Rep. Steve King really can relate to Joseph Stack's attack of the IRS building in Austin because he too was audited. A Media Matters staffer told TPM that King made these outrageous statements about the suicide plane attack at CPAC, Saturday night:

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a crowd at CPAC on Saturday that he could "empathize" with the suicide bomber who last week attacked an IRS office in Austin, and encouraged his listeners to "implode" other IRS offices, according to a witness.

King's comments weren't recorded, but a staffer for Media Matters, who heard the comments, provided TPMmuckraker with an account.

The staffer, who requested anonymity because she's not a communications specialist, said that King, an extreme right-winger with a reputation for eyebrow-raising rhetoric, appeared as a surprise guest speaker on an immigration panel at the conservative conference. During his closing remarks, King veered into a complaint about high taxes, and said he could "empathize" with the man who flew a plane into an IRS building last week

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This is a man that is supposed to serve and protect America. He's a Congressman for God's sake.

Think Progress caught up with him later on and this is what he said.

TP: Do you think this attack, this terrorist attack, was motivated at all by a lot of the anti-tax rhetoric that’s popular in America right now?

KING: I think if we’d abolished the IRS back when I first advocated it, he wouldn’t have a target for his airplane. And I’m still for abolishing the IRS, I’ve been for it for thirty years and I’m for a national sales tax. [...] It’s sad the incident in Texas happened, but by the same token, it’s an agency that is unnecessary and when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the IRS, it’s going to be a happy day for America.

TP: So some of his grievances were legitimate?

KING: I don’t know if his grievances were legitimate, I’ve read part of the material. I can tell you I’ve been audited by the IRS and I’ve had the sense of ‘why is the IRS in my kitchen.’ Why do they have their thumb in the middle of my back. … It is intrusive and we can do a better job without them entirely.

These are the people that will be holding hearings on Capitol Hill if the House goes back toe the republicans. You can bet on it. The treatment ACORN received when they weren't in power is a prelude on things to come. People who don't mind nut-jobs from killing Americans like suicide bombers.

Michele "miss me yet?" Bachmann would actually be in a position of power too...

In the wake of Thursday's suicide plane crash into the Austin office of the Internal Revenue Service, the debate is raging over the meaning of Joseph Stack's attack. While Glenn Greenwald and Matthew Yglesias ponder whether the incident constitutes an act of terrorism, bloggers on the left and right each try to assign Stack's political paternity to the other.

What is beyond dispute, as the Christian Science Monitor documented, is that Thursday's destruction in Austin is just "one incident in a string of violent threats and assaults directed toward the agency in recent years." And predictably, as ABC reported Friday, right-wing extremist organizations, white supremacists and militia groups were quick to hail Joe Stack as a "hero."

Meanwhile, conservative stalwarts like Human Events editor Jed Babbin and Senator Scott Brown seemingly rationalized the carnage in Austin by announcing "people are frustrated" and "no one likes paying taxes." But as it turns out, violence targeting the IRS and incendiary rhetoric justifying the intimidation of the agency and its personnel are hardly recent developments:

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), which oversees the IRS, handles an average of 918 threats made against IRS employees every year, according to the agency. Between 2001 and 2008, court cases resulting from those threats have resulted in 195 convictions, according to TIGTA.

“This is not something new,” says J. Russell George, director of TIGTA. “The use of the airplane was unanticipated, but this is not something new, not at all.”

And, in some extreme right-wing circles, a very welcome turn. As ABC detailed:

[F]or an alarmingly growing number of Americans Stack is a hero. The Web was studded with praise for Stack almost immediately after his plane slammed into the Austin office complex Thursday morning. The admiring salutes appearing on sites ranging from Facebook to the pages of extremist groups reflect what experts say is an "explosive growth" in the anti-government patriot movement…

Bob Schulz, founder of the anti-government We the People Foundation, said that while he only advocates non-violent means of protest, he can understand Stack's motives and said it is a reflection of a movement unlike any he's ever seen.

"There's a huge patriot movement," Schulz said. "I've been doing this kind of work for 30 years. Never have I seen the likes of what's going on now. It's delightful."

But what is delightful to Bob Schulz or the members of Stormfront is frightening to most Americans.

To be sure, the language directed at the IRS was threatening.

"Gestapo-like tactics."

"The IRS is out of control!"

"Which would you prefer: having your wallet or purse stolen or being audited by the IRS?"

"You don't need to send in armed personnel in flak jackets."

"Well Mr. Big Brother IRS Man, let's try something different, take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

But even more disturbing is that only the last of those five statements came from Thursday's alleged Austin pilot, Joseph Stack. The rest came from some of the leading voices of the Republican Party during its late 1990's crusade against the IRS.

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Cavuto interviewed Scott Brown today (he touted it as an exclusive interview) and asked him to comment on the tragedy that struck Austin, Texas. The news has swirled around Joseph Stack's suicidal action. Instead of denouncing it as a domestic terrorist act or a lone wolf nut---he didn't hesitate to use it for his own political advantage and said this:

Brown: and I don't know if it's related but you can just sense not only in my election and being here in Washington, people are frustrated. That they want transparency. They want their elected officials to be accountable and open and talk about the things that are affecting their daily lives. So I'm not sure if there's a connection there I certainly hope not..We need to do things better.

If he hopes that there's no connection to his "people are frustrated" routine then why did he bring this up in the first place? He uses this catastrophe to pump up his own election. How sweet. Wow. It reveals a lot about the man, doesn't it?