The One With Aldacron

There are some people in public service who make you scratch your head and wonder why we don’t have a test they must take before trying for office, to weed out the goofballs and nutjobs. Dan Quayle and the fearsome trio currently running the show (W, Shooter, and Rummy) are prime examples. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, from my own home state of Georgia and, sadly, a Dem, is doing her best to make the list.

Prior to her ouster from the House in the 2002 primaries, McKinney made several controversial statements (one of which may have cost her the seat - you can read more about all of that at Wikipedia), so she’s no stranger to controversy. Her most recent escapade, which most people have heard of by now, involved striking a Capitol Hill police officer after he grabbed her to stop her from going around the metal detetctors in her office building. She wasn’t wearing her indentifying lapel pin which would allow her to bypass the metal detectors, so the officer attempted to stop her. If that wasn’t bad enough, she tried to paint the incident as a racist and sexist issue, and herself as a victim. All of this brought about the possibility of criminal charges, a civil suit, and House ethics charges. You can read more about it on the Wikipedia page as well.

Now she has scored more points for the goofball list. This time, it’s the old speaking-when-you-think-the-microphone-is-off routine. At the end of a recent Q&A session held in her congressional district, McKinney, thinking the her mic was off, was heard to call one of her aides, former radio show host Coz Carson, a “fool”. Now, really, people make comments like that all of the time. So that in itself probably never would have generated much buzz, if any at all. No goofball points there. The goofball points are awarded for what happened next: McKinney sat back down at the table and proceeded to tell the reporters present that anything said away from the table was not on the record and off limits for their reports (watch the CNN video, is that understood?). I guess Coz is in good company.

You would think that some people would learn that, sometimes, it’s better to just keep your mouth shut. Considering how often her mouth has gotten her into trouble, you would also think that Cynthia McKinney would be one of those people. Unfortunately, if it hasn’t sunk in yet, I doubt it will. I surely hope her constituents get rid of her for good in the next election. The government already has more than enough goofballs. The fewer the merrier.