinski.

Last week, far left-wing blogger Amanda Marcotte began her stint as Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards’ “blogmaster:”

This is both my first post to the Edwards blog and my announcement that I’m joining the presidential campaign for John Edwards for 2008. I’ll be taking over the job of Blogmaster (mistress?) over the course of the month of February.

The main two questions this brings up are: Why me? And why John Edwards?

As for me, I run and write for a blog called Pandagon, which is one of the top liberal political blogs on the internet and known mostly for insightful and often humorous political blogging. We pride ourselves on being an issues-oriented blog, instead of a blog that mimics the “horse race” coverage of politics that dominates so much of the mainstream media. Prior to my stint at Pandagon, I was the sole blogger at a blog called Mouse Words, which won the 2004 Koufax award for Best New Blog. My obsessions in politics include women’s rights, ending the war in Iraq, environmentalism, and restoring the American dream where climbing out of poverty and having a middle class lifestyle is an option available to everyone.

Why John Edwards? Well, look again at that list of political obsessions and you have your answer. John Edwards is the only Democrat in the field of potential nominees who is interested in pursuing the right policies in all these areas. Especially important to me is that he is interested in fighting poverty in America and putting that middle class dream in the hands of all Americans.

This campaign also excited my interests, because we have the goal of making the most out of the untapped resource that is the internet. Already this blog has more interactivity and genuinely interesting and issues-oriented content than any other campaign site I’ve seen thus far, and with the new staff we’re bringing together, we will be able to take it much further in that direction. Internet organizing is still in its infancy as far as I’m concerned and I expect that the presidential election of 2008 will be a major factor in taking internet political organizing to the next level. Of course I want to be a part of that!

The question is: How long will the Edwards campaign want the “insightful” and “issues-oriented” Marcotte to be a part of them?

Seems that everyone but the Edwards campaign has tracked Marcotte’s foul-mouthed nutroots diatribes. Or perhaps the Edwards team is well aware of her lunatic blogging and can’t wait for her to unleash her unbridled anger on their spiffy website to give him a gritty, “progressive” edge.

Whatever the case, Walter Olson, K.C. Johnson, LieStoppers, and Jon Ham all caught Marcotte trying to cover the unhinged tracks at her old blog. At some point before she started her new job, she deleted a screed about the Duke lacrosse players that she had posted at Pandagon on Jan. 21. Jon Ham captured the cached screenshot:

Guess what? It’s not the only completely off-the-wall, profanity-choked post she’s trying to hide.* Updated/correction below

Look at this:

Now, here’s the Google cached page of that missing post that someone doesn’t want the Edwards campaign to see:

Just a small taste of the “insightful” and “issues-oriented” writing that apparently makes one qualified to be the blogmaster of a Democrat presidential campaign.

And there’s plenty more where that came from, if the Edwards campaign only bothers to look.

***Updated/Correction. Looks like Marcotte’s Katrina post is actually still available to the public here under a different URL. My bad. Or rather, John Edwards’ bad. Because it’s even worse for the Edwards campaign that its blogmaster left crackpot posts like that one up and hired her anyway.

***

Contact info for the John Edwards campaign here.

Oh, don’t worry about Marcotte. If the Edwards campaign cans her, she can always apply for a job at Time.com. They adore sassy, spewing liberal bloggers who have incoherently cursed their way to the top.

***

Danny Glover notes a Pandagon habit (hat tip – Instapundit):

…Marcotte has been both dismissive and defiant in response to her critics.

“[I]f I see the words ‘Duke’ or ‘lacrosse’ in an e-mail that has the whiff of accusatory tone, I’m deleting it and simply not going to reply to it,” she wrote at Pandagon. “I have never, ever stated that I think that anyone should go to jail without a proper trial. Those comments will also be deleted from this thread.”

That thread eventually was closed, but the controversy surrounding both Marcotte’s thoughts on the Duke case and her subsequent attempts to alter the historical record is continuing…

…Marcotte’s behavior the past couple of days reminded me of something I discovered at Pandagon late last year when researching my New York Times article on bloggers who had gone to work for campaigns. One of those bloggers, Jesse Taylor, got his start at Pandagon before joining the campaign of now-Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat.

I reported Taylor’s move when it happened in October 2005 and linked to his announcement at Pandagon. When I clicked back to Taylor’s post in November 2006, it was gone and there was no sign of it in Pandagon’s archives. I had to search the Wayback Machine to find Taylor’s post again.

Did Marcotte, who claimed ownership of Pandagon upon Taylor’s departure, scrub the site of his disclosure, and if so, why? Those questions came to my mind last fall but didn’t seem worth asking then. They were just a curiousity.

