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AMP Comment – March 11, 2008
Bigotry, fear mongering retched up in presidential race
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Less than a week after Senator John McCain clinched Republican nomination for November presidential election, Congressman Steve King, a leading Republican congressman has launched a bitter racist and Islamophobic attack against Senator Barak Obama, a leading Democratic presidential hopeful who won another primary in Mississippi State on March 11.
On an Iowa radio station on March 8, Congressman King said, “if [Obama] is elected president, then the radical Islamists and their supporters will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror.”
Echoing Cincinnati radio talk show, Bill Cunningham, who warmed up McCain crowd by chanting Barack Hussein Obama, King said: “[Obama's] middle name [Hussain] does matter...because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world...They will be dancing in the streets because of his middle name [and] because of who his father was and because of his posture that says: pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict."
Congressman King, who is the ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law, reiterated his comments on March 10 in an interview with the Associated Press saying, “[Obama will] certainly be viewed as a savior for them,” King told The Associated Press, “That's why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him.”
Such bigoted and ignorant comments from a rightwing Republican are not unexpected. They echo outrageous comments that have become commonplace among right-wing commentators and radio talk show hosts. Alarmingly, King’s fear promoting comments are part of an increasingly vicious pattern as malicious forms of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry are becoming more prevalent in mainstream discourse.
Disappointedly, Hillary Clinton, in her negatively campaigning, is also playing the religious bigotry card. When Hillary Clinton lost 11 primaries in a row, and saw her life long dream slipping away, she in effect in words and pictures told the American people, “Barack Obama is a clucking Muslim trigger!” When asked if Barack Obama was a Muslim she said, “I don’t know.” Hillary Clinton’s comment came as her campaign staff sent a picture of Barack Obama dressed like an African Muslim to the Drudge Report. Her negative campaign worked and helped in giving her victory in Texas and Ohio.
Going back to King who, in the words of Juan Cole, has decided to further disgrace the Congress by seeking a fifth term there.
Representative King has one of the most conservative voting records in Congress, and is known for a steady stream of highly controversial statements. His comments reflect a pattern of bizarre comments on too many instances in the past. In 2005, King proclaimed his admiration for Senator Joseph McCarthy, describing him as "a hero for America." A September 2006 Wall Street Journal article reported that King was regularly claiming that illegal immigrants are perpetrating sex crimes against "eight little girls" each day as part of a "slow-motion terrorist attack." In May 2004, King said the events of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse "amounts to hazing. He once denounced efforts to give revolutionary war hero General Pulaski posthumous citizenship as being akin to "amnesty."
There are calls on the Republican Party to censure Steve King and Barak Obama’s campaign has called on John McCain, the apparent Republican nominee, to repudiate his views as he denounced Cincinnati talk-show host Bill Cunningham, who referred to Obama three times as "Barack Hussein Obama." These should be done, but they are not enough. King is not merely some quack with a loose and tasteless mouth, venting his venom on a radio show, he is the Ranking Member of House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law. His words matter.
Republicans, Democrats, and Independents in Congress must demonstrate their leadership and go on record in censuring Congressman King for his racist stance and for defaming the image of Congress and of our nation. He should be formally censured by the Congress, so as to make it clear that remarks such as these are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
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