This editor has personally witnessed such an incident previously in which a Capitol Hill police officer did not recognize McKinney. I was in a car with McKinney and her assistant when a Capitol Hill police officer at Longworth demanded, and not in a nice way, McKinney's ID. It is doubtful that any white member of the House or Senate has been stopped in such a manner by cops in the "People's House." One memorable incident was when House Doorman Fishbait Miller of Mississippi demanded that the late New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug remove her trademark hat when she entered the House chamber. Although there was a verbal altercation between the two, there was no physical contact. But that was then and this Congress now consists of hundreds of "Fishbait Millers" who are elected members, staffers, and cops.

Last month, McKinney's Georgia home was "toilet papered" with video tape after she participated in the Sundown Film Festival, where a documentary on the electoral fraud used against her in 2002 received an award. The Capitol Hill police are rife with officers hired by the Republican leadership and the recently-departed and nepotism scandal-tainted police chief Terrance Gainer, who got his start as a rookie cop in Chicago in 1968 clubbing anti-Vietnam War protestors at the Democratic National Convention. The Capitol Hill police, which works for the Republican-appointed Sergeant-at-Arms, a political patronage position, has taken on a distinct "southern sheriff's department" appearance in the last few years. On this past Martin Luther King's birthday, Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke of a "plantation" mentality in the House of Representatives, adding, "you all know what I'm talking about." Yes, Senator Clinton, with the McKinney incident, we all now know what you mean.