Mideast Goes to Georgia

Few will mourn the Georgia congressional primary defeats Tuesday of bombastic liberal Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney or conservative firebrand Rep. Bob Barr. The two were united only in their often quirky extremism, what with McKinney’s conspiracy theories about the Bush administration and Barr hoping to abolish the Internal Revenue Service. But the fact that the primary campaign between Democrat McKinney and Denise Majette became a proxy for the Middle East conflict is cause for concern.

McKinney’s pro-Palestinian stands have made her popular with Arab Americans, who have contributed heavily to her congressional war chest over the last five years. But pro- Israel supporters this time funneled campaign contributions to successful challenger Majette, a former judge.

Unfortunately, the funding pattern leaves the impression that the conflict in the Middle East is intruding on local congressional races and competing with the local issues that deserve to be debated in an urban district near Atlanta.

McKinney did herself no favors by stating that President Bush may have had prior knowledge of Sept. 11 and that White House associates stood to profit from the tragedy. She has never retreated from this statement. Nor did she win many points when, in 1991, as a member of the Georgia House, she denounced the first President Bush for attacking Iraq after that nation invaded Kuwait. Most of her colleagues exited the chamber.

In June, another Middle East proxy race came out similarly.

Alabama Democratic Rep. Earl F. Hilliard, who was sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, was defeated in a slugfest campaign by Artur Davis. Davis raised sizable funds from Jewish donors living outside Alabama. In both contests, both candidates were African American, but the campaigns carried an undercurrent of Muslim-Jewish tension.

Litmus tests imposed by the National Rifle Assn. or abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups are nothing new. They are harmful in that they erase the middle ground, but they are familiar, long-debated issues with a local component. The prospect of Middle East politics distorting congressional races in a much larger way is more worrisome.