 Andy Kjellgren / AJC Critics have claimed Cynthia McKinney cares more about international issues than her own district. |
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Posted on 08/18/2002 7:08:34 PM PDT by mhking
[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 8/18/02 ]
ELECTION 2002 PRIMARY
Firebrand must convince voters she still has credibility
By RHONDA COOK
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
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A dozen or so colleagues immediately stormed out. Soon they were followed by more legislators streaming for the doors, mumbling obscenites and questioning the young representative's patriotism. At the end of her speech, about 50 seats remained filled.
Many public figures would have recoiled from such a backlash and slinked back into the herd.
Cynthia McKinney had found a calling.
"Out of that came a new strength for me; speaking out gains new friends," said McKinney, who holds three degrees in international relations. She credits that day in 1991 for helping spur her to run for Congress the next year.
A decade later, U.S. Rep. McKinney, now 47, is known much more widely and the passions she stirs, both for and against her, have exploded. Her sharp tongue and intellect have attacked a new President Bush on the Mideast. And she has become something of a political inkblot test: She's either a raving radical or a courageous defender of the downtrodden. Not many people find themselves in the middle.
And it is those two sides clashing in the toughest race of her career as she battles challenger Denise Majette in a Democratic primary race that polls show in a dead heat.
McKinney was born on St. Patrick's Day, the only child of Leola McKinney, a former Grady Hospital nurse, and Billy McKinney, one of Atlanta's first black cops.
She says she learned caring from her mother, and how to fight from her father. Her mother showed her the worlds of the downtrodden. Her father brought her to protest marches, where she met the irascible civil rights legend Hosea Williams, who became one of her mentors.
Her outspokenness, her penchant for speaking her every thought, has earned McKinney unwavering loyalty and blind love from many constituents. She enters a room, hugging well-wishers as if they were long-lost friends and deepening her Southern accent, as she has in candidate forums.
Others feel contempt. Her 1996 race against Republican John Mitnick left a bad taste with many voters that has grown more bitter with passing. Her father called Mitnick a "racist Jew." McKinney finally jettisoned him from the campaign but has been quick to use race as a weapon.
McKinney acts surprised to hear such complaints. "That's not an accurate portrayal of who I am," McKinney said last week, insisting that only those trying to hide the truth oppose her. "People love me because I'm outspoken.
"I was elected to speak truth to power," McKinney said. "I didn't go to Washington to keep silent and I'm not going to keep silent."
She says, for example, the suggestion that she is anti-Jew, pro-Palestinian is inaccurate. "I have an alliance with Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel," she said.
Yet Abraham Foxman -- national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group -- said McKinney has not been a friend to Jews as a people.
"I guess on a personal level she can be a nice person and have a few Jewish friends," Foxman said. "She has not missed an opportunity to hit the Jewish community. Her criticism has frequently played with anti-Semitics and has attracted support from people who are not the best of friends to the Jewish community."
Her actions speak loudly, detractors say.
Answers 'looney' with 'good ol' boy'
This year McKinney caused a tempest when she called for an investigation into what the Bush Administration knew before the Sept. 11 attacks, suggesting that Bush associates made money off the attacks.
Georgia's U.S. Sen. Zell Miller called her comments "looney" and "very dangerous and irresponsible." Others in Congress joined Miller in his criticism of McKinney for making that statement.
She was the only member of Congress to speak last spring in Washington at a huge pro-Palestinian march, in which demonstrators waived Palestinian flags and signs that likened Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Hitler.
Her views have earned her thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Arab-Americans and Muslims, causing Jewish donors to flock to Majette's campaign.
"I am pro-American," McKinney said. "I want Americans to do the right thing, to bring peace to troubled people around the world."
On Miller's criticism, she said, "that's par for the course. He's a good ol' boy from the bad ol' days. . . . I do my homework. I am a valued intellect among my colleagues."
McKinney begins each day on her computer, reading newspapers from around the world and it was after perusing articles from the European press and seeing another account for some stock trades that she raised questions about the Bush administration.
"Do I regret asking what the Bush administration knew and when did it know? No, I don't regret it and obviously the House . . . agrees that, that question needs to be answered," McKinney said.
McKinney is especially vocal when it comes to race. She warns that the United States is moving backward in regards to Muslims and Arab-Americans. McKinney said the Bush administration "is promoting racial profiling" with its policies that focus on Muslims since last September.
Constituent base changing
Even as she raises the specter of civil rights problems and protests of the 1950s and '60s in her public appearances, McKinney denies she is racially divisive. "Those accusations are generally made for a purpose and have nothing to do with me," McKinney said.
McKinney speaks her mind, said Clark-Atlanta University political scientist William Boone. "I don't know if she goes too far," he said, but her constituent base has changed and "it could be folk are looking for a different kind of representative. She doesn't fit the profile some constituents would like."
Her district's large black middle-class population is now the second largest in the nation and many people have complained that McKinney has focused too much on international events and racial conflicts in other places at the expense of her district.
"She doesn't work with local officials; she's a prima donna," said Oliver Brown, who has been involved in south DeKalb politics for decades. "She just doesn't support her constituency."
McKinney has only passed three pieces of legislation, Majette frequently points out. One named a Decatur post office for NAACP leader Earl T. Shinhoster, who died in a car crash. One removed the time limit within which Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange had to file claims if they contracted cancer. And the third was a study resolution authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a watershed survey in southeast DeKalb.
She has been endorsed by the Sierra Club because "she has voted to protect our natural resources from over exploitation and pollution." The Human Rights Campaign, a political organization for gays and lesbians, endorsed her. Ralph Nader is campaigning for her.
That may not help.
"It's a tough race for her," said Boone, the political scientist. "I think she is trying to dispel the notion that she is more concerned with international [affairs] than domestic. The real tale will be whether she can point to things in the district."
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Why doesn't McKinney run for office in Saudi Arabia or any typical Muslim/Arab country?? Oh that's right -- her status as a "woman" in those lands falls roughly somewhere between a camel and a p*ssing hole.
There are just no words...
I got into a discussion with a guy wearing a Majette t-shirt at Costco yesterday afternoon. Turns out he was that rare beast, a Dunwoody Democrat (really!). He became rabidly anti-Cindy after being told to his face by her office that he wasn't going to get a normal bit of constituent service, because he lived in 30338. It's time to take out the trash.
No, but there is a little light to be shed on the motives:
"..speaking out gains new friends.."
Well Duh! Who has been attacking us? Muslims.
Just kidding. I think next time she poses for a photo she should show her face and not her a-s.
That's not her face, is it?
Firebrand??? More like a race baiting STINKPOT!!!
Hopefully flushed in the next election.
.....of course, this doesn't say much for her colleagues, does it? :)
If true, says much about her colleagues.
If this person - and those like her - are not defeated, we face a unthinkable future.
Semper Fi
This is Wonderful Not only does she have the Muslims backing her she has the American Communists backing here also.
Gee I am having a hard time seeing what I am writing this morning, sorry ..
HER
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