Jan. 30, 2008, 12 a.m. - When former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney formally announced that she was leaving the Democratic Party and running against Ralph Nader for the Green Party's presidential nomination, many in her former party quickly wrote her off.

Maybe Democrats are gambling that McKinney is still a virtual laughingstock of Capitol Hill and will not be taken seriously. Maybe they know that most of her core constituents are black, and that they have loyally voted for Democrats ever since the '60s?

"Surely she can't be serious," Revis Butler Jr. of Atlanta, a retired dentist and Navy Reserve commander told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
 

McKinney is serious.

She has spent much of the last few months in the grassroots independent movement, since her stunning reelection defeat in the primary in 2007. That same day her campaign posted a YouTube video of her declaring she received an endorsement from Atlanta Progressive News, which wrote: "From Hurricane Katrina, to electronic voting, to impeachment of President Bush, McKinney provided strong leadership in the US House." She also received a standing ovation during a recent  debate.

As a recovering Democrat and current nonpartisan nonvoting independent (see my book Hired Hatred), it is common knowledge the two major political parties have long said that a vote for an independent is throwing away your vote. Not to mention the fact that every independent begins his or her election battle not fighting their opponents on issues, but just trying to get on the ballot in every state, and gaining access to debates and raising money.
 

Still, McKinney may prove to be the perfect storm for the Democrats. She is sharp on the issues and brings Greens a candidate with a proven policy track record, based on the fact she has served in Congress. Because of her congressional record and unique issue selection--one of her favorite subjects is COINTELPRO--she just may be able to pull many blacks off the Democratic party plantation.
 

Sure she was defeated for reelection, largely due to a scuffle she supposedly brought on herself with a security guard on Capitol Hill. This was followed by implying President Bush had knowledge of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. D.C. and wanting to accept money from Saudi Arabia, right after America admitted that its foreign policy brought about the attacks. Let's also forget for a minute that she waffled on her Bush remarks during an interview with me in Atlanta. She said that she never meant to imply that Bush had anything to do with the attacks.

The fact is a lot of the conspiracy theorists like McKinney, along with black voters, can be a sizable constituency. And what many Green party folks are counting on is that McKinney's supporters like living an independent life.

(Robert "Rob" Redding Jr. is the Publisher of the Washington Continent, Redding News Review and author of "Hired Hatred: Why politicians, political parties & the political prejudices they tout are mutually exclusive from good government.")