IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Very demoralized, judging by Steve King's latest comments to the
press: "Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King said a lack of
enthusiasm in the Republican Party will make it difficult for the GOP
to regain control of the U.S. House." ... I wouldn't be surprised if
Republican turnout in King's own district this November is
substantially down on 2004 levels, because John McCain has never been
popular with hard-core conservatives. Less than a week remains in the
second fundraising quarter--go give some cash to Rob Hubler, who is
challenging King. So the U.S. House races don't look great for
Republicans. What about the Senate? Well, Senator John Ensign of
Nevada chairs the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, and he
said two weeks ago that losing only three Senate seats "would be a
terrific night for us, absolutely."

Labels: Steve_King

Some see same-day voter registration and see the broadening of the
electoral process. Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King, rather,
has grave concerns about the practice. "Same day voter registration
presents the single greatest threat to the validity of our elections,"
King said in a press release today as he announced his hosting of a
Pancakes and Politics on June 14 in Des Moines right before the Iowa
Republican Party state convention. He's promoting spirited political
discussion over syrupy breakfast, and his topics include English as
the official language, energy policy and combating voter fraud in
Iowa.

Labels: Steve_King, voting

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, was the only Iowa congressman and one
of 25 House members to vote against legislation that would direct the
Bush administration to halt the filling of the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve in an effort to help with consumer prices at the pump. "I will
not be distracted by gimmicks that are made to sound like solutions,"
King told the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil through his office. "To
lower gas prices, I support more production of oil, natural gas and
renewable fuels." According to the Nonpareil, King criticized the "San
Francisco-style liberals" in Congress for opposing efforts to increase
energy production.

Labels: Steve_King

The Iowa Democratic Party is challenging U.S. Rep. Steve King's use of
his congressional Web site to promote controversial views on
presidential candidate Barack Obama, a story Iowa Independent broke
last month. King received publicity in mid-March for comments he made
about Obama to a radio reporter in Spencer. "The radical Islamists,
the al-Qaida ... would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers
than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this
war on terror," King said in the interview. Democrats, who at this
point have just raised the matter in a news release, are considering a
formal challenge to King's posting. "Steve King is using his
taxpayer-funded website to promote his hateful comments toward a
Democratic Presidential candidate," said Iowa Democratic Party Chair
Scott Brennan. "King needs to stop doing his politicking from his
government office and get back to the work he was elected to do."

Labels: Barack_Obama, IDP, Steve_King

The latest reporting period for federal office seekers has arrived,
and through the quarter ended March 31, the incumbent in the Iowa 5th
District congressional race is sitting on five times the money as his
challenger. In a filing with the Federal Election Commission,
Republican Congressman Steve King reported $145,422 in receipts for
the quarter, he spent $109K and had $243,387 left as cash on hand.
Democrat Rob Hubler, by comparison, had quarterly receipts of $11,950,
spent virtually that same amount and had $46,633 cash on hand. Those
totals don't include the fundraiser King had in Sergeant Bluff on
April 12, which had plump attendance. Hubler was in Sioux City the
following day, campaigning at Briar Cliff University.

Labels: campaign finance, Steve_King

Congressman Steve King scored a major legal battle and, if I might
add, also a political battle today over Lug and his Secretary of State
replacement Mike Mauro. Mr. King has clearly made it a priority to
protect this very important law that he passed as a State Senator.
English only in Iowa survives and Chet Culver's obsession with
multilingual government documents, which were against the law, was
slapped down. I hope our Republican nominee in 2010 is ready to use
this against Culver. Chet Culver violated the law. I would love to see
that on big letters on my TV screen in the fall of 2010. King had been
fighting this battle tooth and nail for over a year and it was just
delightful to see a judge uphold the legislature's law, which is the
elected will of the people.

Labels: Chet_Culver, Mike_Mauro, Steve_King

In recapping his list of controversial statements earlier this week,
Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King created an opening. King told
the Downtown Sioux City Rotary Club members that he always knows what
he says, that he speaks with unvarnished directness in order to start
a dialogue on important issues. Rob Hubler, the Democrat who's running
to unseat King, pounced, again. Hubler has previously challenged King
to a debate, and used his 'starting a dialogue' comments as yet
another opening to raise the debating topic. In prior congressional
runs, King has contended he wouldn't debate the Democrats who have
opposed him because they weren't legit candidates. Hubler is looking
to be the most imposing candidate to date -- he'll raise more money
than either Paul Shomshor did in 2002 or Joyce Schulte in 2004 and 2006.

