How much of the Lieberman 'outrage' is an artifact of geography?

You can't cover the McKinney runoff and still be back in Manhattan for dinner.

Patria est ubicumque est bene. Their 'homeland' is wherever they can turn a buck. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations

The thing about the McKinney race is that her failure to get a majority a couple of weeks ago was a complete suprise. Her opponent Hank Johnson wasn't actually very well funded and I saw very little about the race in the Atlanta paper. Of course that all changed when it became apparent he might actually win, but unlike when Majette beat McKinney a couple of years ago, the result wasn't a result of a lot of crossover voting from Republicans.

McKinney has been a terrible representative for her district. She is far more interested in picking fights and saying outreagous things than actually getting anything done. Add in her fathers ridiculous J-E-W-S comments a few years back (particularly irritating because there are actually a fair number of Jews in her district), hitting a policeman with a cell phone and any number of other stunts over the years and she's built up a group of people who have gotten sick of her.

I suppose I'm not actually arguing with your point. I agree that Connecticut democrats and Georgia democrats have the same right to kick out people who they believe have stopped representing their interests and pick canidiates who are going to be less interested in using their offices for personal aggrandizement. However, like Lieberman, McKinney's problems may have been compounded by national groups who don't like her, but her real problem is that she seems to have lost the support of her own district.

First of all you seem to have decided I'm a conservative on the basis of...I have no idea. I'm not, so we can dispense with the first half of your argument. Just because we have a dangerously incompetent administration doesn't mean voters in McKinney's district should have to have an anti-semitic Democratic senator who slugs police officers and does nothing for the district. The Republicans seem to embrace all kinds of fools and scoundrels but thats hardly an argument for our party to keep electing our own versions.

As to your weak attempt to make this all about race, that is nonsense. Her district, after all, is majority black. My problem with McKinney is that her father, working as her campaign manager made repeated clear anti-semetic comments and she never distanced herself from any of them. I make the same inference about her as I do about Mel Gibson from that evidence.

I also sometimes get the feeling that people who never lived in my former district have no idea just what a poor representative McKinney is. She has done nothing useful for the district in years, she doesn't bother showing up to the kind of events that representatives customarily attend, she has engaged in a prolonged spat with the sizeable gay community in her district because some gay politicians endorsed Majette 4 years ago. There are reasons that she is doing so badly in a very liberal, majority black district. and they don't all have to do with outside money and support.

People have a variety of concerns with McKinney, as is their right, but clearly her views on Israel are the key to the existence of a nationwide anti-McKinney movement. Is that a problem?

Yes Most definitely.

Since when did being pro-American/anti-war mean you have to support Israel or you are anti-semitic? While Lieberman supports the war and he too is unworthy of Democratic votes because he is pro-Israel?. Joe will win in CT but McKinney will be out in GA.

What I find ironic about the McKinney affair is that the people who are opposed to McKinney are pro-Israel.

The same folks who seemingly care more about Israel's 'right to exist' are rabidly opposed to an American politician being pro-America.

This is intellectual hypocrisy at it's best.

McKinney is a member of a ethnic group which has historically been disenfranchised and discriminated against by America, yet she is opposed by a group who believes they  are entitled to a entire country based on being persecuted historically. What rich irony.

When McKinney questions whether support for Israel is one of the reasons for the Iraq war in defense of her country....she is opposed by Jewish political interest groups?

I don't see "the uppity black woman" thing hurting liberal Maxime Waters seat in Illinois

Um, Maxine Waters represents Watts/Compton in CAlifornia.

Looks like she might lose, and it has little to do with Israel. Wikipedia on her:

Ms. McKinney failed to secure 51% of the votes in the recent Democratic primary and will face Hank Johnson in a runoff for the Democratic nomination for the district on August 8, 2006....

Her political career began in 1986 when her father, Billy McKinney, a representative in the Georgia House of Representatives, submitted his daughter's name as a write-in candidate for the Georgia state house. She received about 40 percent of the popular vote despite the fact that she lived in Jamaica at the time with then-husband Coy Grandison (with whom she had a son, Coy McKinney, now age 20). In 1988, McKinney ran for the same seat and won, making the McKinneys the first father and daughter to simultaneously serve in the Georgia state house....

McKinney was reelected from this district in 1996, 1998 and 2000 with no substantive opposition. McKinney lost her seat in 2002 after losing the primary election (details below). She regained her seat in 2004, when it was open due to Denise Majette's run for U.S. Senate. In 2006, she was opposed in the Democratic primary by Hank Johnson and John Coyne III. She led the July 18 primary, with Johnson coming in second, but the race continued to an August 8 runoff, because no candidate received 50 percent of the votes cast....

Wikipedia on her challenger, Hank Johnson:

....In regards to the up-coming runoff election, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted: "A new poll by Insider Advantage shows challenger Hank Johnson with a hefty lead over incumbent Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic run-off for the 4th District congressional race. The poll shows Johnson leading McKinney, 46 to 21 percent, with a third of voters undecided."[2] Based upon historical results in Georgia runoff elections, many experts in Georgia politics believe that Johnson is the favorite to win the runoff election. University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock stated that McKinney will probably lose because historically most incumbents forced into a runoff in Georgia do. "There is blood in the water and the sharks are circling," Bullock concluded.[3]

Johnson is attempting to protray himself as a reasonable, Democratic alternative to McKinney....The primary election runoff has become a fairly negative campaign. McKinney has crticized Johnson from receiving $16,000 of donations from Republicans. Johnson has responded that he is a "lifelong Democrat" and that the money McKinney has criticized is small compared to the $130,000 in donations he took in before the primary vote. Also, Johnson has pointed out that McKinney has received large donations from out of state donors from New York and Los Angeles and most of his support has come from in the District.

