Posted on 08/21/2002 4:32:18 AM PDT by Trueblackman
The defeat of Cynthia McKinney is more of a defeat for the old guard liberal black leadership than for McKinney herself. McKinney had the support of saleouts liberal blacks such as Jesse Jackson Martin Luther King III and NOI Leader Louis Farrakhan, but it was not enough to overcome Republicans and Conservative Southern Democrats who were sick of Cynthia McKinney and her mouth. Cynthia McKinney thought she could continue to play the race card over and over again even as her district changed.
Cynthia McKinney sought to split American over 9-11 and made the baseless claim that President Bush knew the attacks where going to happen and did nothing to stop them. Cynthia McKinney also took money from those who had ties to international terrorist groups.
Yes Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hillard defeats are defeats for the old guard of liberal 1960's Era liberal promoted black leaders.
LOL. Carville wouldn't waste his time. As a political force, FR, thanks to the weakest link(s), consists of a bunch of wingnuts.
True. But too bad that it fell so badly on its face in its own excrement. Oh, well. Just another knuckledragger nazi site in the ranks of the racialist vomitoriums.
I have a pact with Veronica to ping her when I mention wingnuts. This is a new pic.
And here's the old one of Murphy (a former dog, not the one in the pic)
Isn't technology amazing. You dress up your dog, put him on the internet, and probably get thousands of pings.
G-D BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Excrement. LL dumps. Beware of laxatives, the role so many posts play
BTW, you owe me for a drink destroyed keyboard on that McKinney thread.
I'd reference it, but it appears that while antisemitism is allowed to flourish on FR, humor, well, it's the bizarre tragedy of the week.
Cachelot, as a friend, don't judge conservatives in America by what you read here.
We're not this sick a bunch.
Never mind. It's archived, as everything else. Dealing with this kind of people you archive everything.
Cachelot, as a friend, don't judge conservatives in America by what you read here.
No, I just blame Jim Robinson for having placed some old posters such as the Nazi LarryLied/Voegelin under royal protection, doing his dirty work on what poses as a "clean" conservative site, which it is certainly not. Just certain other posters regularly spreading their manure from openly antisemitic sites are under protection.
So, how does one approach "Pro-Growth African Americans" who would vote Republican? What's the secret?
Don't you get it? His *job* is to be as sneaky as he can and ingratiate himself with all these lilywhite and Islamic brown America haters. The more he acts like he thinks they want him to, the more info he gets to pass along in that neighborhood with all the bluehaired ladies of the ADL to keep the ADL chugging right along. An undercover Jesse the jack, if you will... He isn't their friend, and he certainly isn't ours, but he sure shines like neon shiite in a sea of leftist sludge.
All the while he puts down conservative Jews, he promotes the secular ADL to the point of nausea. He knows conservative Jews are changing the landscape and it's driving him nuts. If the ADL loses donors. he doesn't get paid so he has to foment anti-Jewish sentiment to keep those liberal bucks rolling in.
I have never seen any thread he has ever been on that he hasn't linked something or another to the ADL site. You know...more hits for the twits.
I thought I corrected you on this yesterday in the Georgia running thread?
Isnt it "Sellout"?
C'mon Dog!
Ok, that sounds plausible. The cure: My scrapbook goes to the ADL (with a flag that their op has been made) and to the Wiesenthal Center (which he seems to have libeled rather hystericalley) - and then they can slug it out. For that matter, I'd drop it to a few other Jewish organizations. Cool.
"The second amendment isn't about duck hunting anymore than the first amendment is about playing Scrabble." --Henry Bowman
ELECTION 2002 PRIMARY
How Denise Majette
beat Cynthia McKinney
By BEN SMITH
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
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Rush, an African-American contractor from Stone Mountain, voted for first-time challenger Denise Majette even though he has had some positive experiences with McKinney.
"She's highly accessible. She's as close as your phone is. But I think she doesn't fully understand her constituency at this point," Rush said, referring to McKinney's well-publicized affinity toward Arab groups critical of U.S. policy. "I was really annoyed by that letter to the Saudi prince. That did not represent me."
McKinney drew national criticism after she wrote an apology to a Saudi prince who offered $10 million to help the victims of the terrorist attack in New York while blaming U.S. policy for the assault. When then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani spurned the donation, McKinney asked Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to consider diverting his gift to African-American causes.
Majette's stunning victory in the 4th Congressional District Democratic primary seemed to confirm the emergence of moderate middle class and affluent African-Americans as an independent political base. Majette won a convincing 58 percent of the vote.
