AssHole of the Week: Cynthia McKinney and the Holy Gripe

"Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

- U.S. Representative from Georgia, 4th District Dennis The Peasant

Slinging the mud on Capitol Hill

In a rich crop this week, ranging from Delay's defenders to the Hammer Himself (big brass ones, you got there buddy.) to Icepick (almost there, buddy...)

But really, there could only be one winner. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, claiming to be a victim of...well something or other:

McKinney, a Democrat from suburban Atlanta, didn't stop at an officer's request last week, then turned around and hit him after he reached out and grabbed her, said Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer

Damn Capitol Hill police, always biting lawmakers in the hand.

So is she a victim? Uhm, Sadly, No! Congresswoman. It seems to me that requiring a Congressperson to be identifiable as, you know, a member of Congress before just walking into a secure building would be a Good Thing. It would hardly be a "secure environment" if someone could just say "Hey! It's me, let me in."

And, no, it's not racial. (At least, not until you took it there, Congresswoman. Rosa Parks, you are not.) It's possible that the guard may have recognized you had you been a white guy who's on TV all the time, but then you'd be a Senator, and you aren't there yet (or ever, likely). As they say, trust, but verify.

Gainer gets it about right, with either a great deal of restraint, or a talent for dry wit:

"Even the high and the haughty" should be able to stop and identify themselves as members of Congress if confronted at a security checkpoint, Gainer said. "The response is not to hit a police officer."

And aside from the sheer idiocy of slugging a cop for doing his job, as well as the unsympathetic nature of the "don't you know who I am?" defense, this is terrible, terrible politics. Instead of a Delay field-day, the cries of "Look! A Jackolope!" ring out from sea to shining sea. Just a reminder that the whole "the Dems will find a way to blow it. Again" meme has a solid factual basis. Which leads us to...

Update: Otto Man agrees.

Update #2: My further thoughts