Mark Steyn: You don't have a real legislature if the legislators don't have to obey the same laws as everybody else.

Cynthia McKinney has "apologized" to the House of Representatives in such a way as to deny that she did anything wrong. It's "I regret that the incident happened," kind of apology. It's the mirror image of racism to claim, as she has, that she was singled out for being black. How she keeps getting elected is a mystery to me. If I were black, I'd hate the image of my people being created by Jesse Jackson, Al "Kingfish" Sharpton and Cynthia McKinney. I'd be disgusted by the radical claims by Harry Belafonte and Julian Bond. How can you expect to ever be respected and accepted when you've always got a chip on your shoulder and see racism at work in every incident.

Governor Bill Owens of Colorado recounted an incident that occurred in Russia when he was leading tours there for legislators. Ms. McKinney was in one group, and told Pravda that she had never felt so free as she did being in the Soviet Union. When the other members of the tour group admonished her, she accused them of racism.

When people seem unfriendly it isn't always because of your race. Maybe it's your personality. Think of black Americans like Shaun Alexander, Tiki Barber or Lynn Swann. I don't know anybody who doesn't like and admire them.