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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / Good News: Rep. Steve ‘Pigmuck’ King’s Re-Election Is Under Threat

Good News: Rep. Steve ‘Pigmuck’ King’s Re-Election Is Under Threat

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I’ve said for years that Steve King seemed to take pride in being the most out’n’proud racist in Congress — whenever another Repub rep said or did something particularly vile, ‘Cantaloupe Calves’ King would rush to top them. But his position was impregnable, per conventional wisdom, because the agribusinesses located in his district gave him unlimited funds to remind the local racists to vote for him. That may finally be changing…


 
Full props to Judd Legum for leading this protest:



And here’s the story that sparked it:

… He said the groups he’s associated with that are criticized as having neo-Nazi views were more accurately “far right” groups. He specifically cited Austria’s Freedom Party, which was founded by a former Nazi SS officer and is led by Heinz-Christian Strache, who was active in neo-Nazi circles as a youth. The group has emphasized a hard-line anti-immigration stance even as it seeks to distance itself from the Nazi connections.

“If they were in America pushing the platform that they push, they would be Republicans,” King said…

But King remains popular; many voters do not consider his positions disqualifying.

Bob Scott, the mayor of Sioux City — the largest town in the sprawling district — says Iowans don’t share King’s views, although they do vote for him.

“They may have problems with immigration. They may have problems about race relations for whatever reason,” he said. “But the majority won’t agree with what goes on when he’s meeting with those people from Austria. I just don’t see that type of racism here, and that’s what it is.”…

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  4. 4.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Judd Legum deserves some kudos for going after the corps supporting King. Hes gotten Intel,Purina, and LandoLakes so far. Tyson Foods is up next.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    Pence may be even dumber than we suspected!

  6. 6.

    jonas

    Is there any way to boycott products made by the fucking aholes who keep reelecting this goose-stepping douchenozzle every two years? That’s who we really should be punishing. I would be great to have certified non-Nazi-enabling bacon, for example.

  12. 12.

    oldgold

    King will win, but by a much narrower margin than he is accustomed to.

    The beneficiary of Steve King’s fall from grace will be Iowa’s Democratic candidate for Governor, Fred Hubbell.

    One, the huge margin statewide GOP candidates normally carry out of Nortwest Iowa is going to be materially diminished.

    Two, Kim Reynolds, the Republican candidate for Governor, despite being warned of the dangers posed by King, stubbornly insisted on naming him Co-chairman of her campaign. So now in the waning days of the campaign, Reynolds is going to have to deal with having named an individual labeled a white supremacist by the NRCC as her campaign’s Co-chairman.

    Hubbell has been leading in the polls by 2 or 3 points. These recent developments involving King probably seals the deal.

  14. 14.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks for info. So, his original Jews for Jesus organization defrocked him because he went ageshit over some schism and libeled a rival Jews for Jesus bunch. Sounds very protestant. He has a future as a preacher man.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    @jonas:

    I bought Challenge butter over Land O’ Lakes tonight specifically because of this story.

    (Challenge is a California brand and company, so hopefully they don’t also donate to King.)

  18. 18.

    gwangung

    @jl: Makes me angrier the more I think about it. Using someone not actually Jewish. Using someone who doesn’t perform the rites. Not saying the names of the victim. Using the time to plug Republican candidates. And he turns out to be someone who has been defrocked.

    Time to scour the Temple.

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    @B.B.A.:

    Fascist shitstain William Shockley founded the tech industry

    I don’t think co-inventing the transistor equates to “founded the tech industry.” I would say Robert Noyce (and Jack Kilby, I guess) might reasonably get more credit for that. And I think Bardeen and Brattain might’ve helped Shockley just a wee bit, anyway. I have no idea if they were racist assholes like Shockley, but I tend to doubt it.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jerzy Russian:

    Let’s be very clear about what Pence was dumb about, though:

    Pence knew perfectly well that this dude was an Evangelical preacher in Jewish drag. Pence knew. That’s why the guy was chosen.

    What Pence was dumb about was thinking he could pull the wool over everyone’s eyes and pass this guy off as a Jewish rabbi.

  36. 36.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Actually, apparently, it was Laura Epstein, one of the candidates he was stumping for. She goes to the reform synagogue in the area, which is a mile from this fraud’s congregation and has, according to a reporter from Jalopnik who goes to the same synagogue and knows her, had him at other events. Also, the reporter says she’s dumb as a stump.

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    @gwangung:

    It’s a bit of an extreme comparison, but I was saying yesterday it was like they put blackface on a white Southern Baptist preacher and claimed he was from the local AME church.

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’m racking out. You all play nice or I’ll arrange for a fake, fake rabbi to go to West Virginia and hang out with Cole.

    Also, that would probably be hilarious and we could probably make a ton on the pay per view!!!!

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    @Mnemosyne:

    It’s a bit of an extreme comparison, but I was saying yesterday it was like they put blackface on a white Southern Baptist preacher and claimed he was from the local AME church.

    You seem to be implying that it would be a bad thing. You libtards with your political correctness, oy.

  43. 43.

    joel hanes

    I’d love one asking Steve King’s constituents whether they think they have any tie/responsibility for the violence his rhetoric espouses.

