You know, we're going to miss Cynthia McKinney when she finally leaves the national stage. Her self-absorption and paranoid conspiracy theories entertained us as often as they appalled us. Fortunately, the soon-to-be former Congresswoman has generously bestowed large measures of both after her constituents firmly gave her the boot in a runoff election on Tuesday. For a woman who regularly makes herself the center of attention, she certainly knows how to spread blame everywhere else:

Ms. McKinney and her supporters contend that Republicans mounted a campaign to vote her out of office, as they did four years ago when crossover voting helped elect her Democratic challenger, Denise Majette.

“We aren’t going to tolerate any more stolen elections,” Ms. McKinney said in her concession speech, though crossover voting is legal in Georgia.

“This is just like 2002,” said Nina Winfrey, 62, a resident of Rockdale County and a “die-hard Cynthia fan” who has been volunteering for Ms. McKinney’s campaign for 15 years. “We don’t need anybody down here telling us what to do who don’t live in south DeKalb County.”

Several Republican strategists acknowledged that widespread crossover voting was organized and encouraged on Tuesday.

So what? Republicans who don't vote in their own primary have eligibility to vote in the Democratic primary, and since this district has as much potential to elect a GOP candidate as one has to win the Powerball, the primary usually functions as the general election. Georgia law allows for this, and if this surprised McKinney, then she has even less connection to reality than previously thought. No one stole the election -- no one but McKinney herself.

Conspiracy theories often arise as a means to provide a rationalization to slough responsibility onto others. This is exactly the dynamic at work here with McKinney. She has embarrassed her constituents on a number of occasions, reaching her nadir for assaulting a police officer assigned to protect her and other members of Congress. Instead of accepting responsibility for the disenchantment with her representation, she refuses to acknowledge her faults at all.

The truth that McKinney cannot face is that she has turned into a strange, twisted person ready to feed on and amplify rumors, gossip, and hearsay in order to inflate her public image. When that doesn't work, she attempts to martyr herself over the silliest issues. The constituents of her district, including the Republicans she has represented, have tired of her neurotic behavior and opted for a candidate they can respect. The voters have rendered their judgment, and her inability to accept it shows that they made the correct decision.

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