Johnson has been noted for his engagement of the blogosphere....

oops thank you for correcting! I am posting in a hurry. I also blurred links together, meant to have the link to her challenger's website as well. It's here.

My problem is that you are addressing it nationally when we are dealing with a House race. You don't appear to understand what our House is, and therefore to even be aware of the consequences of gerrymandering over the last few years. There are "silk stocking" districts, poor minority districts, redneck districts. You can get racists and nutcases elected that way, yesiree. It's a big country.

That is actually the point of this post. Outside special interest money helping a challenger in a primary, because the incumbent is vulnerable and the challenger has a chance of winning. But to attribute it to the reasons you are giving, you have to study the district. No amount of pro-Israel money is going to help her opponent in a district where voters are happy with her. Note in the wikipedia entry on her opponent, cited in another comment, he is claiming she has gotten more out-of-state money than him.

The district is still majority black. Racism has nothing to do with it. Rather, it seems it will depend more upon how many black voters in her district are comfortable with her form of liberalism and what she has accomplished for them.

He doesn't sound like an Uncle Tom GOP bootlicker to me: http://www.hankforcongress.com/

No amount of pro-Israel money is going to help her opponent in a district where voters are happy with her.

Not quite so AA. Recall this is precisely how Majette defeated McKinney. Outside money poured in. Even though her district did support her that time. The breakdown of the votes and the crossover voting of the GOP defeated McKinney.  So, outside money can defeat a candidate. Majette went on to run for another position and the McKinney's district sent her back to Congress.

Gotta tell the truth -- even by New Orleans standards, McKinney is considered a nutjob by the people who know who she is, including me, and I'm not sure ayone knows her views on Israel. Outside of her district, I think most people first heard about her when she was saying that Bush was a conspirator in the Sept. 11 attacks. Being black and female doesn't come into it. She just keeps saying embarassingly crazy shit.

Student, the problem is that the neo-left can't speak to the issues, they can not engage in a debate on the excellent points you made because they have no answer.. they would have had to actually think and care about said issues. They don't.

Their standard practice is to distract from the point at hand, and if that fails to work they then rely on inferences and accusations intended to imply that any poster questioning them must be suspect of being the enemy. It's a standard troll's game.

Keep questioning them on the issues.

I'm not even interested in linking McKinney's views on Israel with her anti-semitism. I don't think McKinney is an anti-semite because she is anti-Israel, I think she is an anti-semite because her father acting as her campaign advisor repeatedly made unequivically anti-semitic statements that she never distanced herself from. All things being equal I would prefer my representative not to believe that I'm part of some secret cabal that hatches nefarious schemes through control of money. I'm not sure why this is so unreasonable.

Student.

I agree that Synthia probably does not like Jews. so by definition, she is antisemitic. And that's a mark against her. Ok? do we have this straight. But to blow this all out of proportion shows that you are all-too willing to play the anti-Semite card for no good reason. Jews in America do not have to worry about being discriminated against or being harmed by anti-Semites. So why is it so common to go around using the "Anti-Semite" charge? Because it is politically advantageous. When we were busy fighting the Nazis and the Japanese, we use to call the Germans and Japanese all sorts of name without it provoking some irrational response from anybody. Why is it that those who are against Israeli Policy are not attacked on the merits of their position, but on the shibboleth of labeling them ANTISEMITE--when that word has been injected with the most poisonous connotations imaginable--as if the person who is both 1) Against Israeli action and (perhaps because of that) has 2) an unfavorable opinion of Jews wants to see horrible things happen to Jews? It is pure logical nonsense.

Valdron, you are making over-generalized statements about a specific situation.  How much do you actually know about Cynthia McKinney and her district?  Do you know it is part of Atlanta?  Do you know anything about Atlanta's general population and city government?  If not, check it out.

Shirley Franklin, Mayor

City Council 

I do not dispute your statement that "racism is certainly an intrinsic part of American society" but would remind you that it goes both ways.  Cynthia McKinney won her seat originally by virtue of being a black woman in a predominantly black district and she has never hesitated to play the race card to her own benefit.  It worked well for her for a long time.  Now, not so much, especially when compared to someone like Shirley Franklin who can be just as forthright and outspoken as McKinney.  Competence is the difference.  Franklin actually works to get things done -- and usually succeeds.

Forget about the outside money and all that. McKinney is in trouble because she's perceived as a crappy Representative who has not taken care of her district and a borderline wack-job. Fair or unfair as a characterization, that's the fact. Being pro-Palestinian (and possibly somewhat anti-Semetic) may incite some out-of-state funding but is the least of her troubles.

Compton vs. Georgia. Unless McKinney's district is predominantly black, the "uppity black woman" theory still deserves attention.