Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

1.  Peter King is one of those long time incumbents who thinks he has a safe seat and, as a result, has lost touch with his electorate -- a middle class Long Island community which is fed up with George Bush and rapidly trending blue.

2.  The race now has a blue chip challenger, State legislator Dave Mejias.  Mejias has shocked everyone with fundraising prowess, and has picked up the AFL-CIO endorsement, which King has inexplicably received in past years, despite advocating policies hostile to the middle class.  The AFL-CIO thinks this is a race that can be won.

3.  Charlie Cook, recognizing these trends, has just moved the race from "Solid Republican" column to "Leans Republican."  (pdf file)

4.  King is one of those "national" Republicans who appears on Fox News all the time saying outrageously provacative things about Democrats and anyone who opposes Bush's atrocious policies on Iraq.  Putting him on the defensive in his district will cause him to moderate his tone, because Bush is extremely unpopular on Long Island.  Moreover, it will tie him down locally so he can't fundraise for other candidates.  (As head of the Homeland Security committee in the House, King is a fundraising draw for lobbyists).

5.  Peter King is an ASSHOLE!

So, in delving into Peter King's bizarre career as a Congressman, I've decided I can sum it up in one headline:

Terrorist-sympathizer turns Bush boot-licker

Think I'm kidding?  No!  King is one of those people in public life who has consistently showed sympathy and provided rhetorical support for a major terrorist orgnizations while that organization was targeting civilians by BOMBING them and KILLING them.

The terrorist organization?  The Irish Republican Army:

On Nov. 6, 1992, three days after getting elected to Congress, [Peter King] journeyed deep into the lair of the Irish Republican Army. This group was one of the bloodiest urban terrorist organizations in the world. Among the gun-toters of Belfast, King was more a hero than he was back in his Long Island district.

"Can you smell the coal and peat?" the then-Nassau County comptroller said to an accompanying Newsday reporter, upon arriving in the Catholic ghetto. "I feel better already." He felt even better upon entering the heavily fortified headquarters of the outlawed Sinn Fein. Over tea, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams - with IRA leaders in attendance - congratulated King for the congressional victory that made him a national player.

The IRA agenda centered on what King called the "struggle" to defeat the opposing Protestant forces and to drive the British out of Northern Ireland. His friends, Newsday reported, were "people who have been to jail as perpetrators of terrorist crimes or victims" of the Protestant-dominated system.

King's advocacy for this terrorist organization was so extreme, that both the British and the American government were forced to take unusual steps against him to assure that he would not incite violence and terrorism.  For example, as this article recounts:

1. "On one occasion, a judge threw [Peter King] out of a Belfast courtroom during the murder trial of IRA men because, in the judge's view, "he was an obvious collaborator with the IRA."

2.  "In 1984, the Secret Service listed [Peter King] as a threat when President Reagan made a trip to Nassau County to watch a Special Olympics event."

However, all this pro-IRA activity came to a screeching stop on September 11.  Since then, King has studiously avoided associating himself with the IRA, and has refused to speak about them on the floor of the House.  Instead, he has become an out and out Bush loyalist and supporter of Bush at nearly every turn.  (New York Post, stated that King was "normally a Bush loyalist," in this article here).  Simply put, King is the biggest Bush-bootlicker in New York State.

Also, in a bizarre and twisted attempt to get on the right side of the terrorist issue, has advocated out-and-out persecution of Muslim Americans as the best way to fight terror:

"Declaring that airport screeners shouldn't be hampered by `political correctness,' House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King has endorsed requiring people of `Middle Eastern and South Asian' descent to undergo additional security checks because of their ethnicity and religion."

So, as should be clear, Peter King is an ASSHOLE who can be beaten in this election cycle.  Accordingly, let's all show his challenger, Dave Mejias, some love and help take down Peter King!