But on Raw Story, they say NBC won't air a MoveOn ad. They probably had no trouble airing the Swift Boat ad, or smearing McKinny, though. It's just a pattern proving the MSM is a wing of the Republican party.

It sure would clear things up if there was a security video of this incident to look at.

I'm sure there is...just like the 9/11 Pentagon security video we cannot see.

Ya know, I don't know what exactly they mean by "grabbed her in an inappropriate way", but as a female who used to live alone and who has dealt with some really bold and stupid males out in public, I have to say, if I walked into ANY building and a man grabbed me in an "inappropriate manner", even as small as I am, I'd swing on instinct.

(Somewhere there is a man who groped me at a concert in a bar once who can attest to that fact - he's probably STILL singing tenor)

I don't know the details, but I hope circumstances are given weight. Men sometimes don't realize how easy it is to frighten women, especially petite women, when you grab us unexpectedly, and the deep instinct we have to fight back when we feel threatened - even when we are in what should be a safe environment.

Apparently I'm coming in late on this (I don't do news on weekends)

I'll google and catch up, but in the meantime, does anyone have a good website that explains exactly what happened and the response from all sides on this issue?

Sorry to be lazy, it's springtime and I've been busy with outside work

These are the same goons who ruffed up Cindy Sheehan recently. Cynthia Mckinney as one of the Bush gang's most ardent critics on Capitol hill, is obviously targeted for similar treatment.

Our representatives are GUARANTEED safe and unmolested passage in the Congress.

Manhandling of Representatives is a major violation of that ethic and that promise.

And the Bushoviks know it. This is yet another arranged event intended to intimidate and/or harrass our representatives, like stopping Sen. Kennedy at the airport for a search.

Hands off, cop. He should be fired, and forced to give back the bribe he received to do it.

This incident was captured on tape, and therefore it is reasonable to assume that the case has been referred to the U.S Attorney because there is probable cause demonstrated on the film and from eyewitness testimony.

ONLY McKinney is stating there was inappropriate private touching, and she has no one, not one soul, coming forward to support her charge. In short, she's probably lying.

This is not a conserverative versus liberal issue, but one of law and order. When you refuse to provide appropriate identification (McKinney refuses to wear her identifying Congressional pin) and ignore repeated warnings to stop, you should be expected to be stopped physically when you don't yield to verbal commands. Quite frankly, she's lucky she didn't get tackled, or worse. Capitol Police officer Jacob Chestnut and Special Agent John Gibson were gunned down by Russell Weston Jr in 1998 when he pushed through one of these checkpoints.

Cynthia McKinney has no respect for police officers that are on post to protect her life and that of other congressmen and staffers, and her caught-on-tape assault should be treated dispassionately and honestly.

If there is probable cause, she should be charged. That some of you would try to spin her arrogance and short temper into a Rovian plot points out why the rest of the nation refuses to take you seriously, no matter how much they may dislike Bush.

She walked in the door without HER ID OR CONGRESS PIN. Security stopped her and she punched him. The libs then go on to blame the security for getting punched

There are 535 people need that acess. Is a security officer supposed to memorize 535 different people that change every two years?

You people are crazy. She had no id, got stopped and punched the cop.

Viva Cynthia McKinney! "They" must be afraid of her refusal to be intimidated, or this wouldn't be happening. It's just an "in" for all the foul-talking right-wing media types and radio personalities to jump onto a wholesale character bash.

Well, she has more character than the lot of them.

The POINT is: cops in the United States are not supposed to manhandle first, and ask questions later. It is inappropriate to grab anyone before respectfully getting the question cleared up. If the cop asked her to identify herself and she refused, that would be one thing. If the cop just grabbed her, that is dead wrong and he should be fired. I'm sure he didn't sexually touch her; THAT he touched her at all before seeking to get any identity question resolved is WRONG.

I don't know how the cop didn't recognizer her. She has the most distincitive look of any congressman. She looks like she spent the weekend doing smack and probably belongs in a halfway house. I'm going to send her a hair brush and some sunglasses. She kind of looks like a bug.

The article linked in this post says that there are multiple witness accounts that she was asked 3 times to stop, she didn't, and that's when the police grabbed her. The argument of "inappropriate touching" should get cleared up by the video of the incident. The "racism" claim is going to be hard to prove, unless there's something on the security video that nobody has mentioned yet.

Sounds to me like capitol police were just doing their job. She didn't have her ID lapel on and didn't stop when told 3 times to do so. Any capitol police officer who doesn't forcefully stop a person like this is not doing their job.