    It’s been done, repeatedly.
    Responses are:
    “That’s just Steve bein’ Steve. He don’t really mean nothin’ by it.”
    “Blame? No, the illegals are to blame. What part of illegal don’t you understand?”
    “I don’t like some of the things he says, but he’s one of us.”
    “He’s anti-abortion. Nothing else matters.”

  46. 46.

    Hitlesswonder

    @SFAW: Yeah I think it would be more accurate to say the Intel ended up being founded because Noyce and Moore couldn’t stand working for Shockley.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    All of these assholes know each other. That’s why Pence’s staff was so quick to throw Epstein under the bus. If this guy has been in Michigan for 20+ years, he’s already known in Republican Dominionist circles.

  51. 51.

    patroclus

    Okay, I’m calling my shot now. I think the Dems are going to gain over 80 seats in the House. I don’t think we’ll make 290; which would be a veto-proof majority, but we’re going to be way closer to that than to 218.

  54. 54.

    Aleta

    From https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/10/secretary-mattis-defend-or-resign/152409/ by Kelly Magsamen.

    If Mattis does not believe the migrants are a threat that warrants tasking 5,000 active troops to the border, he should say so and resign. If he does believe it, he should explain why, in detail before Congress, immediately. If Republicans in Congress won’t put Mattis in the witness chair, he should walk to the Pentagon briefing room and do it himself.

    This deployment already is a named operation – Operation Faithful Patriot – but what exactly is their mission? The Posse Comitatus Act, an intentional limitation on presidential authority, restricts active duty military from performing law enforcement operations inside the United States. They cannot enforce federal or state laws. They cannot detain non-combatants at the border. So the president and Mattis are sending them to do what exactly? According to Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of U.S. Northern Command, these active troops will be providing “logistical support” and “hardening the border.” So we are sending active duty troops to put up razor wire and give helicopter rides to the border police? Why not just deploy additional National Guard troops who are more than capable of performing these duties and whose involvement does not raise all the thorny legal questions? The answer, again, is that Trump just wants to drive up the public perception of an invasion threat that does not exist.

    it is also a colossal waste of taxpayer money. Worse, it has been reported that the Department of Homeland Security will not reimburse the Department of Defense for the costs associated with this deployment, meaning that DOD will likely need to find ways to offset this unfunded mandate.

    Mattis should be prepared to face serious questions from members of Congress about why this mission requires double the active duty troops, what exactly the mission and authority structure of these active duty troops will be, how long they will be deployed, how the Pentagon will pay for this deployment and what other national security priorities will be affected by this choice.

    Kelly Magsamen is vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress. She previously served as a senior official in the U.S. Department of Defense and on the National Security Staff of both President George W. Bush and President Obama.

    

  55. 55.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You’ll bigfoot anything won’t you?

    Swear to Murphy, your post did *not* show up when I did a last-minute pre-publish check!

    (And then I was away from the computer until just now.)

  56. 56.

    Mohagan

    @Mnemosyne: And even better, for unsalted butter, Challenge Butter was rated best by Cook’s Illustrated (Nov 2018), partially because it is wrapped in foil (keeps it fresher).

  57. 57.

    Mandalay

    So the latest odious headline from NYT is “The Muslims Are Coming“.

    The article itself is fine and worth reading (“It’s the hate directed toward Islam that has motivated so many to enter the political arena…”), but this really isn’t the time for headlines like that.

    Not cute. Not clever Not funny. Just dumb and ugly.

  59. 59.

    Platonailedit

    @Aleta:

    Not one of the much touted military ‘adults’ has shown the guts or the honesty to take on the traitorous thug of a bigot. What a joke these types have become.

  61. 61.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @patroclus: “Veto-proof majority” in the HoR is irrelevant when it is mathematically impossible to obtain one in the Senate this year. The Senate map is much more favorable in 2020 – but remember, all 435 sea ts in the House are up as well, including however many are gained this year.

    The importance of taking the House is that Democrats become majorities in the committees & the new Democratic chairs will set the agenda – including thorough investigations into this trainwreck of a Maladministration.

  62. 62.

    Dev Null

    @jl: I would like to apologize to you and to the Balloon Juice community (and anyone else who contributed to Scholten after reading this post) for my comment (#2) above.

    My comment was incredibly boorish. Not merely boorish … boorish at multiple layers.

    First, telling people who to donate to is not in my job description.

    Second, to say “virtue signalling” is to attribute specific thinking to people whose thinking I cannot possibly know… certainly not in advance.

    Third, as I read my comment this morning, it sounds like a sneer, which was not my intention.

    Fourth, defeating Steve King in this election would be not only a BFD but a service to humanity as well, so anyone who thinks they can help has my blessing (not that anyone cares, or that my blessing is worth more than you paid for it).

    I can’t remember what I was thinking when I wrote the comment – clearly not thinking well – but I’ve spent the past several days trying to figure out where to invest my limited $ for maximum effect, so perhaps I was focused on that to the exclusion of everything else.

    Again: I apologize for my arrogant and obnoxious comment at the beginning of this thread.

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