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The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
The blogosphere is buzzing after U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, was caught not once, but twice expressing empathy for a man who flew a plane into an Internal Revenue Service building last week. Thirteen people were injured in the attack, two of them critically injured. One man was killed.
The first instance was documented by a Media Matters staffer as King addressed an immigration panel at Saturday’s Conservative Political Action Conference. However, because no video or audio of King’s words exist, some conservatives are crying foul. Johnson County Republicans Chair Todd Versteegh posted at John Deeth Blog that the lack of recorded evidence of King’s statements at a conference full of cameras should cause people to question the validity of the report.
But shortly after the speech, a blogger at Think Progress caught up with King to see if he could clarify his remarks.
Basically, King said that while the terrorist attack was sad, things like that would be avoidable if the U.S. would just abolish the IRS.
“I think if we’d abolished the IRS back when I first advocated it, he wouldn’t have a target for his airplane,” he said.
Liberal blog Bleeding Heartland wondered what King’s reaction would have been if the pilot had been Muslim.
Politicians like King, who command respect on the right wing, should be denouncing all attempts to incite or glorify violence against the government. Instead, King acts as if having a grievance against the IRS might push anyone over the edge.
Imagine King’s response if the suicide pilot who crashed into a federal building had been a Muslim immigrant.
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