An Iowa congressman who is a favorite of Southern Minnesota Republicans is taking heat in his district for a strange remarks during a junket to Egypt with Michele Bachmann and Texas representative Louis Gohmert.
First a little backstory about the Republican love from our side of Iowa's border.
Covering the CD1 Republican gathering in 2010, Mark Fischenich reported in Iowa congressman a hit at convention at the Mankato Free Press:
. . . King — a close ally of fellow lawmaker and conservative favorite Michele Bachmann of Minnesota — opened the 1st District GOP convention Saturday with jokes, a strong critique of Washington Democrats and a call to action. . .
While the Iowa congressman was a hit with Republicans, 1st District DFL Chairwoman Lori Sellner didn’t see anything funny about his invitation. In a statement, Sellner pointed to a King statement some perceived as rationalizing the suicide attack by an anti-tax pilot who flew his plane into an Internal Revenue Service building in Texas, killing one IRS worker.
“Extreme anti-government views may play well with the Republican faithful,” Sellner wrote in a statement issued to the press, “but they don’t play well with everyone else in southern Minnesota.”
While the Republicans were fired up, endorsed candidate Randy Demmer wasn't hot enough to beat Walz that year.
Not was the 2010 invitation the first time King snuck across the border to cavort with Southern Minnesota Republican losers. In December 2005, The Sioux City Journal reported in King holds immigration town hall in Worthington:
In the Worthington session 10 miles north of Iowa in the Minnesota 1st District served by U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, Worthington community leaders and residents talked about the impact of illegal immigration on business and culture.
King said, "We've been held hostage by burdening illegal immigration in our rural and agricultural communities for years. Congressman Gutknecht and I stand behind Midwesterners who are concerned about our national and economic security. Washington's elite has been slow to get the message."
No word about how big King's calves were that winter, but Southern Minnesotans sent Washington a message in November 2006 with Walz's surprise victory over Gutknecht.
Now the Sioux City Journal editorial board asks a simple question about another King visit out of Iowa in What in the world were they thinking?:
It's hard to know where to begin in discussing comments made by U.S. House members Steve King, Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert during a trip to Egypt earlier this month.
If we boiled our reaction down to one question, it probably would be something like this: What in the world were they thinking? . . .
While in Cairo with a larger group of House members, the trio praised the military for its ouster of Morsi and proclaimed support from the American people. (We might add the overthrow of Morsi was followed by a crackdown on protesters in which hundreds of Egyptians were killed. . . .
. . . King, Bachmann and Gohmert don't speak for American foreign policy or for Americans; they speak only for themselves.. . . It's one thing to collect facts in Egypt to help in casting votes back home. It's quite another to - as King, Bachmann and Gohmert did - speak at a news conference broadcast over a pro-government satellite network and reported on by Egyptian state news media.
Quite frankly, given a heaping plateful of unresolved domestic issues - such as the looming threat of a federal government shutdown - we would prefer our congressman stick to meeting the responsibilities and duties for which this district elected him ... and let the foreign-policy experts handle Egypt.
Will First District Republicans invite Representative King to come on up and pitch in on the GOP campaign? Bluestem certainly hopes so, since he was been such a help in getting Walz elected in the 2006 and 2010 cycles in the independent and moderate district.
Photo: Three stooges in Egypt.
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