Brenda Goodman follows up on her NY Times story on the loss in the Democratic primary by inflammatory Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, but lets her allies blame the Republicans in "Democrat Says G.O.P. Voters Led to Her Loss."
As she did yesterday, Goodman ignores McKinney's nutty statements alleging 9-11 conspiracies and her anti-Israel animus, saying today only that many new district voters "were not impressed by her confrontational and occasionally erratic style."
Then it's on to blaming the GOP for McKinney's failures:
"But Ms. McKinney and her supporters contend that Republicans mounted a campaign to vote her out of office, as they did four years ago when crossover voting helped elect her Democratic challenger, Denise Majette.
"'We aren’t going to tolerate any more stolen elections,' Ms. McKinney said in her concession speech, though crossover voting is legal in Georgia."
Goodman gets this wrong. The context of McKinney's quote (you can watch it here) makes it clear she's talking about a conspiracy theory involving electronic voting machines. She says: "....electronic voting machines are a threat to our democracy. So let the word go out. We're not going to tolerate any more stolen elections."
Goodman gets Republicans to "acknowledge" the offense of crossover voting:
"Several Republican strategists acknowledged that widespread crossover voting was organized and encouraged on Tuesday."
She forwards a bizarre legal theory:
"Some voting rights advocates said that while crossover voting might be legal, it violated the spirit of the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution because it effectively negated the right of a group -- in Ms. McKinney’s case, black voters -- to nominate the candidate of their choice."
Goodman's "voting rights advocate" source for this? A lawyer for McKinney. What a coincidence!
"'There’s case law that says one party can’t interfere in another party’s primary,' said Mike Raffauf, a lawyer who filed a 2002 lawsuit in federal court against the State of Georgia on Ms. McKinney’s behalf."
Goodman doesn't mention that Raffauf is still working for McKinney -- hardly a disinterested source.
For more New York Times bias, visit TimesWatch.