To be sure, heavy voting by Republicans who "crossed over" to the Democratic primary helped doom McKinney's re-election bid.
But a review of how people voted in the district shows Majette also made significant inroads in McKinney's working-class political base.
Majette carried predominantly African-American precincts despite a full-court press by the traditional black political machine of preachers and politicians to deliver the election to McKinney. And in deep south DeKalb, McKinney's stronghold over the last 10 years, voters failed to come out as strongly as they have in recent elections.
Ken Turner says he is a former McKinney supporter. Tuesday, he voted for Majette over the brash congresswoman.
"Just yelling and making any statement you want and thinking as long as you're black, people are going to vote for you, well, we're not that stupid," Turner said.
In the Stone Mountain area, a popular destination for middle class African-American newcomers moving to metro Atlanta, Majette prevailed. The former State Court judge also ran competitively with McKinney across a swath of central DeKalb precincts dominated by African-American voters.
Decatur businessman John Leak, who said he voted for Majette, suggested that old-style black politics don't work any more in DeKalb County.
"The appeals by the Jesse Jacksons, the [Louis] Farrakhans and the [Joseph] Lowerys fell on deaf ears," said Leak, who is an African-American. "The typical black voter didn't want to hear that. . . . The typical political kingmakers didn't play a role in this."
Of the 20 precincts that drew 1,000 voters or more to the polls, Majette carried 13, all in north DeKalb, by margins far greater than those by which McKinney prevailed in the remaining seven precincts.
And in deep south DeKalb, McKinney's voters failed to come out in the kind of numbers she has typically drawn. For example, at Stoneview Elementary School, a McKinney stronghold and the site of a melee over ballot access for the 1,767 people who showed up to vote in the 2000 general election, only 169 people cast ballots Tuesday, most of them for McKinney.
Majette suggested Wednesday that black voters in DeKalb have long been more diverse in their political attitudes than past elections may have indicated.
"It's the first time that black people have had a choice between two African-American, Democratic, 47-year-old women with previous political experience," said Majette. "But I would agree that it's not the same base that existed five or six years ago when she last had Democratic opposition."
Then, white voters held a majority in McKinney's congressional district. With the support of blacks and white liberals, McKinney coasted to victory in 1996 and two succeeding elections with 60 percent of the vote or more.
The demographics of the district have changed significantly since then. The 54 percent African-American majority realized in the 2000 census has assisted in the election of more black leaders at the countywide level, including DeKalb Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones. DeKalb is also home to a growing number of immigrant populations.
Majette said she welcomes the emerging diversity of DeKalb County's black population.
"It is more representative of the diversity of this region," she said, "and it bodes well for the kind of coalition building that will be most effective in helping me serve this district."
-- Staff writers Eric Stirgus and Jen Sansbury contributed to this article.
[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 8/22/02 ]
For defeated McKinney, 'there is still work to be done'
By BILL TORPY and RHONDA COOK
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers
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After just two terms in the Legislature, McKinney became the first black woman elected to Congress from Georgia, beating two well-connected legislators in a majority-black district that stretched from the shadow of the state Capitol in Atlanta to the Tybee Island lighthouse.
Four years later, in 1996, she beat three white Democratic primary challengers in a reconfigured district that included most of DeKalb County and was mostly white. Her victory showed she could draw people together.
"She was at her apex," said Oliver Brown, a south DeKalb political insider.
McKinney and her father, longtime Atlanta state Rep. Billy McKinney, started building what was seen as an unbeatable political machine in DeKalb, melding a solid black voter base and a helping of liberal white Democrats. Smart and eloquent, Cynthia McKinney grabbed the national spotlight and spoke unapologetically against racism and the "power structure." But she didn't seem to care whom she offended, and that eventually contributed to her downfall.
Today, McKinney is a beaten politician contemplating her next move.
At 47, McKinney says she'll finish the dissertation for her doctorate in international affairs. She promised her 16-year-old son, Coy, to make up for the "14 years his mother has taken care of the world."
McKinney could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In her concession speech to the 250 supporters who stayed at her election night party past midnight, McKinney hinted she's not leaving politics or the public arena.
"I have lost an election, but I maintain my spirit, my courage, my dignity and my commitment to the truth, to peace and to the future," McKinney said. "There is still work to be done. God had a plan and God is not finished with me yet."
Too soon for obit?