Now that Marcotte has shown a penchant for deleting Pandagon content that causes her grief, maybe the questions are worth asking — though I gather that my “whiff of accusatory tone” would just land any query I sent to her in the electronic trash.

***

More:

A reader sends Marcotte’s defense of Cynthia McKinney’s abuse of the Capitol police, titled “Even if Cynthia McKinney did what they say, it wouldn’t matter:”

Back when Cynthia McKinney was stopped by the cops, Pandagon (Amanda) wrote this:

“One of the tools of male dominance and white supremacy is to create reasonable rules and then only hold non-white people or women
accountable for breaking them. I notice that the cop putting his hands
on a woman isn’t being held up an example of violence. I often flip shit
when a man puts his hands on me against my will, because it often puts a
stop to the aggressive behavior immediately–I know that public gropers,
for instance, rely on the social expectation of female submmissiveness
to get away with what they do and you can generally scare the shit out
of them just by screaming, but I’ve punched when I have to. Mostly
people admire this in me.

But then again, I’m white.”

And Dan Riehl plumbs the depths of Marcotte’s mind and posts more of her uncensored blog rants. A sample:

Too Sensitive For Their Own Good

I can’t wait until Nigger Jenkins and The Flying Kike-Boy fight over the Cruiserweight Championship next week! Oh, you’re offended? It’s just a discussion about racial tensions between blacks and jews, and the ending will promote racial reconciliation, at least until the Zionist Conspiracy gets involved.

Don’t believe the hype

While the media runs around jerking Bush off about Zarqawi’s reported death, it’s important to remember that BushCo and Zarqawi had a symbiotic relationship to play up his “membership” in al Qaeda.

Today’s “Jesus cries when women fuck” update by Amanda Marcotte

Well, the Texas House of Representatives got Republican Jesus and he reminded them that out of of all the things he hates, which are multitude, nothing incurs his wrath more than women’s sexuality.

Don’t relegate yourself to the used cunt lot

Of course, if you’re a perverted religious nut, the blood and the pain of “cherry”-breaking is probably a de riguer part of a woman’s life, both to give the man a cheap thrill of actual blood while enacting the sex-as-violent-possession construction that is part of virginity fetishization and to remind the woman of her religious teaching that womanhood is suffering (see: Genesis).

Rest in peace, BP. There’s a No. 72 car waiting for you in the sky. When I used to cover NASCAR, I was near BP’s home track in Rockingham. Benny exemplified the down-home, approachable, good-humored charm that still draws people to NASCAR.

He was one of the best guys to talk to about the old days of the sport. I still remember him picking on the Young Guns for not doing their own engine repairs and chassis adjustments, and telling stories about finishing a race without roll bars or sheet metal, back when NASCAR didn’t have, you know, rules. God speed and fresh tires to the NASCAR champion from Ellerbe, N.C. He will be missed.

Castro is knocking on death’s door. Again. Probably from the death side, I’d guess.

Remember how Pink was so wise with her sensitive, stirring ballad, “Dear Mr. President,” sung by no less than Cynthia McKinney at her losing party? Well, check out her latest brilliant foray into politics:

US pop singer Pink has backed down from her call to boycott Australian wool over animal cruelty claims, admitting she failed to fully research the issue.

Oops. Read the whole thing. It’s worth it.

The Anchoress quotes a military reader on Iraq– one who supports the war. He doesn’t get the “absolute moral authority” card from the American Left, but read him.

How Iran attacks…in Iraq.

John Elway for Senate?

Jim Webb will give the Democratic response to the State of the Union. Perhaps he’ll be so angered that he’ll be tempted to slug the President. That’d set the tone, I think.

I don’t know much about this story, but Florida Cracker points out two Texas border patrol agents facing serious prison time for shooting a Mexican drug runner in the behind on the U.S. side of the border. They’re hoping for a last-minute reprieve or pardon.

TKS becomes The Hillary Spot! That is, until Obama swoops in on the wings of a dove, delivers the Democratic Party, and Geraghty has to change the name again.

I think my stint here ends very soon, so thanks to you guys and Michelle for having me, and please come visit me at Townhall’s blog anytime. Or, bookmark me. Or, RSS me. Or, whatever it is the kids are doing these days. Y’all take care.

The Wall Street Journal reports on a “new breed” of poll watchers who will be out in full force tomorrow. Beware. Behind the civic-minded facade are far Left radicals whose main conern is not in ensuring a fair election process–but in preemptively undermining and delegitimizing it:

When Americans go to vote tomorrow, a new breed of activist will be on guard, monitoring polling stations for everything from voting-machine glitches to long lines to registration snafus.

