Stages of a Spontaneously-Combusting Congresswoman

[doombug]

This is one INSANE AW!


McKinney was meeting with constituents and agreed to an exclusive interview with WGCL-TV, CBS 46, of Atlanta. During that interview, CBS 46 reporter Renee Starzyk asked McKinney what she is telling her constituents about the altercation.


"Actually, you media people are the only ones who are asking about that."

But a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., also is asking about the incident, trying to determine whether or not to refer criminal charges against the congresswoman. The panel has not yet made its decision, and Starzyk asked if that is a distraction from McKinney's work.


"Well, you're a distraction because that seems to be all you want to talk about.  But people here understand that my representation is much larger than any discrete incident."

McKinney then walked out on the interview. But she did not tell Starzyk that their conversation was over, nor did McKinney allow an audio technician to remove the wireless microphone attached to her for the interview.

While she was off camera, McKinney criticized a member of her staff, Coz Carson.


"Oh, crap! Now, you know what?" McKinney asked an unidentified aide. "They lied to Coz and Coz is a fool!"

Realizing that her microphone was still on, McKinney returned to the room where the interview was being conducted and, knowing that she was on camera, told Starzyk:


"Anything that is captured by your audio, that is captured while I'm not seated in this chair, is off the record and is not permissible to be used. Is that understood?"





By the way, don't shed too many tears for Coz Carson.  The ex-radioman once pigeonholed all veterans with this remark about the "D.C. Sniper":

"If you visited a veteran’s hospital you would know there are a lot of guys out there who are one bad cup of coffee away from doing just what this guy did.  They trained that dog, and now it's bit 10 people and they don’t know what to do about it."

[utopiacowboy]

I'd trade her for a Mexican illegal any day. Stupid, bad attitude, fugly, it just doesn't get any worse than her.

[doombug]

Further evidence that the "typical AW" label fits her well:

From a 1994, Ebony, article:

McKinney's son, Coy, a soccer and baseball buff, lives in Atlanta with her parents, Billy McKinney, a longtime Georgia state representative and civil rights activist, and Leola McKinney, a retired nurse.

"I've looked at schools close to the Hill," the congresswoman says. "But one of the problems in Congress is that politicians are always moving away from the people. I don't want to do that. That's why I'm determined to make [this living arrangement] work to avoid becoming a part of the problem."

Avoiding one problem, however, often gives way to others. Ideally, McKinney would spend three days on Capitol Hill and four days at her home base in Dekalb County, Ga. But at times the obligations of public life collide with the time she sets aside for her family, which can lead to two-week stretches between the time she and her son are together.

Although the doting mother makes it a priority to take her son to school and to the doctor for regular check-ups when she is in her home district, she rarely gets to see him bunt a baseball or run across a soccer field. "I'm still trying to work on having a more family-friendly schedule," McKinney says apologetically. But for now, its her parents who are "washing [her sons] baseball uniform and watching him make a hit or an out in that most important playoff game when I can't be there," McKinney says of those missed moments. "And I hate it."

In the summer, Coy visits his mother in Washington, D.C. During those routine two-week stays he has met several dignitaries, including President Clinton, King Hussein of Jordan and ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Although her parents handle the bulk of her sons affairs back in Atlanta, McKinney is very much involved in his everyday life. When she is in Washington, she calls Atlanta each morning, checking to make sure that he is ready for school and apprised of her schedule. She regularly reviews his homework - via the fax machine and, like most mothers, doles out punishments every now and then.

Not a trace of guilt streaks the face of this nontraditional mother-legislator who is known for her cornrowed hair, vibrant clothes and gold canvas tennis shoes. Her family circumstance, although different in some ways, she says, is quite normal in others. "It makes me feel happy that I've brought a maturing young person into the world," she says, "and that I'm fostering a sense of independence and social commitment."

McKinney says her former husband has had no contact with their son since they were divorced four years ago. "He hasn't bothered to have his child as a priority," she says [...double standardly], "which is a position that many women find themselves in today. So I walk in the shoes of many women, I just happen to have a nontraditional job."

Life as a lawmaker and a long-distance, single mother has its rewards and its penalties, but McKinney doesn't plan to alter a thing any time soon. "Even with its difficulties, the fact that I'm a member of Congress allows me to expose my son to all of the diversity of American life and to the world," the congresswoman says proudly. "Its been a positive experience for me and for him."

Any man who'd walk down the isle again with her would have to be a Mckinney-certified...