Radical Republican Steve King

While in retrospect, I think comparing anyone who questions Barack Obama getting a pre-emptive Nobel Peace Prize today to the Taliban or terrorists is a pretty low road, I did appreciate the newfound aggressiveness from the DNC. Maybe they've hired some staffers from the RNC or something. And this latest project seems not only within bounds but a very canny way of painting Republicans with the beyond-the-pale extremist brush.



"Radical Republican Steve King" is repeated five times throughout the 1:15 piece. Surely this treatment will be given to some of the other figures of the GOP. And then GOP challengers will be forced to comment on these Radical Republicans.

You always want to take the lead in defining your opponent, and this campaign certainly does so. The more the GOP is the party of Limbaugh, Beck and Radical Republican Steve King, the more difficult it becomes for independents to embrace them.

Meanwhile, Steve King isn't exactly trimming his sails after the release of this video:

The hate crimes amendment attached to a defense authorization bill is Orwellian and provides protection to "sexual idiosyncrasies," Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) asserted Friday.

King, a conservative Republican lawmaker, also charged that the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, which provided some impetus for hate crimes legislation, was not motivated out of hate against Shepard, who was gay [...]

King said that the hate crimes bill results in a "pedophile protection act," and is meant to create "thought crimes" and protect "sexual idiosyncrasies."

Once a Radical Republican, always a Radical Republican.

I Don't Understand Why I Can't Use The N Word!

Steve King is both playing the victim on how he's not allowed to say Barack Obama's middle name and calling Obama "bizarre" for using it himself in polite company:

While acknowledging that the terrorists aren’t dancing in the streets, King has moved on to the whole “Hussein” controversy.

He doesn’t like the fact that the president-elect will be sworn in using that middle name during Tuesday’s Inauguration.

After telling the Associated Press last year that Obama’s middle name was among the reasons Islamic terrorists would rejoice over his election, King says he’s since been careful to avoid using it. Thus he found Obama’s decision to allow it be mentioned on the steps of the Capitol “bizarre” and “a double-standard.”

“Is that reserved just for him, not his critics?” King asked.

The congressman says he doubts Obama’s sincerity when he explained that he chose to use his middle name so as to be historically consistent with past inaugurations, when America has heard the full names of its presidents echo from the inaugural stand.

“Whatever his reasons are,” King said, “the one he gave us could not be the reason.”

It couldn't possibly be that Obama is perfectly happy with his middle name, and that the restrictions on its use were a one-sided conversation among Republicans who wanted to win and Republicans who wanted to race-bait? The strongest voice about not using Obama's middle name that I remember was Karl Rove.

Not to mention that this guy was the one saying that terrorists wouuld be dancing with joy if Obama were elected. It really is terrible that King's right to be racist has been taken from him.

Steven King's The Stand

Of all the statements on which to dig in your heels and refuse to back down, Steve King (R-IA) is standing by the Muslims will be dancing in the streets if Obama is elected because of his middle name comment. Because, you see, he's given it a lot of thought and he was very circumspect in his remarks:

By the way, I was careful not to say his middle name. But it means something different in the Middle East than it means here. We’ve risen above this in the United States. About 25 percent of Americans will change their religion during their lifetime. To them [Middle Easterners], religion is more hereditary. So it’s harder for Obama to convince them that he’s Christian. He’s convinced me. But I don’t think he’ll convince a lot of the Middle East because it is hereditary.

Note the allusion to the idea that Obama was a Muslim but changed his religion, as the fallback position. It's an Overton wndow kind of thing; make the outrageous suggestion that he is a Muslim now, and when challenged go back to "see, he WAS a Muslim, but he switched" argument, setting up some kind of Manchurian candidate scenario where he turns back on his Muslimhood upon entry into the White House.

Steve King's been a whole lot of crazy for a very long time. He's the guy who said that we should put a fence on the Mexican border because it works on the livestock at his pig farm. So you get the idea. He's a nativist and a racist, and thusly he belongs to the right party. But this will be a problem for McCain and the Republicans throughout this election. Those voices will only get louder.

The Sadness Of SCHIP

So today the House GOP is going to set an explosion inside their own caucus by voting to ignore the American people and sustain a veto on children's health insurance expansion. They even have visual aids.

For those with bad eyes, Mr. (Iowa Rep. Steve) King has created a chart claiming the S-CHIP really stands for “socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents.”

Guys, you’ve done outdone yerselves on this one. Please, please, please keep insulting middle-class families who can’t afford health insurance. I guarantee that it will launch you right back into power.

With whom are the American people going to associate themselves? A callous liar like Steve King, or Pete Stark?

First of all, I'm just amazed they can't figure out, the Republicans are worried we can't pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where ya gonna get that money? You going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement. This bill would provide healthcare for 10 million children and unlike the President's own kids, these children can't see a doctor or receive necessary care. [...]

But President Bush's statements about children's health shouldn't be taken any more seriously than his lies about the war in Iraq. The truth is that Bush just likes to blow things up. In Iraq, in the United States and in Congress.

In the end, the Democrats will press this issue, House Republicans will not be able to take the pressure, and this bill will be made law, maybe with a cosmetic change here or there. But the pain of this vote will resonate all the way to November.

"What will happen is they’ll lose the override. They’ll make cosmetic changes and our guys will cave," Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) said Tuesday during an appearance at the National Press Club. "And at what cost? Our guys will get beaten up ... SCHIP is a dumb fight."

No wonder Davis is talking down a Senate run and sounding increasingly like a baby about it. His party is throwing itself in the lake and nobody seems to want to stop it. I agree that the right can't let up on health care because Democrats will actually be seen as protectors of the middle class, collapsing their coalition. But that's happening right now, anyway. It's a hole that will take a generation to crawl out of. Today the House will witness the beginning of the permanent Republican minority.

UPDATE: The final vote was 273-156, 16 votes short. The Republicans had almost nobody flip from the initial vote. Down the drain they go.