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.

In a special ‘campaign comment’ at the end of his evening program, Olbermann said King’s comments represent the far-right fringe of his party’s desperate attacks on Obama as a socialist.

Go simpler, like Michelle Bachmann’s only rival for least stable member of the House of Representatives did. Steve King (R-Iowa)  Fifth District, but 17th century.  Warming up a crowd at a high school in Sioux City for Governor Palin on Saturday, King, who amazingly is still let out of the house each day without adult supervision, said of the Obama candidacy:

“When you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship.”

“There’s no freedom to the left. It’s always to our side of the aisle.”

“We choose freedom and liberty.”

Presumably that’s why the congressman’s party was good enough to torture prisoners, eavesdrop on Americans, suspend habeas corpus, demonize dissent, paying news organizations to run favorable stories, and generally come as close to a totalitarian dictatorship as any American president ever has.  To choose freedom and liberty–for Congressman King and invited guests–not for the country.

Iowa Independent first reported King’s comments, which came during an introductory speech for GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at Sioux City West High School. The comment was referenced Tuesday on Daily Kos and elsewhere.

The Rev. Arnold Conrad, past pastor of the Grace Evangelical Free Church, won the award, a nightly feature on Olbermann’s “Countdown” program, for his prayer:

“I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god — whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah - that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons.

“And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day.”

Conrad’s invocation was delivered before McCain arrived.

“While we understand the important role that faith plays in informing the votes of Iowans, questions about the religious background of the candidates only serve to distract from the real questions in this race about Barack Obama’s judgment, policies and readiness to lead as commander in chief,” a McCain spokesperson said later Saturday.

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann named King the “Worst Person in the World.”  The Iowa Civil Rights Commission considered action.  Gov. Chet Culver told the Iowa Independent that King should retract the statement.

So logically, Congressman King posted what he said on his congressional web site, which is paid for by taxpayers.  The entire statement is still there.

Generally, such overtly partisan rhetoric is reserved for campaign web sites rather than congressional web sites, because taxpayer money is not supposed to pay for campaign activities like this.  The Iowa Independent first brought you this story in March.

Hubler is the only formal Democratic contender for the seat to emerge as the filing deadline passed last Friday.

In making the rounds at county conventions, Hubler said, “My message was totally at him (King).”

Hubler estimates he spoke to a total of about 1,200 people at the conventions. And he said the partisan crowds were ready for his message about King.

“We got great response,” Hubler said.

King has developed a penchant for seeking the limelight by way of provocative comments that many observers say cross the borders of robust political discourse and jump far into the arena of insult and even racism.

“He is a direct opposite of what a representative is,” Hubler said.

Just over a week ago, King made international news when he suggested U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the leading Democratic presidential candidate, would be something of a smash hit with Muslim terrorists because of the Senator’s middle name, Hussein, and the “optics” involved with him taking the oath of office.

Obama is a Christian, a fact brought home last week as his own pastor became embroiled in a controversy over highly charged remarks.

Hubler thinks the middle-name ploy wears thin with Iowans.
  “The burning question on many people’s minds is, what’s my middle name?” joked Hubler in a speech he delivered seven times Saturday. “It’s Louis.”

After King’s slam on Obama hit the airwaves — getting out of the gate in Spencer — it shot around the world. In fact, on MSNBC’s “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann put King atop the “Worst Person in the World” list.

Hubler referenced that in the interview, saying the district at the very least wouldn’t be represented by someone with that infamous national title were he the congressman instead.

King’s reputation offers Hubler potential fundraising opportunities generally not available to Democrats in this rural district, the Democratic contender noted.

Not only is King not backing away from the remarks he made about Obama being a terrorist idol, but the western Iowan has posted the full text on his congressional Web site.

It is a top item on the congressman’s homepage and reads: “Transcript of King’s

Controversial Comments: What May Cause Al-Qa’da To Celebrate.”

Using the Internet and other avenues, Hubler and his allies can use the combustible King, and comments like these, as a lure for money from out of state — or donations from people with no strong political affiliation who are outraged at any number of King’s remarks and looking for a way to vent.

“I see the race developing in the beginning that way,” Hubler said.

But the retired Presbyterian minister from Council Bluffs has been campaigning with his own message for more than a year. He knows many people want to see King gone, and may jump parties or forget their independent-right-leaning ways to vote against the congressman. But they need a viable, respectable alternative, someone they could see in that role. Hubler said it’s his job to make the case he’s that man.

He’s also fighting recent history.

Retired Creston educator Joyce Schulte lost the last two elections by wide margins to King, R-Kiron. In 2006,  a weak year for Republicans that even saw the outster of Iowa icon Jim Leach in eastern Iowa, Kingpulled 58 percent of the vote to Schulte’s 36 percent in the sprawling, 32-county western Iowa district. King spent $620,000 compared to just $73,000 for Schulte. Schulte is not running this year.

A son of a Presbyterian minister, Hubler, grew up in Council Bluffs, graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1961. He then joined the Navy where he served on nuclear submarines from 1962 to 1969.

As a veteran, Hubler said he has been appalled by reports of treatment of men and women in uniform at some health-care facilities.

Hubler said he views poverty as a main front in the war on terror.

He worked on some of U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin’s first campaigns for the House in the early and mid-1970s, where he made contacts in wide swaths of western Iowa. He also served as an Iowa field office staff member for former Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Clark of Iowa.