If we were to make a list of the top five nuttiest House Republicans, [tag]Steve King[/tag] would have to be near the top.
It was prop time on the House floor Tuesday night when Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), making the case for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, showed a miniature version of a border wall that he “designed.”
He had mock sand representing the desert as well as fake construction panels as C-SPAN focused in on the unusual display.
But it got really interesting when King broke out the mock electrical wiring: “I also say we need to do a few other things on top of that wall, and one of them being to put a little bit of wire on top here to provide a disincentive for people to climb over the top.”
He added, “We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with [tag]livestock[/tag] all the time.”
TP has the video of a completely-sincere King comparing [tag]immigrants[/tag] to [tag]cattle[/tag].
King’s office disputed this interpretation, telling The Hill that King was merely “comparing a fence to a fence — a border fence to an [tag]Iowa[/tag] farm fence.”
That wouldn’t be a bad spin, were it not for two problems. One, King never actually mentioned an Iowa farm fence during his remarks on the House floor; and two, King hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to over-the-top rhetoric.
We are, after all, talking about a [tag]GOP[/tag] lawmaker who:
* told reporters, “There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell [al Zarqawi is] at. And if there are, they probably all look like [White House correspondent] Helen Thomas.”
* described Joseph McCarthy as “a great American hero.”
* was the chief sponsor of the “English Language Unity Act of 2005,” which would make English the official national language.
* argued that the civilian violent death rate in Washington, D.C., is actually higher than it is in Iraq, and cited bogus data while making the case.
* told Newsweek that federal courts “have defied federal law,” and he has a plan to “put the courts back in their appropriate constitutional place,” though he wouldn’t say what the plan is.
* was one of only 11 lawmakers to vote against emergency relief funds for Hurricane Katrina victims.
Maybe King didn’t mean to equate immigrants with cattle yesterday, but given his recent history of nuttiness, I’m not prepared to take his word for it.