I'm sorry to see that Tom Harkin won't run for reelection in 2014, giving the Republicans a shot at another Senate seat -- but I wonder if the GOP might crazify its way to yet another loss in a winnable race. This article (from The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier) mentions the name of the Iowa Republican with the widest name recognition nationwide, and although he's not regarded as the favorite for the GOP nomination, it's noted that he has some advantages:
Rep. Steve King, 63, a conservative from western Iowa ... has represented about half of the state;s 99 counties. He's ... never ruled out a Senate bid even if it meant challenging Harkin. [Tim] Moran [a former GOP State Central Committee member] believes the prospect of an open seat race would be appealing to his former boss.Yeah, that's what I would think, too. Victory in GOP primaries regularly goes to the craziest candidate.
For King, one GOP strategist said, the primary would be easier than the general election.
A top party official speculated some Republicans would have reservations about running King in a statewide ticket.Precisely why I'm rooting for him. And yet the one guy on the record won't say a bad word about him:
Despite those misgivings about the outspoken King running on a statewide ticket, Moran thinks the party -- both on a state and national level -- might find it "refreshing to have Steve King at top of ticket to drive the message and definition of the party." ...Oh, please, Iowa Republicans -- do it. Pick a guy with Akin-esque ideas about rape and pregnancy. Pick a guy who compares immigrants to dogs. Pick a guy who thinks the Supreme Court was wrong in 1965 and states can ban birth control. Pick a guy who, when there was a proposal to place a marker in the U.S. Capitol noting that slave labor was used in the building's construction, cast the only no vote in the House. Pick a guy who's pro-dogfighting. I want him as the emblem of the GOP Class of 2014 nationwide. I'd love to have the whole Democratic Party running against the Party of Steve King.
"I've never known Steve King to sit back and be comfortable," said Moran....
Of course, he could win. I'm not saying it's risk-free. But try it, Iowa Republicans. Go ahead.
"Rep. Steve King, 63, a conservative from western Iowa..."
ReplyDeleteLook, it's bad enough they print a Republican politicians IQ, but it's worse when they inflate it.
And yes, he COULD win.
But, for sheer entertainment value, I'm willing to take the risk of him running for Harkin's Senate seat.
When people start looking at what they're losing, an intelligent and measured politician, and looking at King, a raving asstwit who couldn't spell "IQ" if you spotted him the "I," my hope is that enough Iowan's have the common sense to vote for the Democrat, that King loses.
What SK thinks matters some, of course.
ReplyDeleteBut what the judges he will help confirm or disconfirm in the senate think matters a lot more.
And we already have a conservative court that can't be trusted not to overturn all the essential, creative liberal baloney of the Warren Court and the activists of the court's most liberal era.
Or to abstain from re-introducing the conservative baloney of the Lochner Era, as George Will has periodically urged them to do.
In those days the Supremes went so far as to hold wages and hours legislation unconstitutional, as well as efforts at banking and finance regulation, based on conservative fantasies - lies really - about the meaning of due process.
Obamacare could still be in danger, right alongside Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, too.