I can’t seem to stop reeling over the ridiculous comments that Iowa Congressman Steve King made last Friday. If you haven’t heard or read them yet, here are a few excerpts:
"I will tell you that if he is elected president, the radical Islamists, the al-Qaeda and the radical Islamists and their supporters will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11th. Because they will declare victory in this War on Terror."
"And additionally, it does matter. His middle name does matter. It matters because they read a meaning into that, the rest of the world,---it has a special meaning to them."
"They’ll be dancing in the streets because of his middle name. They’ll be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says, ‘Pull out of the Middle East. Pull out of this conflict.’"
One thing that’s bewildering to me is that King made these comments during the same radio interview during which he announced his running for a fourth term. Nobody even cares about that because they’re all still talking about him running his mouth. I understand that he probably just wanted some publicity and making controversial remarks is usually a good way to do that, but were these really necessary?
King continues to defend his comments; he appeared on Fox News Saturday night and said the following:
“I reject [McCain's] disavowal and I reject the Democrat web pages that call me the names that they have. I'd ask them to point to the quote that I have said that offends them. And if I am wrong, Geraldo, and we elect Obama to the presidency and he declares defeat, if they don't dance in the streets, I will come and apologize to you and everybody in America. But I'm saying, I'm right.”
King also told the Associated Press on Monday that “[Obama will] certainly be viewed as a savior for them—That's why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him.”
Whether anyone dances in the street or not, I think King’s comments concerning Obama’s middle name (Hussein) and his heritage are simply out of line. First, “Hussein” is an extremely common name of Semitic origin, and it actually means “good” or “handsome.” Also, what does Obama’s father’s religion (Muslim) have to do with him? If he says he’s not a Muslim I believe him, and I think we’d know by now if he were; Muslims aren’t much for hiding their religion.
I think we’ve all thought about these things at some point, it’s hard not, but I think most people disregard them because they realize it’d be ignorant to vote based on this and they know these aren’t real factors in the election. There are, however, real issues that we could be discussing, but instead we’re talking about middle names and who a candidate’s father is. It’s actually somewhat disheartening realizing that I’ve now become part of the discussion.
It’s important as Iowans that we look at our congressman’s comments and think about how it makes our state look to the rest of the country…and to the rest of the world.
To be honest, I wish for King’s sake that he could just retract his comments and say “sorry guys, I took that one too far,” but he won’t do that because in our media landscape politicians feel like they need to defend everything they say, as if to admit you were wrong will give some sort of inclination that you’re untrustworthy. Basically, they (unlike all other humans) can’t ever slip up.
Related Blogs and Articles:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/03/10/obama-scoffs-at-rep-kings-remarks/?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080312/OPINION04/803120347/1038/OPINION
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/03/11/news_opinion/letters/55867404e425f09386257408007e7651.txt
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080312/OPINION04/803120348/1038/OPINION
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/03/11/news/politics/doc47d6c0d75d4aa295349253.txt