With everything else that is going on, it is easy to forget one of the worst developments from the 2004 election – the victory of Cynthia McKinney, conspiracy theorist extraordinaire.

Writing in the Weekly Standard, Matthew Continetti replays the incident that helped drive her from the House in 2002:

[I]n a March 25, 2002, interview on KPFA Pacifica radio, she suddenly fell off.

“We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11,” McKinney said that day. “What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? What do they have to hide?” McKinney thought she knew the answer. “What is undeniable,” she explained, “is that corporations close to the administration have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th.”

Continetti also details how McKinney has come to endorse the conspiracy theories of Michael Ruppert, “a former LAPD detective who is best known for his theories on CIA drug trafficking” but now is promoting the crackpot view that (in Continetti’s words) “the Bush administration, Enron, Israeli intelligence, the Pakistani ISI, the Saudis, and Osama bin Laden were behind the terrorist attacks.”

To paraphrase the annoying anti-Bush bumper sticker, it’s time to re-defeat McKinney.