What is it about certain Democrats from Georgia? They seem to encapsulate the best (think Jimmy Carter and John Lewis) and the worst (Zell Miller) of our party.
And now, Cynthia McKinney has a little fracas at the LHOB (Longworth House Office Building), and a bru-ha-ha has ensued.
I'm here to tell you we shouldn't give a fig about it.
Oh, I suppose we could "tsk-tsk" McKinney for blowing this whole thing out of proportion. We could ride her out of town on a rail for her erratic behavior. We could distance ourselves from her to claim she's not our kind of Democrat.
But I think the best thing to do is simply ignore her. The voters of her district will decide what's best for her, and what her fate is.
McKinney holds no position of power in our leadership. She is not the spokeswoman of our party. She will not become Speaker of the House if we win this fall. This incident doesn't make her a Tom Delay, Duke Cunningham or Jim Traficant.
So why all the lather about her?
Sure, she'll make an easy target for wingnuts on talk radio and cable TV. So what? Like they weren't going to attack Dems anyway. This, at least, gives them something fairly frivolous to talk about.
It seems we are destined to pick sides in the whole affair, we Democrats. Much like Bill Clinton's indiscretion with an intern, we're trying to figure out how this will "play" with the public and whether we should condemn one of our own.
Just ignore it.
Republicans have had some of their own crazies, too, from B-1 Bob Dornan to Ron Paul. Know what they did?
Just ignored them.
Let's just let everything play out before we get all hot and bothered with Cynthia McKinney. I don't find her troubles nearly as embarrassing as the endorsement of GW Bush by Zell Miller, or the apparent corruption of one of our current Members of Congress from Louisana, Rep. William Jefferson.
Let's all just take a breath, let the legal process take hold, and move on with the business of getting our majority again.
With or without Cynthia McKinney.
Because that decision is left to the voters in her district, not us.