Posted 7:54 PM by Jason
The Tempest (in a Hairdo)

NewsBusters has some transcripts of assorted interviews that Rep. Cynthia McKinney has given lately.  Reading the first one reminded me of some thoughts I had when the story first broke.  She says:

"And it's not a pin, as you can see this is the pin, it doesn't have my name on it, and it doesn't have a picture on it. So, and quite frankly, this can be duplicated. So, security shouldn't be based on a pin. We should have real security measures in place."

Like security stopping people who aren’t even wearing the worthless pin?  
Or should security be required to know all 535 members of Congress by face?  
To assume that someone refusing to stop after being asked three times is ok?  

I was a secretary in the Iowa House of Representatives (others called themselves clerks, but we were still on the books as secretaries, though I sometimes jokingly referred to myself as my representative's Chief-of-Staff, since in Iowa each representative's staff is one person) during my junior year of college.  Security was pretty strict, basically the airport treatment (bags through x-ray machine, you through a metal detector) without taking off your shoes.  Representatives and staff were allowed to bypass the line, but had to wave our capitol complex ID over some sort of gizmo that showed that it was valid, and security still looked at the picture.  And yes, members did actually wear them as well, and though I can't say how closely they were inspected by security, there were only 150 members.  

What am getting at here?  I actually agree with McKinney on this one, using a lapel pin as a security measure is a joke.  How much sense does it make for Des Moines to have better security than D.C.?

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