Her legacy, to many, may be being referred to as "loony" by U.S. Sen. Zell Miller for her statements about President Bush's friends profiting from Sept. 11. Or it may be of a black woman of considerable pluck who courageously said things that needed to be said.
"I'm not going to write Cynthia McKinney's obit just yet," said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta), a civil rights leader who has served as her campaign chairman since she was elected to the U.S. House. "Her legacy hasn't been written yet. It's still too early."
Perhaps McKinney, who taught college before going to Washington, will return to teaching or will find a place with a national social issues organization, said state Rep. Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta), a friend and professor at Clark Atlanta University. "I think the next year or two will be a year of reflection," Holmes said.
She may contemplate how things might have turned out differently had she not polarized her district as she did.
As she gained stature nationally, her status at home suffered. "Not doing things at home, not being around, not going to meetings" provided fuel for Majette, Holmes said.
Her penchant for international affairs took her to Africa and led her to speak out on Mideast policy, insisting that the United States too blindly supports Israel at the expense of the Palestinian cause. In 10 years, McKinney passed just three pieces of legislation, a fact her opponent used effectively.
"When her dad called [1996 Republican opponent John Mitnick] a 'racist Jew,' it all started downhill from there," Brown said. Billy McKinney, who was sent to a runoff in his own bid for re-election Tuesday, did not respond to a request for a comment Wednesday.
Brooks said he had asked Billy McKinney to "tone it down" about a month ago. "Unfortunately, Billy remained too close to her politics. He became one of her worst enemies," Brooks said.
Base dwindled
By then, the die might have been cast. Cynthia McKinney, who had made widely reported and controversial comments after Sept. 11 and who had received a majority of her contributions from donors with Arab names, saw a flood of money -- almost $1.3 million -- flow to her opponent. Much of it came late in the campaign and from out-of-state Jewish donors.
McKinney continually leaned toward her African-American base in south DeKalb but with each succeeding year, that support dwindled. Her district was largely middle-class, but she still carried the mantel of an older, more confrontational generation. Too many of DeKalb's black residents had gotten "too comfortable," says Brooks.
On Tuesday, Brooks, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Martin Luther King III and other civil rights leaders rode in the back of a pickup truck to Stoneview Elementary School in south DeKalb. In the 2000 presidential election, that polling place was packed with voters lined up outside and the McKinneys, father and daughter, arrived with a bullhorn to pump up the crowd and, opponents claim, nearly incite a riot.
The get-out-the vote dump truck brigade intended to end up there Tuesday as that poll closed to symbolize the ongoing struggle. Upon arrival, Lowery was stunned to find the poll virtually empty.
Brooks and Lowery knew that McKinney had lost. The civil rights leaders stood, sad and fatigued, by the dump truck, its banner sagging.
An era was over.
Ouster a slap at two faces of McKinney
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But I also can't help but regret what might have been, what maybe should have been.
I happened to be there the day in 1991 that state Rep. Cynthia McKinney first came to prominence, striding to the well of the state House to launch a passionate, detailed attack on the use of U.S. troops against Saddam Hussein. Her words were so blunt that two-thirds of her fellow legislators walked out.
I thought she was wrong, spectacularly wrong. I believed at the time, and still believe now, that under the circumstances we had no choice but to confront Hussein and force him out of Kuwait. Sometimes, war is our only option, and we better take it.
However, I couldn't help but admire the courage and passion that McKinney showed that day. In conversations in those years, she came across as intelligent, thoughtful, respectful of others and willing to fight hard for what she believed. When she later decided to run for Congress, I reassured doubtful friends and colleagues that she had the capacity to think for herself, and that she'd operate differently than her father, the thuggish, nasty Billy McKinney.
Over the next few years, McKinney did at times rise to those expectations. In her advocacy of the Palestinian cause, she provided a voice in Congress that needed to be heard, even if it was often off-base. She was a strident critic of racism and a defender of the little guy, and if she sometimes went over the top on those topics as well, in the end that was OK. She was, after all, just one of 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, too many of whom were cut from the same cloth.
But you also began to hear stories, deeply troubling stories. It gradually became clear that while McKinney liked to brag in public about speaking truth to power, in private she and her organization were a power that tolerated no truth speakers. They proved eager to squash any little people who dared to impede their ambitions, and built a political empire in DeKalb County based largely on intimidation.
