The rank and unrepentant racism of GOP Rep. Steve King has presented John McCain with his first test of leadership since securing the Republican nomination. And he's failing miserably.
Faced with King's vile and imbecilic assertion that "the optics" of a Barack Obama presidency would encourage "the radical Islamists" -- and that al-Qaeda "will be dancing in the streets" if Obama wins -- McCain had a spokesman tell Fox News that McCain "doesn't agree with King's comments," and offer the toothless bromide: "He intends to run a respectful race and keep it about the issues."
"Doesn't agree"? That's the strongest response he is willing to offer? Where is the unequivocal repudiation? Where is the insistence that terrorism is a real threat this country is facing and should not be toyed with for repugnant partisan attacks?
McCain's half-hearted tsk-tsking is all the more inadequate given King's defiant "I'm right" defense of his comments and his assertion that voters "should be looking at" Obama's middle name because "there is an implication that the identity that [terrorists] would infer in that name is different in the rest of the world than it is in the United States... Our enemies will view this differently, and I think that's something we should be looking at."
So our enemies will see that Obama's middle name is Hussein and... what exactly? Hate us even more? See it as a green light for a new wave of attacks? Not only are King's ravings offensive -- they are head-scratchingly moronic. But the best McCain can do is not agree?
It's worth noting that this is not an isolated instance of King saying despicable and idiotic things. Here is a rancid sampling of his previous claims to shame [via ThinkProgress and The Carpetbagger Report]:
King said the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib amounted to little more than "hazing," compared immigrants to "livestock" in proposing an electrified fence for the southern border, refused to vote for an innocuous House resolution commending the Muslims on the Ramadan holiday, released a "report" baselessly claiming that undocumented immigrants have murdered more Americans than the combined death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, praised Joe McCarthy as "a great American hero," argued that the civilian violent death rate in Washington, D.C., is actually higher than it is in Iraq, was one of only 11 lawmakers to vote against emergency relief funds for Hurricane Katrina victims, and, after the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed, said derisively that Zarqawi was now at a place where there are 72 virgins who "probably all look like Helen Thomas."
This is the kind of inflammatory blather we have come to expect from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Michael Savage. But this is a member of the United States Congress.
This speaks volumes about the grimy reality of today's Republican Party, where the lunatic fringe has become the mainstream.
We saw the same fear-mongering approach in 2004, when other Congressional Republicans tried to paint a John Kerry presidency as a boon to terrorist.
Like Orrin Hatch, who claimed that the terrorists "are going to throw everything they can between now and the election to try and elect Kerry."
Or then Speaker Denny Hastert who said that Al Qaeda would be more successful under a Kerry administration.
Rep. King has thrown an additional log on the fire: racial and religious bigotry. But straight talking John McCain can muster no more than a once removed "doesn't agree." Leadership at its most pusillanimous.
When Democratic Rep. Pete Stark angrily responded to President Bush's veto of the SCHIP bill by suggesting that soldiers were being sent to Iraq "to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement," Republicans reacted with outrage and put forth a resolution calling for his censure -- and Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked his comments as "inappropriate."
King's comments are much, much worse than "inappropriate" -- indeed they are in a loathsome league of their own. So where is the call for King's censure -- or the condemnation from the leaders of his party?
The time has come for the public to demand more from our elected representatives, and for John McCain and the GOP hierarchy to do more -- a lot more -- than not agree with the un-American hate-filled spews of Steve King.
Either Congress stands for something or it doesn't. If it does, King should be formally reprimanded. If it doesn't, nothing could more dramatically prove the need for cleaning out the Congressional stables.
UPDATE: Rep. King has continued to defend his comments, telling the AP that Obama will "certainly be viewed as a savior" for terrorists. "That's why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him."
And he told Bill O'Reilly last night: "They see the ethnic bond with Obama. They will see him as one of them -- and he will not be able to convince them that he's gonna hold his ground, so it encourages the enemy." To his credit, O'Reilly rejects King's invocation of Obama's middle name ("it could work to our favor") as well as the notion that Obama would be soft on terror ("He has been a tough guy on al-Qaeda"). Watch the O'Reilly/King interview below.