Labels: Rob Hubler, Steve_King

One has to give Steve King credit... He certainly knows how to turn his
own gratuitous insults into an opportunistic chance to claim personal
victimization. Why, King asks, do those pesky Liberals time and again
misinterpret what he says for "political purposes?" In reference to
his latest incivility, King now claims he wasn't really trying to
insult Obama when he boldly claimed that the terrorists would be
dancing in the streets if Obama was elected president, or that Obama's
middle name would send a welcome message to the terrorists, or even
when he implicitly equated an Obama inauguration with the attacks of
9/11. No, according to our poor misunderstood Congressman, all he
wanted to do was make a larger point about the need to persevere and
be forceful in the fight against terrorism.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Steve_King

Honestly, I don't know whether or not to be more ashamed of Representative Steve King the Ignorant, or the legion of gullible yahoos who support the guy no matter what, and who mistake King's utter lack of civility for 'speaking the truth.' Seriously, I think the terrorists would be much more likely to dance in the streets should we continue to elect Representative King, who apparently prefers to launch gratuitous, ad hominem attacks and make momentous decisions concerning our nation's future based more on uninformed prejudices than on the facts. Honestly, despite the old adage, ignorance is not bliss when the times demand strong, intelligent leadership!

Labels: Barack_Obama, Steve_King

It was just a formality, but Iowa 5th District congressional candidate Bob Chambers of Essex has gotten the necessary petition signatures to officially file nomination papers for the post held by Republican Steve King. Democrat Chambers met the requirement of getting 16 counties with 793 signatures. The 5th District is composed of 32 counties. Chambers noted he got a lot of signers from Carroll, Pottawattamie and Page counties, and takes that as enthusiasm for his campaign. Nomination petitions are to be filed with the Iowa Secretary of State office from Feb. 25 to March 14… As for King, he now has 30 days to file his nomination papers for either the congressional post or the U.S. Senate position some want him to pursue.

Labels: Steve_King

By Steve King, Member of Congress... Economic Stimulus Bill Will Help,
But Only in the Short-term. Our American economy is strong and will
remain strong primarily because we are a hard working nation. Some
recent signs of economic weakness, however, have led government
leaders in Washington D.C. to cobble together a stimulus package to
keep the economy growing. At least that's the hope. What's more likely
is that our economy will benefit from short-term growth, not
long-term. It will be almost like having sugar shock from eating too
many sweets at once. I voted in favor of the economic stimulus package
that passed the House of Representatives on January 29th. The Senate
will also act soon and a final package will likely be on President
Bush's desk shortly after that.

Labels: Steve_King

The Des Moines Register had a lovely little chart in their Saturday
newspaper today that showed the cash on hand and 4th quarter numbers
from the five districts in Iowa but I cannot seem to find it on the
web version of the website at all. What I can tell you is that Steve
King and Tom Latham BOTH topped Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack and
Leonard Boswell in fundraising in the 4th quarter which ran from
October 1 through December 31. For being in the minority party in
Washington D.C., I think that is an interesting development. Normally
it is easier to raise money when you are in the majority because, lets
be honest, you have a bit more access to the legislative calendar and
agenda.

Labels: Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack, Leonard_Boswell, Steve_King, Tom Latham

If you think eastern Iowa seems an unlikely place to see Republican
presidential hopefuls two weeks away from the caucuses, you're
probably right. Linn and Johnson counties, in particular, have not
been bastions of Republican strength, and, most Republicans reside in
the western half of the state. Still, the numbers didn't seem to be on
former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson's mind as he campaigned today in
Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. "We're headed that way," he said with a
laugh when asked if he began his "Clear Conservative Choice: Hands
Down" bus tour in eastern Iowa because he felt the recent endorsement
of Iowa's Fifth District Congressman Steve King had already locked up
the Republican voters in that portion of the state.

