McKinney, a racist?

Posted by Jan Frel at 3:24 PM on April 5, 2006.

"Cynthia McKinney is a racist. She has a long history of racism. Everything is racism with her. This is incredible arrogance that sometimes hits these members of Congress, but especially Cynthia McKinney." -- That's Tom DeLay on Rep. McKinney's run-in with a Capitol police officer, only a short time removed from announcing he's resigning from Congress. Kind of a crazy thing to say, don'tcha think?

Perhaps it's the makings of an insanity plea for his defense. I highlighed one crazy ass thing he said in my piece on Republican retirements today in that Time interview, but DeLay said a slew of nutty things in there as well. Other highlights:

"The people that go to church understand that a country has to be based on some sort of religion and fear of God because they understand that."
...
TIME: You mentioned foster care and public speaking. What are some of the other projects that you imagine [doing]?
DeLay: Abortion on demand is still in this country, and I want to end abortion as we know it.
TIME: What would be the mechanism for doing that?
DeLay: I don't know. All I know is that's what my world view is.
...
TIME: Your smiling mug shot — what made you think of that and what do you think the consequence of that has been?
DeLay: Oh, I don't know. I said a little prayer. First of all, you only get one take. It's a very humiliating thing, to be booked. And I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture. And my prayer was basically: "Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile." Now, when they took the shot, from my side, I thought it was fakiest smile I'd ever given. But through the camera, it was glowing. I mean, it had the right impact. Poor old left couldn't use it at all. They had all kind of things planned, they'd spent a lot of money. It made me feel kind of good that all those plans went down the toilet.

Update: AHA! A just out article on how federal prosecutors are likely to swoop in on Tom DeLay confirms my thesis:

"Any rational person in his (DeLay's) position would be very concerned," said Kendall Coffey, a former federal prosecutor who's now a prominent defense lawyer in Miami.

Jan Frel is an AlterNet staff writer.