The only thing McKinney may be justified in is perhaps being upset that capitol police didn't recognize her. That's not a defense for hitting a police officer who is just doing his job though.

While I'm sure the GOP is more than happy to talk this up, I highly doubt the incident itself was politically or racially motivated.

I hope they through the book at her and she gets the maximum sentence. Six years. Maybe we could send her to Guantanamo so she can be imprisoned with her Arab supporters.

In the same line of thinking as #14, I hope they "throw the book" at W for breaking the law with his NSA warrantless wiretapping program and give him the maximum sentence (as spelled out by FISA law itself) of a $10,000 fine & 5 years in prison. After all, the law is the law, right?

Bush didn't break the law. Clinton did.

A lapel pin is the extent of the security measures at the Capitol building? Thats very reassuring.

Clinton didn't eavesdrop on conversations in which 1 party was an American, in direct violation of FISA law. Bush did.

Note the "Lone Wolf" ammendment from 2004 that was added to better address gathering intelligence on terrorists.

Pushing the wiretapping issue is only going to help republicans. If you're on the phone giggling away like a school girl with an al queda member most Americans will want the phones to be wiretapped.

Thanks to liberal rags like the new york times, terrorists now know they're being wiretapped and have progressed to other forms of communication. The times, another al queda ally in the war on terrorism.

Radical - Yes, I'd go so far as to say that *all* Americans would want your phone tapped if you're talking to al qaida. And that's exactly what FISA is for. FISA is an acronym for Foreign Intelligence Surveilance Act, by the way. And that's exactly what it is.

Perhaps you'd care to glance at that law and then explain to us all why any president would need to circumvent this perfectly legal & agreed-upon method of spying on terrorists? Again, I'll ask you to note the "Lone Wolf" amendment from 2004 that was added and the 3-day grace period for obtaining a warrant after-the-fact in unusal circumstances.

And I'll even grant you the possibility that Clinton did break the law, but I'd like you to post a URL to the specific law that he broke so we can all see for sure. Also, I agree with you that McKinney is in the wrong on this one.

McKinney was just interviewed by Wolf Blitzer (ugh) and said that the lapel pins are just that - pins, jewellery - and not positive ID. And that, furthermore, most members do not wear them and that they can be easily replicated. She indicates that, if lapel pins were the standard for Congressional security, then Congress is in trouble. Just part of an interesting but infuriating segment of The Situation Room. Obviously, she was constrained from going into any details by the legal aspects of the case, but Wolfie kept carping anyway in his numb, dogged, tone-deaf way.

Also, in a post-9/11 world, any terrorist who didn't automatically assume that the US was eavesdropping on their phone calls is too stupid to be a genuine threat to our national security. And yes, they have moved on to other forms of communication. You can read about how a guy running password-protected websites and other Internet-related stuff on behalf of the terrorists got busted over in Scotland here.

Mr. Leftist likes to claim that pushing the illegal wiretapping issue helps republicans, but a recent opinion poll shows that more than half the country would support impeaching the president if he wiretapped US citizens without a warrant. Of course that was in the middle of heavy obfuscation and misinformation on the part of the republicans to cloud the issue.

But Brad... to be "swiftboated" don't the charges have to be false? The facts here aren't in dispute --- only, apparently, whether Ms. McKinney should be held to the same standard as everyone else.

I see here, wingnuts posting that it's allright for "the man" to touch you, and you shouldn't react. If she hit this officer, he was definitely doing something inappropriate to her, you idiots! What are you saying, she ran up to him and hit him??? Cut the shit out, this isn't Rush Lame-Bobb's website.

Bob Owens, Rickey, et al wingnuts: What about Bush's inappropriate behavior lying us into a war and getting hundreds of thousands of people killed? Any comments on that? This is typical wrongwing priorities. Limboob and the gang these wingnuts have their car radios tuned to, must be talking about McKinney. Don't talk about Bush's war, though.

Welcome Radical Leftist---our new idiot to make a fool out of. Welcome to the truth!

OK, "Radical Leftist" is a twit. A real troll.

But I think most of the people here, including Brad, are letting her off too easy. It seems the cop touched her on the arm, right? Well, she was going to get away otherwise --- and if he didn't recognize her (I agree, a bit surprising) then that's still no excuse for her punching him. And congresspeople are supposed to wear that pin! If other reps. are not required to wear it at the door and still get around security, please inform me. I have not heard of it.

Until someone explains to me why Ms. McKinney gets to blame her bad behavior on sexism and racism, I'm with Americablog. She's not worthy of your support.

