Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Rep. Peter King is playing with fire. He lit the torch when he told selected constituents in a recent letter that "radical" Muslim leaders who've branded him "a Muslim hater" are supporting David Mejias, the Democrat running for his seat in Congress. That's an ugly attempt at guilt by association.

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Maybe King is running scared. He's never been bashful about taking Muslim leaders to task for, in his view, insufficiently denouncing terrorism. His full-throated criticism has, no doubt, turned off many Muslims who now support Mejias. But to indict an entire mosque for the views of a few smacks of prejudice. And for King to imply that Mejias is tainted for taking money from people whose money he himself also accepted is just plain hypocritical.

Fortunately, Peter King has a serious, responsible Democratic opponent, Dave Mejias, who is well positioned to kick Peter King out of office this coming November 7th.  Mr. Mejias sat down for an interview with CQPolitics yesterday to talk about his race against King:

CQ: What's your top pitch when you go to voters and tell them, look, Peter King's been there since 1992, he wins with great majorities, he's on important committees, but you need to vote me in. What's your top argument for that with voters?

Mejias: A, our country's going in the wrong direction. We need someone to balance the Bush administration and their failed policies, and Peter King is a rubber stamp for George Bush and he's afraid to stand up to him. And he may be the chairman of [the Committee on] Homeland Security, but on his watch 40 percent of New York's homeland security funding was cut. So he's either ineffective, irrelevant or just was plain asleep at the switch.

We need someone that's going to fight for the working people of Long Island, for the middle class, you know, not spend so much time fighting for the lobbyists on K Street, but fighting for the hard-working people on Main Street.

You know, I have never forgotten where I've come from and I never will forget where I come from. Peter King's lost his way. He cares more about voting with the Republicans than he does about voting with us. ...

We have wrong priorities in this country. Tax cuts for millionaires and special breaks for corporations are wrong when they come at the price of cutting real programs, whether it's Medicaid or veterans' health care benefits or Head Start or education for working families.

Good stuff.  And going up against King is not tilting at windmills.  New York's Third District is trending blue, and Mejias has a real shot to win.  The DCCC has just added NY-03 to its list of emerging races that it plans to fund and support.  This competitiveness, which stunned those who are used to watching King sleepwalk to victory, is no doubt due to Dave Mejias' impressive resume and campaign skills.    As the Wall Street Journal recently reported:

Peter King, long considered safe, [was] recently added to nonpartisan analyst Stuart Rothenberg's watch list partly due to the credibility of his Democratic challenger, state legislator Dave Mejias.

Let's kick this asshole, Peter King, out of office.  Contribute to Dave Mejias's Actblue fund today, and help bring Dave one step closer to victory.

Also, as long as we're talking New York elections, don't forget to participate in Brian Keeler's (NYBri's) Blograiser on Monday.  For more info, read Tom Ball's great diary here.