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DC Statehood Green response to distortions, misrepresentations in a Washington Post article on Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney
THE DC STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
For immediate release:
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Contact:
Scott McLarty, DC Statehood Green Party Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Washington Post omits McKinney from 'DC Presidential Election' voters' guide page (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008/elections/dc/president)
WASHINGTON, DC -- The following response to an October 27 Washington Post article on Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney was prepared with the intent of submitting as a guest column.
The Post's editorial department discouraged such a submission, and recommended sending a letter to the editor instead. The Post imposes a 200-word limit on letters to the editor, which would have made an effective response to the article impossible. The decision was thus made to publish the response, written by party media coordinator Scott McLarty, in a news release.
Greens -- locally, DC Statehood Greens -- have expressed concern that Washington's hometown paper avoided covering the McKinney campaign throughout most of the election season and then published an article misrepresenting the McKinney campaign eight days before the general election.
Party members also complained that the Post omitted Ms. McKinney from its 'DC Presidential Election' voters' guide page (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008/elections/dc/president), even though Ms. McKinney will appear on the DC Statehood Green Party's presidential ballot line on Nov. 4. As of 12:30 pm on Thursday, Oct. 30, the error had not been corrected and calls to the Post had not been returned. The DC Statehood Green Party has major party status in the District of Columbia.
Response to "Stealth Candidacy: The Green Party's Cynthia McKinney Takes Puzzling Path To the Electorate" by Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post, October 27, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/26/AR2008102602240_pf.html
"Stealth Candidacy" (The Post, Oct. 27) is full of distortions and misrepresentations of Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and her political background. Space limitations allow me to correct and clarify just a few of them.
Ms. McKinney's was elected by her Georgia constituents to the US House six times, but lost her seat after Republicans engaged in 'crossover voting' in the primary (based on a Georgia election rule permitting voters outside of a party to vote in the party's primary, prohibited in most states) to prevent her from winning the Democratic nomination.
Rep. McKinney was labeled 'conspiracy theorist' for asking what the Bush Administration knew about the impending attacks in the months leading up to 9/11. In 2004, the 9/11 Commission found that advance warnings had crossed the desks of White House officials.
Given the history of infiltration by the FBI's COINTELPRO operation, it's not unreasonable to wonder if spies might be present at a Black Panthers reunion. Nor is it unreasonable for Ms. McKinney, in this decade of pervasive surveillance and serious erosion of constitutional protections, to suspect that a similar operation is at work today.
Disobeying orders from House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. McKinney joined a congressional commission to investigate the response to Katrina [U.S. House Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia]. During her investigation, she collected harrowing reports of numerous extra-judicial killings by law enforcement and military contractors, as well as mass displacement of black and poor New Orleans residents to make way for development. While most Americans know of the Bush Administration's shamefully inadequate actions in the early days of the disaster, the post-hurricane outrages have mostly been swept under the rug.
The Post reporter, focusing on his sensational claims, ignored Ms. McKinney's leadership on major issues. While Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain endorsed a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street that did little to assist most Americans facing financial hardship, Ms. McKinney published a plan that addresses the needs of homeowners and working people and holds reckless financial institutions responsible (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=106).
Ms. McKinney has called for rapid US troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, an end to threats of a US attack against Iran, support for single-payer national health care, canceling the costly and ineffective war on drugs, abolition of the death penalty, impeachment of President Bush, and no immunity for telecomms that had participated in warrantless spying on US citizens. These and other ideas are shared by many Americans who plan to vote for Barack Obama, although Sen. Obama takes opposing positions. With no objection from Sen. Obama, Democrats dropped the goal of DC statehood from their national platform in 2004 and 2008, leaving Greens the only national party to support the genuine democracy, full equality, and freedom from Congress's rule that statehood will afford DC residents.
Ms. McKinney and running mate Rosa Clemente, America's first presidential ticket with two women of African ancestry, will be on the ballot line of the DC Statehood Green Party, which holds major party status and has begun to emerge as the District's 'second party' in terms of electoral clout. In 2006, the five Statehood Green candidates for partisan office collectively received more votes (47,421) than the five Republicans (32,658) (http://www.dcboee.org/information/elec_2006/general_2006_results.shtm). The Green Party remains America's best hope for a truly progressive party and an end to a political landscape limited to the two established parties and the narrow ideas they represent.
Scott McLarty
Media Coordinator, DC Statehood Green Party
Media Coordinator, Green Party of the United States
Washington, DC
202-904-7614
MORE INFORMATION
DC Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
2008 Statehood Green candidates index http://www.statehood4dc.com/home
Louise Thundercloud, for Delegate to the US House of Representatives http://www.statehood4dc.com/thundercloud http://votingforchangeindc.ning.com
Joyce Robinson Paul, for US Statehood Representative http://www.statehood4dc.com/jrpaul/home
Keith Ware, for US Statehood Senator http://www.statehood4dc.com/ware/home
David Schwartzman, for Council, At-Large http://www.davidschwartzman.com
Cynthia McKinney, for President of the United States http://www.runcynthiarun.com
Rosa Clemente, for Vice President of the United States http://www.rosaclemente.com
Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