I guess the subject is McKinney, but I just can't see making an issue of this, while we're murdering civilians in Iraq and stealing elections here at home. I'm not going to say she's not worthy of our support based on this. I'd like to know more about how she conducts herself with her voting record in congress. And it's probably better than the Republicans who are voting for tax cuts for the rich and cutting college grants.

Uh.

Dick Cheney shot a guy in the face. The republicans didn't give an inch.

A congresswoman pushes a security guard and people are ready to write her off?

I'm sure none of you have seen security camera footage of the incident, and I doubt anyone, even the trolls, believe a word the media says these days; why not hold off the judgement until more information is available?

Meanwhile, let us debate whether a lapel pin is the best method of identification to get by security in our nation's capitol, or whether the police should try to remember the faces of the 535 people they're responsible for protecting.

I think we should just wait until all the evidence is in and see what's what before making a judgement call.

I'm hearing conflicting stories here - is there a video tape or not?

Who were the witnesses?

Was she on a cellphone and completely distracted when she walked in? (It happens, all the time in fact - not an excuse by any means, but definitely a reason)

Did he touch her on the arm, or do something drastic like brush against her breast, or grab her clothing or her hair? (The latter list of actions would automatically result in a swift kick in the nuts, especially given she was raised in the south)

If Ms. McKinney intentionally refused to identify herself when asked, then she messed up, and she should have known better. If the cop touched her in a way that was inappropriate, then he messed up, and HE should have known better.

The two mistakes are not mutually exclusive of each other. And if BOTH messed up, BOTH should apologize.

As an aside - it's still hard to fathom that a tiny little lapel pin is all the identification needed by members of Congress. Isn't that kinda risky?

BVAC - Great minds think alike.

Or is that, WARPED minds *L*

Uh, guys...

I know a troll first promulgated the "information" that there are 535 congressional districts, therefore 535 congresscritters, but I calculate that our pet troll inflates the number by almost 25%! Because, surprise, surprise, there are 435 members of Congress (as any attentive Colbert-watcher knows), and ignorance is rampant in troll-under-the-bridge land.

This billy-goat-gruff would much prefer educated adversaries to total nincompoops.

The news report that I heard said that the security guard did not SEE her lapel pin. It didn't say she wasn't wearing it. So was she wearing it or not?

And if she wasn't wearing it did she just forget? And if she forgot did she just not hear the officer since she was on the phone? And if Ms. McKinney was on the cell phone and oblivious and didn't hear the police officer say something to her, did he simply touch her on the shoulder? Or did he grab her on the shoulder? And exactly how hurt was this officer? Did he have to go to the hospital? Or did it just sting for a bit? Was he even bruised? Or was it just his ego that was bruised? I'd like to see the video.

I once was working at a sandwich shop when I was younger and a doctor (who I gues thought he was entitled), decided I was in his way as I was cleaning the salad bar. He put both his hands on my shoulders and proceded to try to move me out of his way. I took my left arm and swung around like a windmill on him and he was shocked and agast that I would do something like that.... My supervisor came running up and asked me what happened and I said that he had grabbed me from behind. The doctor said I was "touchy" and I said, "No, you are the one that is touchy, you don't come up behind women and grab them from behind, no matter who you think you are." I would have done the exact same thing as McKinney.

Peg C,

There are 435 members of Congress in the House of Representatives, and 100 members of Congress in the Senate. 535 total congressman is correct.

Drawing your political wisdom from Comedy Central just reinforces to the world why you shouldn't be in charge or anything more complicated than the shift schedule at Applebees.

The trolls here try to make Cynthia into a "moonbat"

If she is, so what ?

She's my "moonbat" and I love her anyway

The plus side of it is that she's an honest to goodness member of "our" congress, you know, the peoples part of it anyway

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/8442213/detail.html

Illegall use of Taxpayer money. Any of you libs care? Of course not.

Peg C. Thanks for the math lesson.

" Because, surprise, surprise, there are 435 members of Congress (as any attentive Colbert-watcher knows), and ignorance is rampant in troll-under-the-bridge land."

This billy-goat-gruff would much prefer educated adversaries to total nincompoops. "

Comedy Central. LOL

WASHINGTON, D.C. --- Rep. Cynthia McKinney admits that she broke government rules by spending money to fly a celebrity to Atlanta.

Channel 2 Action News has uncovered documents showing McKinney, D-Ga., spent about $1,000 of taxpayer's money to fly singer Isaac Hayes to Georgia to help dedicate a new office in Atlanta.

