Rep. Pete King is an embarrasment on issues of National Security
Somethings never change. Rep. Pete King has a history of spewing ridiculous statements when it comes to war and national security. As TPM puts it:
In recent years, the New York Republican has gained a reputation for demagoguing every terror incident by hyping the threat of radical Islam and suggesting that Democrats' policies are putting Americans' lives at risk. And now he's back at it.
Whenever there's a hint of trouble he's Johnny on the dime to give asinine quotes that the media laps up in his effort to smear anyone who's not a Republican.
After Faisal Shahzad,the suspected NYC bomber failed at his task, it was time to fill air space on cable -- and like clockwork King got himself on the tube to pass along his latest demagoguery. With the case of NYC being only hours old and no tangible information available, good old Pete tried to guess what the motive might be for this violent act. Out of the endless possibilities of what might have triggered the terrorist attack, King decided to hypothesize that "South Park" was a possible target.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that a car bomb found Saturday night in Times Square might have been the work of Islamic extremists who were upset over an episode of the Comedy Central series that attempted to depict the prophet Muhammad. It's one possibility out of 100, but this vehicle was close to a Viacom building, which owns MTV and Comedy Central," King said Sunday during an appearance on CNN. "
CNN's John King found that puzzling as well and asked him if he got a little ahead of himself by naming South Park as a target.
John King: Earlier today you raised some eyebrows when you were trying to figure out who might be responsible for this and you were being careful when you said "might," but you did say one possibility and again, this is one possibility, close to the Viacom building you were saying at the outrage the South Park incidents not that long ago. Was that perhaps getting a little ahead of yourself?
Pete King: No, not really because I know that it is being looked at by investigators as one of the possibilities. Iwas going down the list of possibilities and that is one of them to show again how many things the police and the joint terrorism task force have to look at and that is one of them.
Since the Pathfinder was parked near Viacom, which is home to Comedy Central which hosts South Park, that was all the proof Stark needed to pass it along to the mainstream. Why was he speculating?
King has no problem in a time of crisis and a possible terrorist attack to grab a microphone, and to me it sounds like he's publicizing tactics law enforcement use when dealing with these incidents so that he can make himself appear very, very important and in the know. I would expect a pundit to make this kind of assertion, but for a congressman to offer wild speculation hours after an incident is almost criminal. I repeat, why is he there at all at a time of crisis?
King was out front and center when the "Underwear Bomber" struck, even before people had a chance to open up their Christmas presents so that he could denounce President Obama.
I'll never forget when he told an audience at a Jewish center in 2006, and as the Iraq war was raging that shopping in Baghdad was just like hanging out in Manhattan.
King: Conditions on the ground are different than what you see on television.---As we go through the city of Baghdad, it was like being in Manhattan. I’m talking about bumper to bumper traffic. Talking about shopping centers, talking about restaurants, talking about video stores, talking about guys--on the street corner, talking about major hotels. And so, at that moment, people must be amazingly resilient and you would never know that there was a war going on...
...in Mosul---I remember seeing news reports about roller coasters. Where you had two or three parking lots filled with their cars on a Sunday afternoon. Again, that’s not something you’d see on television, and at any given time a suicide bombers can walk into an amusement center, but the point I’m making is that the situation is more stable than you think....
I wish the media would ignore this fool, but conservatives can never say anything too far out or too far right.