Energized by disputed results in 2000 and 2004, they have left jobs as music conductors, real-estate agents and software engineers to form groups that expect to turn out thousands of volunteers who don’t trust the country’s ability to count its votes and have decided to do something about it…

Many of the groups share liberal roots, their members smarting from the narrow Democratic losses in the last two presidential elections…

…Two of the bigger groups — the Election Protection Coalition and Voter Action — will staff call centers where they will field voter complaints to their 866-OUR-VOTE and 888-SAV-VOTE numbers and dispatch lawyers to any trouble spots. Video the Vote is enlisting “citizen journalists” to film polling-place problems. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and People for the American Way are among Election Protection’s members. Voter Action is a legal-rights group started by California lawyer Lowell Finley, who sued voting-machine maker Diebold Inc. over software security; Diebold recently paid $2.6 million to California as part of a settlement of the suit.

Pollworkers for Democracy — a joint project of VoteTrustUSA, and two groups who often support progressive causes, Mainstreet Moms and Working Assets — is asking election workers to report voting problems to the group after finishing their precinct shifts to provide evidence for potential lawsuits and recounts. And dozens of small, grass-roots groups will be watching polling stations, elections offices and tabulation centers…

I surfed over to the Video The Vote website, which has the endorsement of John Kerry’s people. Take a bit of time to find out more about the organizers and their Election Day plans. They’ll be in your neighborhoods and someone has to watch the watchers:

Welcome to Video the Vote. Our goal is to protect the vote by being the eyes and ears where ballots are cast and counted on Election Day. We will document and report any irregularities that occur at polling places and boards of elections while they are happening, enabling the media and public to watch-dog the electoral process across our country.

Video the Vote was created by Ian Inaba of the Guerrilla News Network, John Ennis of Shoot First, and James Rucker of ColorOfChange.org. The three originally sought to provide a platform to help independent filmmakers coordinate their efforts on election day—documenting election problems and pushing those stories into the mainstream media. The idea morphed into a populist program where ordinary people could participate. They’d simply agree to be on-call to document any Election Day problems that arise in their area; the only requirements being having a digital video recorder, a cell phone, and broadband Internet access, and agreeing to respect governing election law.

Since starting, several organizations have partnered with us to make Video the Vote a success, namely Common Cause, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The League of Young Voters Education Fund, People for the American Way Foundation, and Rock the Vote.

Rucker is targeting Ward Connerly’s anti-racial preference initiative in Michigan and is a Bush-bashing race card player. The Guerrilla News Network is a 24/7 Internet TV station with wall-to-wall BDS programming. Inaba is a diehard fan of Cynthia McKinney and black box conspiracies. Here’s a bit of his work–an excerpt from “American Blackout:”

If these guerrilla activists act anything like left-wing dKos disrupter Mike Stark, we’re in for trouble.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I suggest bringing your own video camera to the polls.

***

Publia wonders why the left-wing lawyers behind the effort aren’t more concerned about privacy.

***

Update:

The supposedly “non-partisan” Election Protection outfit is a project of the left-wing People for the American Way Foundation.

They’ve recruited some 3,000 college students in Chicago and Cook County, Ill. “to serve as nonpartisan election judges and election administrators for the November 7 election.”

Here’s a good background paper on liberal advocacy groups from the Capital Research Center, which warned about how “nonpartisan” civic groups worked in 2004 to ensure a partisan, anti-Bush, anti-GOP outcome.

***

Previous:

The Dems’ preemptive delegitimization plan

Is that a pizza on the plate?

***
Previous: Gaining weight on the Sheehan plan

It’s primary election night in Georgia tonight. Will Crazy Cynthia McKinney feel the heat or won’t she? AJC reports:

Voters trickling in and out of Holy Trinity Church on East Ponce de Leon Avenue, walking distance from Decatur’s downtown square, said U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s run-in with Capitol police prompted them to vote against her.

Anne Dishman, 37, a stay-at-home mom, voted for McKinney’s opponent in the Democratic primary, Hank Johnson.

“I don’t know a lot about him, but it is important that Cynthia is not voted back into office,” she said.

More here. USA Today reports on primary election no-shows. Stay tuned.

The message sent to Capitol Hill cops is clear:

“Right from the start this U.S. attorney has handled this case differently from every other case,” said Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. “And it’s because she is a sitting congresswoman.”

McKinney’s office and the office of U.S. Attorney Ken Wainstein declined to comment.

The case comes at a time of heightened tensions in Washington. A series of arrests, indictments and criminal investigations involving at least five members of Congress have fueled disputes between Capitol police and Congress and between Capitol Hill and the Justice Department.