Most troubling of all, the hints of anti-Semitic, anti-white and anti-gay attitudes -- subtle at first, more direct as time went on -- undercut any standing McKinney had earned as a champion of equal rights. If such hate did not come personally from the congresswoman, she at the very least tolerated it from those close to her. She waxed eloquent about the cinder in the eyes of others, but fell silent about the log in her own.
Inevitably, the bully's attitude began to make its way into her public persona as well. The more attention she got, the more attention she wanted, and the way to get it was to make more and more outrageous statements.
It culminated, of course, in the remarkably stupid suggestion that President Bush had known of the Sept. 11 attack, but had allowed it to take place in order to enrich his friends. Re-reading those comments today, they seem no less irresponsible than they did four months ago. After wondering why the administration had failed to halt the attack, McKinney wrote the following:
"I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of Sept. 11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case. For example, it is known that President Bush's father, through the Carlyle Group, had -- at the time of the attacks -- joint business interests with the bin Laden family's construction company and many defense industry holdings, the stocks of which have soared since Sept. 11."
Today, her political epitaph reads like a contradiction: She liked to confront the abuse of power by others, yet she herself indulged in behavior as bad or worse. She fashioned herself a crusader against racism, yet she tolerated and perhaps practiced prejudice just as wrong as that she condemned.
It was time, past time, for her to go. The voters of the 4th District did well.
I guess some people are not able to put their country first, but are just too wrapped up in their personal biases.
Oh well. :)))
It won't make the national news, how an angry mob of homeless black "volunteers" stormed McKinney headquarters on election night, demanding they be paid the $100.00 cash they were promised, for standing on hot street corners all day, holding up "McKinney" signs. (This ugly scene was shown and reported only on, the local Atlanta CBS affiliate.)
The following quotes from the AJC article are particularly telling:
.."By the end of her 10-year reign as congresswoman she had revealed herself as a vindictive and at times irrational politician who had long ago lost any concept of herself as a public servant..."
"... It gradually became clear that while McKinney liked to brag in public about speaking truth to power, in private she and her organization were a power that tolerated no truth speakers. They proved eager to squash any little people who dared to impede their ambitions, and built a political empire in DeKalb County based largely on intimidation.."
"She's highly accessible. She's as close as your phone is. But I think she doesn't fully understand her constituency at this point," Rush said, referring to McKinney's well-publicized affinity toward Arab groups critical of U.S. policy. "I was really annoyed by that letter to the Saudi prince. That did not represent me."
McKinney drew national criticism after she wrote an apology to a Saudi prince who offered $10 million to help the victims of the terrorist attack in New York while blaming U.S. policy for the assault. When then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani spurned the donation, McKinney asked Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to consider diverting his gift to African-American causes.
Majette's stunning victory in the 4th Congressional District Democratic primary seemed to confirm the emergence of moderate middle class and affluent African-Americans as an independent political base. Majette won a convincing 58 percent of the vote.
But a review of how people voted in the district shows Majette also made significant inroads in McKinney's working-class political base.
Majette carried predominantly African-American precincts despite a full-court press by the traditional black political machine of preachers and politicians to deliver the election to McKinney. And in deep south DeKalb, McKinney's stronghold over the last 10 years, voters failed to come out as strongly as they have in recent elections.
Ken Turner says he is a former McKinney supporter. Tuesday, he voted for Majette over the brash congresswoman.
"Just yelling and making making any statement you want and thinking as long as you're black, people are going to vote for you, well, we're not that stupid," Turner said. In the Stone Mountain area, a popular destination for middle class African-American newcomers moving to metro Atlanta, Majette prevailed. The former State Court judge also ran competitively with McKinney across a swath of central DeKalb precincts dominated by African-American voters.
Decatur businessman John Leak, who said he voted for Majette, suggested that old-style black politics don't work any more in DeKalb County.
This is very interesting.
AND it exposes something. Blaming Jews for defeating McKinney, rather than applauding the fact that blacks threw her out, is a subtle form of Uncle Tom-ism.
It implies that blacks do not have the sense or brains or power to reject a politician who reflects badly upon them.
The election of Majette over McKinney sends a powerful message to the Farrakhan's and Jackson's of the world, and I welcome that.
As I've said numerous times before...I'm glad she lost. But I'm not seeing it as a great victory, since she will be replaced by another black liberal democrat. If she had been defeated in the general election by a conservative republican, then I'd see reason to "savor".
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1988: McKinney makes her first run for public office when her father signs her up, without her consent. She wins election in state House District 49 in Atlanta.