Iowa Representative Steve King Supports Return of McCarthyism to Congress, Lauds Joe McCarthy As American Hero
by David VanThournout
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
There’s an incredibly long laundry list of things about Steve King to talk about but this just came over the wire:
This is all of course on top of the overwhelmingly high score this guy gets from the religious right. His score must have just shot through the roof there.
When you think Radical Religious Right, think Steve King. When you think of the Salem Witch Trials, think Steve King. When you think of intrusive government control of what is ok and not ok to think, think of Steve King.
So not only is he a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, bigot, he also wants to grab his pitchfork and start hunting liberals. In fact he said he’d agree to amnesty for illegals on one condition only: “that "every time we give amnesty for an illegal alien, we deport a liberal." With the loss of former “Immigrant Hate Czar” Tom Tancredo in 2008, King has taken his place. He is very likely to replace Congresswoman Lofgren (D) California as the chair of the Judicial Subcommittee on Immigration. Representative King refers to border crossers as “livestock” and called illegal immigration “a slow-motion terrorist attack.”
Maudelle Shirek
The idealist’s Idealist. That’s what Charles Burress, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle called former Berkeley, CA city councilwoman Maudelle Shirek. Steve King rallied support to reject a motion (successfully) in the House to name a federal post office in Berkeley, CA after her. King cited Shirek’s affiliation with the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Berkeley as his reason to block the motion, claiming, in a different interview, that her past affiliations “sets her apart from... the most consistent of American values.” When the proponent of the Post Office’s name change, Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee, in a post vote statement, responded to King saying his “campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated ‘concern’ is better suited to the era of Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today’s House of Representatives,” King said: “I think that if Barbara Lee would read the history of Joe McCarthy, she would realize that he was a hero for America”.
From Daily Kos:
Lee, who said Shirek helped inspire her to run for elected office, was furious after the House defeated her measure on a mostly party line vote of 215 to 190. The measure needed two-thirds support for passage.
"Maudelle Shirek is a woman whose leadership, service and commitment to our community are a testament to what is great about our nation, and she deserves to be honored," Lee said.
"That a Republican from Iowa could launch a campaign to deny naming a local post office after this 94-year-old civil rights leader, who until recently was the oldest and one of the longest-serving elected officials in California, is just shameful."
Besides referring to the Pigford v. Glickman settlement as a “fraud”, King implied that it actually constituted reparations for slavery, and attacked President Obama for supporting the farmers, referring to him as “very, very urban”.
In actuality the Pigford v. Glickman settlement was necessary because the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to institutionalized bigotry within the USDA was rampant and awarded significantly lower payouts to African American farmers as opposed to white farmers. see; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigford_v._Glickman
On June 15th 2010 (yeah, I can’t believe this, in the 21st century!) Steve King said on G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show, “The president has demonstrated that he has default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race - on the side that favors the black person.” I personally can’t believe that anyone that appears on G. Gordon Liddy’s show can even get elected in the first place. But that’s a whole other post.
Taken from Wikipedia:
Steve King said on the floor of the House on June 14, 2010 that racial profiling is an important component of law enforcement: "Profiling has always been an important component of legitimate law enforcement. If you can’t profile someone, you can’t use those common sense indicators that are before your very eyes." As an example of profiling, King described an instance when a taxi driver would stop for him before he had to hail a cab, just because he was in a business suit.
Interestingly, after the Northern Colorado Tea Party cancelled an appearance by Steve King at a rally in Loveland, CO for Ken Buck, Lesley Hollywood, director of the NCTP said the following: "Although the Tea Party does respect free speech for all Americans, including Congressman Steve King, we do not feel his remarks align with the mission and vision of the Northern Colorado Tea Party, which focuses on promoting fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free enterprise according to Constitutional principles. The race debate does not have a place in the Tea Party movement or in politics today."
Steve King likes to characterize himself as an embattled white man fighting off the socialists and their entitlements for women, gays and minorities. Steve King tries to make it sound like anyone that supports equality, civility, fairness, diversity, tolerance and freedom of expression is automatically an America hating liberal. The truth is that Steve King is as small minded and nasty as they get. He is a bigot, a racist, and a political extremist and following his lead will hurt America.
And he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and go on a real witch hunt for progressives.
Rep. King (R-IA): McCarthy "a hero for America"
The Idealist's Idealist / At 89, Berkeley vice mayor keeps up life of activism
RSN Exclusive: A Conversation with Congressman Steve King: Taking Back Congress
Right Side News: Cliff Kincaid recently had a National Press Club conference where he called for resurrection of the Congressional internal security committees. Would you support re-creation of such committees?
KING: I would. I think that is a good process and I would support it.