Voters have no tolerance for politicians who ally themselves with the Muslim community. McKinney was easily defeated despite a 10-year record of delivering for her constituents. Perhaps she could have ridden out a remark she made suggesting that President Bush knew more about the potential for a terrorist act before 9-11 than he let on, but when word spread in her suburban Atlanta district that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farakhan would be coming in to campaign for her, McKinney had handed her opponents the weapon they needed to end her political career.

There are some symbols in politics that are too powerful to shake off. Though Farakhan never appeared, the mere mention of his involvement was enough to galvanize opposition to McKinney. Jewish voters already wary of McKinney because of her outspoken support for the Palestinian cause redoubled their efforts to defeat her. Egged on by Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, whose conservative radio show was once based in Atlanta, Republican voters who normally wouldn’t vote in a Democratic primary crossed over and cast their votes for McKinney’s opponent, former state judge Denise Majette. Several times, Hannity closed his show with a countdown of the number of days left before McKinney would be ousted. Majette, an avid Christian, let it be known that she was no doctrinaire Democrat. She had backed Republicans, and was proud of it.

McKinney counted on her ability to rally her natural base, working-class blacks who rely on government programs and who are susceptible to claims that they’re getting a raw deal because of entrenched racism. But these voters did not turn out in the numbers McKinney needed, a development that may have its roots in the terrible events of 9-11. While her black constituents thought McKinney was doing a good job for them in Washington, they were uncomfortable with the way she had personalized Bush’s alleged foreknowledge of 9-11. McKinney and Hilliard were among a handful of representatives who opposed a congressional resolution supporting Israel’s right to retaliate. Voters were not moved emotionally to return to office the poster politicians for the Palestinians.

These are ominous signs for Arab-Americans as they try to gain a foothold in U.S. politics. The events of 9-11 are still too fresh, and the political opportunism on the other side too inviting for Arab groups to feel welcome in campaigns. But voters are fair-minded, and there is at least one instance of a politician being punished for remarks that went over the line of civility and good taste. Louisiana Rep. John Cooksey attracted national attention last fall when he said that law-enforcement authorities should question anyone wearing “a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper.” Until he uttered that unfortunate slur, Cooksey had been a strong contender to unseat freshman Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Handle Muslims with care is one lesson of this primary season. Other races politicians would do well to heed:

Georgia Rep. Bob Barr’s blowout loss to fellow Republican John Linder. Barr was one of the House managers who led the effort to impeach President Clinton. His image of moral superiority was shattered when a former wife revealed he had urged her to get an abortion. His supporters withstood that revelation, but when Barr, a favorite of libertarians, took up the cudgel for government interference in the use of medical marijuana, he lost much of his libertarian backing. Then he accidentally set off a loaded gun at a campaign event. Barr advertises himself as a knowledgeable gun user. While no one was hurt, the incident made him look like a buffoon. The lesson here: voters don’t like hypocrites, and they like walking jokes even less.

Michigan Rep. Lynn Rivers’s blowout loss to fellow Democrat John Dingell, the longest serving member of the House. Taking on the Dean of the House was Rivers’s first mistake; this race was probably unwinnable even if she had done everything right, and she didn’t. Emily’s List, which works to elect pro-choice women to elective office, made this one of their premier races, a decision that split feminist and environmental groups who are closer to Rivers on the issues but value the realpolitik of seniority and Dingell’s 23 terms. Though Dingell won by 18 points, the perceived closeness of the race forced him to moderate his views and campaign as a pro-choice Democrat even though he opposes abortion. Emily’s List made a lot of enemies within the Democratic Party with its unrelenting focus on ousting Dingell. “We’re supposed to throw an incumbent under the bus so a male incumbent can stay!” a spokesperson for Emily’s List says incredulously. “We’re about electing pro-choice women Democrats. People forget the woman part.”

In a year where every seat could mean the difference between regaining control of Congress or getting relegated once again to second-place status, Emily’s List took a lot of heat for expending so many resources on Rivers. Rivers is a worthy member of Congress and will be missed. But the race she ran seemed as oddly out of kilter with modern times as McKinney’s appeals to the civil-rights solidarity of the ’60s. Just as black voters are more sophisticated, women voters who Rivers counted on coming out to support her were not especially moved by her campaign claim that, because she had a rough life as a single mother and had worked her way through college and into a career, she somehow deserved reelection to Congress. Rivers was also hurt by massive crossover voting in the Democratic primary by Republicans who knew that a Dingell loss would hand the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee to Rep. Henry Waxman, a Californian who would not protect the Detroit-based auto industry from government regulation the way Dingell has. Elected to Congress the year John F. Kennedy won the White House, the indomitable Dingell proved unbeatable.