I see constant posting here condemning various member of the House of Representatives and Senators as fools, villains, scoundrels and general embarrassments to their constituencies. Maybe so, maybe not. In any event I offer for you consideration Representative Steve King from the far western edge of Iowa – the left edge, if you would. It is a district dominated by big farmers, meat packing and the Dutch Reform Church. Generally Rep King froths at the mouth about immigration. It is his position that unless all unlawful immigration is stopped, lawful immigration made more difficult and present non-citizens are tossed out on their ear the county will turn into three or four contending third world countries with the mid-section of the country a colony of the Mexican Republic. Here is one of his press releases on the subject. He delivered the same sort of blather as a state legislator. The irony is that West Iowa, the meat packers, the big farms, the grain processors have become increasingly dependent on cheap foreign labor and Mr King’s district is undergoing a pretty severe population outflight.
Now he has apparently decided to reopen the cold war, claiming that a 90 plus year old former California city councilwoman is, or was, a communist and that a post office building should not be named for her for that reason. Please note that Congressman King is from Iowa and the post office is in Berkeley, California. In the process he has announced that our old friend, the Junior Senator from Wisconsin, the man who at long last had no shame, Tailgunner Joe, as an American Hero. Here is an unfriendly blog on the matter, but the Des Moines Register, the newspaper all Polk County depends on, had an article about it yesterday reciting the same facts.
I had almost grown use to Rep King’s resurrection of the ideas of the Know Nothing Party, but I was not ready for a return to the Red Baiting of the 1950s and the elevation of its champion. When it comes to foolishness, villainy, demagoguery and chicanery, I am willing to match Steve King (R-IA) against all comers.