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Posted on 10/16/2001 12:36:59 PM PDT by Roswell Bear

Journal:

McKinney's sniping an embarrassment

Staff

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

TWICE IN RECENT days we've had reason to appreciate Mark Twain's wisdom for noting: "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Most recently, when U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) apologized to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal after the prince's $10 million donation was rejected by New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. And before that, when the prince suggested that U.S. policy in the Middle East was partly to blame for the attacks, prompting Giuliani to reject the donation.

"We must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack," the prince had said. "I believe the government of the United States of America should re-examine its policies in the Middle East."

In a letter of apology to the prince, McKinney said she regretted that Giuliani turned down the donation. "Whether he agreed with you or not," McKinney wrote to the prince, "I think he should have recognized your right to speak and make observations about a part of the world which you know so well."

Try telling the thousands of Americans whose relatives were killed and maimed in the attacks of Sept. 11 that they should appreciate a donor who suggests the victims are to blame for the atrocities. Offering a reasonable explanation for terrorism is like trying to telling the rape victim that if her skirt just hadn't been so short . . .

We'd like to offer an apology, too: to Americans, for Cynthia McKinney, who actually believes it's OK that foreign dignitaries would outrageously blame America --- the people she represents, the government she participates in --- for being attacked. Who actually believes that the terrorists will go away if we give up our friend Israel --- incidentally, the only democracy in the Middle East.

McKinney talks and behaves as though she is not a part of the American government, but is instead a free-lance critic whose constituency is the world. We weren't surprised, for example, that she --- a representative of the Congress of the United States --- stayed behind at the recent hate-filled Durban conference against hate after the government of the United States pulled out. But she really should decide whether she wants to be a representative of Americans --- or a grievance-bearer for the world's self-annointed victims.

McKinney's apology to the Saudi prince implies that Giuliani was wrong to reject the donation. Giuliani acted honorably, which is more than we can say for the congresswoman from Georgia.

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