Labels: Fred Thompson, Steve_King

While barnstorming in Iowa, Rep. Tom Tancredo's most often repeated
joke is about how he and his good buddy, Rep. Steve King, are
sometimes mistaken for one another. They bear a slight resemblance
physically, and their hard-line views toward illegal immigration could
hardly be more in line. When Tancredo set up a campaign outpost in
Council Bluffs, Iowa, earlier this year, he did it right across the
street from King's office. A lot of folks presumed that Tancredo was
King's presidential pick -- even if he had not officially endorsed
anybody. Well, that changed today.

Labels: Fred Thompson, Steve_King, Tom_Tancredo

Since the election is 14 months away, I'm surprised myself to have two
consecutive days with posts concerning Rob Hubler, but the Democratic
congressional office-seeker has announced a staffing move of note.
Sioux City attorney, former 14-year Iowa lawmaker and former Woodbury
County Democratic Party chairman Al Sturgeon has been named as
Hubler's campaign chairman today. Sturgeon has praised Hubler's
ability to take on Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King in the
past, and did so again with this announcement. For those who think
Hubler upsetting the entrenched King in a heavily Republican district
is impossible, Sturgeon notes underdog Democrat Dave Loebsack (a Sioux
City native) took out three-decade Congressman Jim Leach in November
2006.

Labels: Steve_King

We are in a war, a very big war against a weird coalition of enemies
who mostly share only two goals: dominance of the global economy by
controlling the Middle Eastern oil supplies and the annihilation of
Israel. The enemy has both state and non-state actors. While all don't
share a long term desire to actually physically destroy the United
States, some do and all wish to limit American power and prosperity.
Our Founding Fathers anticipated such wars because they had all
survived the very bloody and brutal civil war that we call the War for
Independence" or the "Revolutionary War". Everything we daily see and
read about Iraq are dwarfed by the cataclysm our own first civil war.
So John Adams, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton knew something about what
it takes to win a big national war. Part of that wisdom was the
obvious need for national unity in all things diplomatic. The first
rule of victory is the value of conquest by division. A nation cannot
have a majority and minority diplomatic position-it can only have one.
Again, this is either a premise in which one believes or not. I
believe the Adams, Jay and Hamilton types probably were right-they
usually were.

Labels: Steve_King

Here's why you check out a rumor before running with it. Got a tip
that the Bell's palsy that struck Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve
King in March, causing his face to droop, had hung in there and he'd
become a recluse from the public. Heard he'd skipped planned
appearances. We in the press haven't received an invitation to a
public King event in western Iowa for weeks, and I figured he'd be at
the June 8 illegal immigration forum of Tom Tancredo, but wasn't.
Turns out it was all off base. A contact to King's office turned that
tip on it's head. King's palsy is gone and he's out making
appearances. He was in the Orange City Tulip Festival walking the
parade in late May, and he was at the Holstein quasquicentennial
earlier this week. Heck, he's even pictured in the June 10 edition of
the New York Times piece on how a roaring grassroots and talk radio
helped stall the Senate immigration reform bill. There's King on Page
24 looking like the guy we've always known, with petitions with
676,455 signatures opposing the bill, through the "No Amnesty for
Illegals" petition drive shepherded by Grassfire.org. Long story
short, Kiron, Iowa's King is fine.

Labels: Steve_King

While spiraling gas prices have created an outcry, the proper place for the frustration isn't clear. Siouxlanders have seen the price of unleaded climb from $2.00 in early February to $3.20 per gallon today, and some say they'll cut back on driving. To date, that's apparently not discernibly happening nationally. And it shouldn't, according to Northwest Iowa Congressman Steve King, which puts him at odds with President Bush, who earlier this week called for conservation. As the gas price spikes in recent years have occurred, Republican King has held firm in his conviction that it's a form of surrender to conserve. I've been wondering since Friday, when prices went over $3.00 in Sioux City, when we'd hear from King on the recent spike, and it came today with an op-ed piece. King says America is "held hostage to high gas prices by the environmental lobby that prevents us from producing more of our own energy," and for cutting off domestic drilling of known oil supplies. King said "we need more oil and natural gas production, right here within our borders from our own vast reserves."

Labels: Steve_King