Republicans and Democrats alike furiously denounced a recent FBI raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) as a violation of the constitutional separation of powers.

And Capitol police, already angry over McKinney’s case, bristled when superiors ordered them last month to drive Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) home rather than investigate the possibility that he’d been drinking after he crashed his car into a barricade near the Capitol. Kennedy later blamed the incident on prescription drugs he’d been taking and checked into a rehabilitation facility.

What most angers the police about the McKinney case is that it involves an assault — no matter how minor — of a police officer. Police reported that McKinney hit an officer in the chest after he failed to recognize her as a member of Congress and tried to stop her from going around a security checkpoint, something members of Congress and their aides are typically allowed to do.

“It’s obviously frustrating for us,” said Andy Maybo, head of the Capitol Hill police union. “This sends out the message that it’s OK to hit a police officer — and it’s not, regardless of who you are.”

McKinney and staff refuse to talk about the incident anymore. The strategy seems to be working. AP says many of her constituents are backing her…“150 percent.”

WSBTV reports:

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who could face criminal charges for allegedly punching a Capitol police officer in Washington, D.C., has signed on as a co-sponsor of a House bill formally honoring Capitol Police officers.

The bill is House Resolution 756, which would officially “Express the gratitude and appreciation of the House of Representatives to the professionalism and dedication of the United States Capitol Police”.

The bill was submitted on April 4, one week after the incident between Ms. McKinney and Capitol police officer Paul McKenna. At the time, Ms. McKinney’s supporters said the legislation was an attempt to embarrass the six-term Congresswoman from DeKalb County. 39 of the other 40 co-sponsors are Republicans.

Update on the grandy jury investigation:

A Washington, D.C. Superior Court grand jury continues to deliberate Ms. McKinney’s case. The grand jury was given the case on April 5, but it has yet to hand up an indictment. At least six witnesses have been called to testify.

Ms. McKinney’s office has not yet responded to inquiries about the timing of her decision to co-sponsor this legislation. She is the only co-sponsor to sign on in the past seven weeks.

It’s the racism! Blame the racism!

***

Darnell at Independent Conservative has more.

Credit: David Lunde

Betsy Newsmark scrutinizes the Captiol Hill police officials’ treatment of Rep. Pat Kennedy:

What does seem strange is that the Capitol Hill police would not have done a sobriety or breathalizer test and just have taken him home. Can you imagine what people would have been saying if this had happened to Tom DeLay? I bet we all hope that we would be shown the same deference and consideration if we we were found driving erratically early in the morning and then drove into a barrier. But that is the Kennedy way.

Brian Maloney covers talk radio coverage of the story and NYTimes’ burial of the case.

Brian at Influence Peddler wonders:

Are you, like me, waiting for the indignant press conference when the DC press corps unleashes their venom at the way Kennedy is dodging them on this story?

Lou Cannon, president of the Capitol Police Union told CBS News:

“The officers on the scene smelled alcohol about him and based on their experience believed him to be intoxicated.”

“I think because of who he is courtesies were extended.”

Reader Dave writes that membership in the Kennedy clan has its privileges:

Drinks at the Hawk & Dove: $40
Phenergan & Ambien: $75
Crashing your Mustang convertible while intoxicated: $4,000
Being driving home by Capitol Police: PRICELESS

Lifelike Pundits diagnoses “A culture of car crash cover-ups.”

Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker weighs in on Kennedy and Cynthia McKinney.

A woman who heckled Chinese President Hu Jintao on the White House lawn, said her protest was a spontaneous reaction to China’s suppression of the Falungong spiritual movement.

Wang Wenyi, 47, interrupted the elaborate welcome ceremony laid on by President George W. Bush on Thursday by shouting abuse at the Chinese leader for several minutes before she was detained by Secret Service agents.

Writing in the New York-based Falungong mouthpiece, The Epoch Times, Wang, who had gained access to the ceremony with a press pass from the newspaper, said her original intention had been simply to report on the event.

“However, when I saw President Bush shake hands with Hu Jintao, I couldnt help but cry out,” she said.

“I cried out for those who have been tortured and suffered genocidal persecution,” she added.

AFP adds: “Wang was arraigned in court on Friday and charged with seeking to “intimidate, coerce, frighten or harass Chinese President Hu Jintao, a foreign official in the performance of his duty.” A preliminary hearing for a trial will be held on May 3.”

I think it would be a crying shame for Wang’s case to move ahead while accused cop-assaulter Cynthia McKinney skates.

Message to Wang’s prosecutors: Drop it.

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Wenyi Wang rocks