The money came from a fund members of Congress are supposed to use for office supplies.

Using the money to pay for Hayes' airline ticket and hotel expenses is a violation of strict congressional rules. Those rules state that taxpayer money can only be used for "travel by Members, Members' employees and vendors. A vendor is an employee of a private company that provides maintenance and support for equipment and software..."

Watchdog groups call taxpayer-funded celebrity travel a blatant waste of taxpayer money.

McKinney staffers say they will reimburse the congressional fund for the cost of Hayes' flight and hotel room.

Ricky: "Tom DeLay Steps Down"...

Hey (Bushbutt) Licky,
At least she didn't pay for some CEO to come down there and line her pockets like some members of the "Grande Old Party" would, Like your buddy DeLay did several hundred times

Who chares what the country thinks of this latest McKinney incident? What do other members of the Congress think, especially the Democrats?

The Hill: McKinney is a Distraction

As for Peg C, whoops! I hope she salted her shoe before she put her foot in her mouth. Well, that's harsh. Anybody can make a mistake "..no matter who you think you are." I'm glad I don't watch Comedy Central.

But Steve, you may not like Bob's tone, but his point is a fact. When those two officers were killed in the Capitol building, they left behind three children each. One of them was close to retirement. It was Senator Frist, a heart doctor, who saved the gunman's life after being shot by one of the officers who then died.

Rep.McKinney is right about the lapel pin not being security, but she is wrong about not showing ID. I drive on a military base every workday. I take off my sunglasses and have my ID card out facing the gate officer when I pull up. They are armed with semi-automatic handguns and sometimes even shotguns.

I also remember that the Capitol gunman was shot by the 2nd deceased officer (just before he died) right inside the door to Rep.Tom DeLay's office (the man you are so happy for today). So perhaps I help you with that info.

Liberals: Go ahead and say what I expect liberals to say about that. I won't be suprised if you do.

Have a nice day!

Dick Cheney shot a guy in the face.

My only thought about this is that we should wait for all the info. and then make a fair and reasoned judgment. If Ms. McKinney was in the wrong, then we should admit it. Otherwise, we are no different than the wingnut trolls (including some in this thread) who back Bush and his criminal brigade no matter what the evidence of his wrongdoing or incompetence (but who criticize those here who may be doing exactly what they do so ignorantly, unquestioningly and repeatedly).

As for Bob Owens, you are a particularly egotistical and biased individual with your comment "That some of you would try to spin her arrogance and short temper into a Rovian plot points out why the rest of the nation refuses to take you seriously, no matter how much they may dislike Bush." Whether you are right or wrong about this incident does not justify your idiotic and condescending comment. It is really humorous that someone as obviously close-minded as you thinks they know what the "rest of the nation" thinks. Please feel free to climb back in your hole.

It is good to know Senator Frist is competent in his field of heart surgery. After hearing his neurological analysis of Terri Schivo, I was surprised to learn he was a doctor who had actually been licensed to practice.
I agree about the ID. My husband worked on a military base for many years and security is taken seriously there. McKinney should have been wearing her pin.

Joy,
AND her ID especially! I'm glad that you and I can agree on something. But Rep.McKinney has always been something of a outlandish Rep., as I recall. I was suprised to see her defeated and the comments made by her father about racism after she lost. I was even more suprised to see that she won back her seat. Reminds me of Wash.D.C citizens re-electing Marion Barry and Massachuetts voters re-electing Senators Kennedy and Kerry over and over. Yech! (IMHO)
Those Hill police are protecting her life from people like that gunman Russell Weston Jr in 1998 and terrorists. Give them credit for that, ok everybody?

... Or electing that boob George Bush twice. Whats up with that...

As a former federal female employee trying to work in the old boys network, I'm not surprised by the actions of these upper echelon people. They are out to make sure that black female stay in their place (if you will) I believe she was right in protecting herself. As a petite female, I don't take it nicely if someone touhes me inappropriately or without my consent. Get a life, their is enough problems in today's society than some top cop trying to be the racist as... that he is and stuck up since Washingtonians rate their value on their career, homes, cars and education. Lets stick to the issue at hand, poverty, lack of health care, lack of jobs, a bad economy and the lies from the Repbulicans.

Mike Rupert was once a white policeman, but he earned his stripes and is now black like me (link here).

Actually, that is not exactly true, I am now black like Mike, and can only hope to be black like Cynthia.

I may have to wait to get to heaven for that final improvement.