After Accusing Police of Racism, Congresswoman Apologizes
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
The New York Times, April 7, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 6 — To her allies, Representative Cynthia McKinney, the fiery Georgia Democrat who apologized on the House floor on Thursday for her scuffle with the Capitol police, is a brilliant and gutsy crusader for the disenfranchised — "a modern-day version of Sojourner Truth," said Representative Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio, referring to the famed black suffragette.
To her critics, Ms. McKinney is a relentless self-promoter and conspiracy theorist, too extreme to be taken seriously. And some of her colleagues, including fellow Democrats, say that lately she has been a little bit out of control.
"I said, 'You need to come to a nonviolence workshop,' " Representative John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat and 1960's civil rights leader, recalled telling Ms. McKinney in a private conversation on the House floor this week, after the congresswoman declared herself a victim of "racial profiling" by the police.
"I talked to her about lowering the temperature, stopping the press conferences," Mr. Lewis said Wednesday. Ms. McKinney, he said, was noncommittal. "She said, 'I've got to check with my people.' "
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It was another twist in the curious saga of a politician who has, virtually overnight, become the talk of the town. In a Capitol populated mostly by white men in conservative suits, Ms. McKinney, 51, brings a voice that is rarely heard — the strong, edgy anger of a black woman who grew up in the South and does not much care whom she offends.
It is no secret here that the Georgia congresswoman gets under people's skin. Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, expressed impatience with Ms. McKinney on Thursday, saying she should "go back to what the people elected her to do." The House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, does not even speak to her.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/washington/07mckinney.html
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