In just one week, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who represents a heavily rural swath of the nation with no major media market, or even an outlet that can claim to cover the full Fifth District, had his words excoriated by three of the biggest national liberal names: Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann and Alan Colmes.

Not bad for a guy from Kiron, Iowa — looking at this from the no publicity is bad publicity angle. No wonder Ann Coulter thinks King should be president.

The first round of controversy drew on King’s comment last week at a Sarah Palin rally – as first reported by Iowa Independent – that the nation would be in danger of slipping into a “totalitarian dictatorship” if Barack Obama is elected president.

Olbermann blasted King is a special comment. Colmes hit on it on his blog.

Then on Fridaty night, just before going to the “New Rules” segment, Bill Maher on his “Real Time” HBO program referenced the following King comment:

“I’ll just say this, that when you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected president of the United States — and I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world?” King said. ”What does it look like to the world of Islam? And I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the … the radical Islamists, the … the al-Qaeda and the radical Islamists and their supporters will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11.”

Maher disagreed directly with King, mentioning the congressman’s name on the show. Maher said that John McCain, given to more Bush-like hubris on foreign affairs, likely would be a better recruiting tool for terrorists than Obama.