I caught up with U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) at the How to Take Back America Conference to follow up on an issue that had come up there: “defunding the Left.” After ACORN, what was the next natural target for Republicans?

King said it would be the Service Employees International Union.

“When you think what happened to Communists after the wall fell down in ‘89,” said King, “they didn’t just curl up and decide to become capitalists. They would go back and re-form like — Oh, it’s like trying to squash an amoeba.”

King stressed that Republicans had momentum on the issue right now, and needed to “push as long and hard as we can, because once the media turns their attention away, I don’t know that they come back again.”

Here’s video of our conversation:

David Weigel covers the conservative movement for the Washington Independent, a Center for Independent Media site.