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By Hugo Gurdon
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Posted: 05/10/07 06:28 PM [ET] |
It is usually better if election results, like the outcomes of sporting events, are not foregone conclusions. It’s not just that they are more interesting that way, but also that properly competitive campaigns make for genuine democracy, whereas blowouts — Saddam Hussein used to get better than 99 percent in Iraqi elections — do not.
It must be acknowledged, however, that there are political races in which the prospect of genuine competition is a gloomy one. One such race is shaping up in Georgia’s 4th district, where there is talk that former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D) might challenge Rep. Hank Johnson (D), the man who replaced her, in a primary.
Johnson has been in Congress only since January and so has had no time to build a record that would make his departure a matter of great regret. But McKinney was in Congress long enough to build a record, and she wasted no time in building one so undistinguished by merit that her defeat last year, like her defeat four years earlier by Denise Majette (D), was not a matter for regret at all, but rather cause for celebration.
She was frequently in the news for unedifying reasons, the latest being the most egregious. She assaulted a Capitol Police officer, hammering him on the chest with her cell phone because he had the gall not to recognize her and insisted on the security precaution of seeing her ID.
Although this was the lowest point of McKinney’s career, it was hardly atypical. Indeed, her career was characterized by one low after another, each of which tarnished her district in Georgia, her party and the institution of Congress that was her place of work.
Because The Hill is a non-partisan and non-ideological newspaper, it does not endorse election candidates. And we’re not endorsing anyone now. But declining to come out in support of one candidate does not preclude coming out against another. And it is an easy call that McKinney is unsuitable to be a member of Congress.
As it happens, she is not the only challenger spoken of as a possible nemesis for Johnson. It is also being suggested that DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones might drop his bid to oust Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) — he is now trailing the incumbent 57-29 — and instead focus on the House by taking a shot at Johnson.
A Jones-Johnson contest? OK. Let the chips fall where they may. But McKinney? Here’s hoping that in November 2008 we won’t find ourselves reporting her return yet again. |
