As you probably have heard, House member Cynthia McKinney, an African American Democrat from Georgia, is currently under a lot of scrutiny after being accused of assaulting a capitol police officer. Accounts vary about exactly what occurred, but it appears certain that there was some sort of altercation between Rep. McKinney and the officer after she was stopped at a security checkpoint.

Regardless of the extent of the actual incident, McKinney should have quickly apologized for her actions and taken responsibility. If she had done that, she would have been more or less forgiven by the vast majority of the populous. But that’s not what she did.

Instead, she made remarks like this: (more…)