Steve King-- The Republican Party's Sacrificial Lamb? Do They Think That Will Protect Trump?

The GOP has long had a habit of putting it's most extreme members on the House Judiciary Committee-- crackpots like Matt Gaetz (FL), Louie Gohmert (TX), Andy Biggs (AZ), Ken Buck (CO), Jim Jordan (OH), Darrell Issa (CA) and, as you probably know by now, Steve King. Monday evening, the Republican Policy and Steering Committee voted unanimously to kick King off all his committees. At Judiciary he served on the subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security and, ironically enough, had just been confirmed by Kevin McCarthy as ranking member on the subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. Since Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has been doing fantastic work on that same subcommittee, I asked him what it means that King will no longer be with them. He didn't mince any words: "While spouting the venom of AltRight white nationalism and the delusions of anti-George Soros paranoia on the Judiciary Committee, Steve King has also been a major whiner and fabricator about how right-wing conservatives face discrimination on Facebook, Twitter, Google and so on. It’s amazing to me how far King and his brethren have gotten with the social media by browbeating them about imaginary political discrimination while the Republicans remain completely silent about the paranoid conspiracy theories of Alex Jones et al.  And it's fascinating to watch the GOP Members now try to distance themselves from King knowing that we are going to denounce him when they did not utter a peep when they were in the majority and could have controlled him. King is a perfect reflection of the white nationalism Trump has set loose in the land with the acquiescence or endorsement of most Republicans."

Another member of the House Judiciary Committee who was serving with King, Ted Lieu, had a similar perspective and mentioned that "Stark, raving racist Steve King was not so dumb as to say stark, raving racist things during most House Judiciary Committee hearings. But he wasn't smart enough to figure out that the US Constitution prevents Republicans from regulating the free speech of Google, and that Apple-- not Google-- makes the iPhone. He asked the Google CEO last year about the iPhone, to which Mr. Pichai simply stated 'Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company.' But when Steve King is left unfiltered, such as when writing his posts on Twitter, his hateful rhetoric comes out in spades. I am very pleased Republican Leadership finally took action against Mr. King. Now I urge Republican Leadership to look at that person in the White House..."

No doubt McCarthy is aware that when John Boehner removed right-wing extremist Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) from his Agriculture Committee assignment it was dooming him to political extinction in Kansas' humongous-- and humongously rural-- first district. He had to have that in mind this week when deciding to kick King-- who represents Iowa's biggest and most rural district as well-- off the Agriculture Committee (and its subcommittees on Nutrition and on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture). Throwing him off the Small Business Committee and its subcommittees on Agriculture, Energy and Trade and on Contracting and Workforce, were just icing on the bye-bye, Steve cake.

Monday night, Pelosi has a meeting of her leadership team. Some of the more conservative members opposed naming King by name in the Resolution of Disapproval, proposing the Democrats just condemn racism in a more general way. Pelosi shot down that idea instantly suggesting some serious manning-up was needed on her own team. Yet when the Resolution was presented on the floor it did not name King and was so pusillanimous that even King himself voted for it. I guess manning up wasn't something Pelosi's team was interested in doing. My guess? Conservative freshmen New Dems and Blue Dogs said it would jeopardize their reelection shots-- and someone without two brain cells to rub together and pretend to have a brain considered that meaningful. (Someone in Pelosi's office told me that culprit was Clyburn and that there's a "deal" but isn't sure what the deal is.)

In Republicanville there certainly seems to be a desire to separate the party from King's overt racism and neo-fascist politics without confronting the issue of how King's agenda is now the GOP's agenda. So Chris Hayes did it for them:



The Washington Post's Michael Gerson made a similar point-- albeit more targeted at Individual One than at the party as a whole-- in his column Monday. "In their criticism of Rep. Steve King, you get the sense that Republicans are actually relieved to be in the position of attacking racism for a change, instead of being forced to defend it from the president. They seem to be signaling that they are not really the bigots they appear to be. Republicans seem desperate to explain that they are normal and moral-- despite all the evidence. Attacking King reveals some sense of shame at what they have become. Yet, in the end, Republican critics of King manage to look worse rather than better. If racism is the problem, then President Trump is a worse offender. And the GOP’s relative silence on Trump is a sign of hypocrisy and weakness. By any standard, Trump says things that are reckless, wrong, abhorrent, offensive and racist. Until Republicans can state this reality with the same clarity and intensity that they now criticize King, they will be cowards in a time crying for bravery."

As Seung Min Kim and Mike DeBonis reported for the same paper early yesterday morning, "Trump professed ignorance" about the whole King racism scandal roiling his party and Washington. That also noted that "Trump had no qualms about engaging in racially offensive comments of his own over the weekend" and that "the fresh controversies underscored the GOP’s ongoing struggles over the issue of race, even as condemnations from senior Republicans of King’s remarks grew louder on Monday and lawmakers argued that his voice didn’t represent the party." So punishing King while ignoring the herd iff elephants in the room-- and the one-eyed aunt in the attic-- looks too be official GOP policy on this.

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