Civil rights-era star (and current U.S. Rep from Atlanta) John Lewis is one of my biggest heroes. So, I was curious all last week to see if he was going to weigh in on the controversy surrounding his Congressional colleague, Cynthia McKinney, another Rep from Atlanta’s metro area.

If you haven’t been following the story—McKinney held a press conference last week with the NAACP and NOW, claiming the Capitol police discriminated against her (and her new hair cut). McKinney, who’s black, had entered the Capitol without passing through the metal detector that screens visitors to the building. All 435 members of Congress are permitted to bypass the machines, but she was not wearing the required pin that identified her as a House member. The officer said he asked McKinney three times to stop. She did not. The Capitol police say the officer placed a hand on her and she responded by hitting him. He said McKinney’s race was not a factor. According to MSNBC:

The incident has embarrassed Democrats, including fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus, none of whom have publicly defended her behavior in the incident.

Well, Lewis—my hero in part because his blood stream is made of liquid valium— issued a statement early today calling on McKinney to “lower the temperature.”

Sure enough, McKinney apologized for the incident this afternoon.