Kennedy & McKinney - What Have We Learned?

Jonah speculates on whether the comparison of the Patrick Kennedy and Cynthia McKinney cases teaches us anything. He suggests some might think it shows that whites get better treatment than blacks. I'm sure that some will.

I think the more interesting question however, is whether Congressional Democrats draw some inference that the Capitol Police are against them. Of course, my perspective is narrow - I focus excessively on Capitol Hill. However, we now have two instances where the Capitol police could have looked the other way, and instead blew the whistle on misbehaving Congressmen. That is what happened in the Kennedy case, it seems to me - regardless of any initial impulse to shield him.

I haven't heard of any Republicans getting special protection from the Capitol Police, but I have no doubt that there must be some who have been involved in shenanigans that never made it to the papers. If Democrats look at Kennedy and McKinney, and conclude that the Capitol Police are targeting Democrats and protecting Republicans, we'll start to hear some gossip about Republican misbehavior soon. After all, Capitol Hill can be a very childish place.

How did the Daily News express that idea? Oh yeah.

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