Posted on 11/23/2014 12:42:14 PM PST by iowamark
I’m pretty sure that Iowa Congressman Steve King thought that his detractors would give it a rest for a while after he defeated his Democrat opponent by 24 points earlier this month. Yet once again headlines like, “Stay away from Steve King,” have been published this week. This time it’s not the liberals who are ranting and raving about King, its nameless “Republican insiders” and a conservative blogger from the Washington Post.
On Tuesday, King announced that he is partnering with Citizens United to put on a 2016 presidential forum in Des Moines on January 24th called the Iowa Freedom Summit. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum have already confirmed their attendance. Others will likely join the roster of 2016 hopefuls in the coming weeks.
Des Moines Register political reporter Jennifer Jacobs wrote an article about how King is using the conference to make himself a presidential kingmaker in Iowa. I had a national reporter call me to ask whether King is really a presidential kingmaker. It was clear in our conversation that the reporter had talked to some Republican insiders who had a plenty of disparaging words to say about King. On Wednesday, Jacobs told WHO Radio that Republican insiders had stated to her that Republican presidential candidates should avoid King’s January event.
If all of that wasn’t bad enough, the Washington Post’s conservative blogger, Jennifer Rubin, wrote a column titled, “Stay away from Steve King, 2016 contenders.” Rubin bases her entire article off of Jacobs’ piece. The only problem is she didn’t actually read it in its entirety. It’s also apparent that she doesn’t know squat about King.
Rubin wrote, “It would be a grave error for these or other Republicans to attend or to seek the stamp of approval from King, whose language and views on illegal immigrants have been so noxious as to draw rebukes from his own party.”
A “grave error?” Come on. King isn’t doing anything he hasn’t done in any other presidential cycle. For years the media and Democrats alike have misconstrued a handful if things that King has said about illegal immigration in an effort to make him appear as anti-immigrant.
Furthermore, King’s been the way he is ever since he was elected to congress in 2002. That didn’t stop Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson from seeking his endorsement in advance of the 2008 caucuses. For all the talk this week that King is attempting to overexert his influence, have they forgotten that he didn’t endorse anyone in 2012?
King endorsed Fred Thompson in 2008. It was a decision he had narrowed down to Thompson and Romney. In 2008, he also didn’t endorse a personal friend who was running for president in Tom Tancredo. What was Tancredo’s main issue in the race? That’s right, illegal immigration. King also didn’t endorse another personal friend and colleague, Michele Bachmann, who ran for president in 2012. If anything, that seems to indicate that King has a very pragmatic streak in him when it comes to presidential politics.
What Rubin doesn’t understand is that King is more concerned about the issues than he is the personalities that are seeking the Republican nomination. Is illegal immigration King’s top issue? It absolutely is. But what is every political article in American about today? What is on the front page of every newspaper? That’s right. Immigration, and President Obama’s plan to circumvent congress. If you hadn’t noticed, Republicans are united in their opposition to what the President is doing.
Had Rubin attended King’s 2012 Conservative Principles Conference, I think she might have a different tune. The candidates who attend know they are speaking to a conservative audience, but its not like they have to get their crazy on in they are going to attend the event. Haley Barbour spoke at the 2012 event. It was a similar speech that he had given elsewhere.
Rubin concluded her article by writing, “Hopefully the candidates will reconsider going and instead, choose to attend events hosted by the many mainstream conservative organizations that populate Iowa. They have their pick of pro-family, pro-life, pro-farmer and pro-business groups, so they need not attend an anti-immigrant’s shindig. By empowering King, they would only harm their party and their own bona fides with nontraditional GOP voters. They should stay away. Period.”
Let’s see. You know who pro-family, pro-life, pro-farmer and pro-business? That’s right, Steve King.
I’m also sick and tired of these gutless “Republican insiders” who feel its necessary to throw King under the bus whenever it benefits them. To my knowledge, King has never done anything like that to them.
It’s clear to understand what is going on here. These “insiders” are hooked up with a presidential candidate, and they don’t want to have anything to do with King. It’s also obvious that the candidate that these “insiders” are going to be working for is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. How do I know? Because Jeb Bush doesn’t have anything going on in this state.
What’s sad is that Christie and King have a good relationship. In fact, in the past three years, Christie has headlined three fundraisers for King. The relationship between the two actually started when Christie was brought before the a congressional committee.
These “insiders” should be ashamed of themselves. If you don’t want your candidate to attend a King event, simply don’t go. You do your candidate a disservice when you pull this crap. It’s time from them to grow up, and if I was Christie, I might look elsewhere for political advice.
Go, Steve, GO!!
Another attack, from the Quad City Times editorial board:
http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/an-invitation-for-disaster/article_c6f5b455-eb34-5fe2-94c8-4085c65303b8.html
“An invitation for disaster”
a fake conservative blogger from the Washington Post.
This kind of calls into question King's Conservative Credential.
This time it’s not the liberals who are ranting and raving about King, its nameless “Republican insiders” and a conservative blogger from the Washington Post... Jennifer Rubin, wrote a column titled, “Stay away from Steve King, 2016 contenders.” Rubin bases her entire article off of Jacobs’ piece...Why does anyone ever go along with the identification of Rubin as a conservative?
You kinda get the feeling that most of the Republican “insiders” and “consultants” who are quoted in the MSM voted for Barack Obama.
Iowa Freedom Summitt, January 24:
http://www.iowafreedomsummit.com/
“Senator Ted Cruz
Gov. Mike Huckabee
Senator Mike Lee
Senator Rick Santorum
Ambassador John Bolton
Congressman Marsha Blackburn
Carly Fiorina
We will be announcing more speakers in the coming weeks! Please stay tuned for updates.”
Fred Cap, Rick sweater, Sarah heels and now?
Ah yes, the race for 2016 begins in earnest. One or two people on your partial list could be considered serious presidential candidates.
Why does anyone ever go along with the identification of Rubin as a conservative?
I agree.
The fact that the author believes Jennifer Rubin is a Conservative is so absurd it makes me question almost everything else he wrote in his essay.
I could support about half the people on your list.
But, realistically, no one on that list could win a national election.
Well, I don’t know enough about Mike Lee to make that statement, so I’ll have to learn more about him and decide how well he might hold up against relentless attacks from the news media.
Insiders?! How about “insliders”?
This may not have to do with Christie so much as Karl Rove. This has Karl’s kind of stink on it.
Steve King’s twin brother Tom Tancredo is going to target Christie.
I thought Rubin said King was a nobody.
Rubin complained in one article that Steve King gets too much tv time and people like her don’t.
Buried in Politico’s story is that top Republican House leaders, including Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Dave Reichert (Wash.), Aaron Schock (Ill.) and Dan Webster (Fla.), are out talking up immigration reform. In the two last paragraphs of an article playing up King’s role, Politico lets on:
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