His fellow Republicans are really trying to get anti-immigration reform zealot Congressman Steve King of Iowa to shut up. As The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank reports:
[King] outdid himself in an interview that came to light this week in which he described “DREAMers” — people brought to this country illegally as children — as misshapen drug mules. “For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that — they weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” the honorable gentleman said.
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“Hateful,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).“Inexcusable,” said Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
…..
“Irresponsible and reprehensible,” Rep. Raul Labrador (Idaho) said at a luncheon gathering with reporters called Conversations with Conservatives. “I think what he said was out of touch with the [GOP] conference.”In lieu of a defense of King, Labrador scolded the assembled journalists for their reporting on King’s out-of-his-gourd remark but not the favorable things other Republicans say about immigrants. “Shame on you. Shame on the media,” he lectured. “Make sure that your article talks about what every Republican said,” Labrador proposed, “not what one outlier said.”
The problem for Republicans is that King really isn’t that much of an outlier, at least when in comes to actual policy.
[I]f Republicans think King is a fruitcake, they don’t show it on the House floor, where last month they approved, along party lines, an amendment King offered that would force the Obama administration to resume deportation of the DREAMers who immigrated as children. “If this position holds, no amnesty will reach the president’s desk,” the congressman said in a celebratory statement after the vote.
I wrote about that here.