Marathon Pundit: A bleak day in Carbondale, Illinois: Salukis lose, McKinney arrives: UPDATED

Yesterday in a cold rain, the Southern Illinois University Salukis lost a close game to Delaware in the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals.

There was more sad news in Carbondale Saturday: former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) was in town.

McKinney, to the delight of many Democrats, has switched her party affiliation to the Greens--and to my amazement they seem glad to have her. She's now a presidential candidate, for the Greens of course.

Former socicialist Rich Whitney was the Green Party candidate for governor last year--the Greenies who chime in here deny it, but Whitney received 10 percent of the vote last November because of the tremendous disatisfaction of the two major party candidates, Democrat Rod Blagojevich and Republican Judy Baar Topinka. "Blago" won, but now has approval ratings lower than those of President Bush--who's not very popular in Illinois--I like him though, and so do a lot of my friends.

Topinka's image never recovered from a bruising primary battle, and she couldn't match Blagojevich's fundraising haul.

McKinney is of course the same woman who slugged a Capitol Hill police officer, then blamed the whole thing on racism. In 2001, she said that President Bush had prior knowledge to the 9/11 attacks. In the past she surrounded herself with anti-Semites--including her father.

She even pulled the race card on Al Gore, stating in 2000, that Gore's "Negro tolerance level has never been too high."

Here's what Rich Whitney had to say about McKinney yesterday, all quotes come from the Southern Illinoisan:

Cynthia McKinney is the best candidate to represent the Green Party in 2008.

Also..

When most fellow Democrats stood down in the stolen elections, Cynthia McKinney was one of the few who stood up.

And...

She may not have known it until recently, but she belonged in the Green Party all along.

There's good news for the Democratic Party though. Here's what McKinney said about her former party:

My values are not represented by the party I used to be a part of.

UPDATE December 10:

Eric Dondero of FrontPage Magazine attended a McKinney event at Texas Southern University. From his article:

"The time for confrontation has come for me," Cynthia McKinney told about 60 supporters on December 4. Launching her quest for the Green Party Presidential nomination, McKinney compared her “revolution” to Haiti, Venezuela, and war-torn Cote d’Ivoire.

More...

Asked about Barack Obama, McKinney echoed a theme from a controversial 2002 Black Congressional Caucus speech. She said, "Look at the Colin Powells, the Condeleeza Rices, the Ward Connerlys...We have to be careful with the black people who are put before us by the media." She went on to speak of "COINTELPRO," which she described as a 1960s-era covert plan launched by the CIA to replace Dr. Martin Luther King with a more moderate voice. Apparently, in McKinney’s mind 40 years later, Barack Obama is the CIA’s replacement.

And finally:

Writing for U.S. News and World Report in 2002, Michael Barone pointed out:

Some three-quarters of McKinney's contributions came from people with Muslim or Arab names, most from outside Georgia. She received contributions from people under federal investigation for links to terrorists and from people who have voiced support for Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Middle East. In response to criticism, McKinney said she would not "racially profile" her contributors.