LTE:October 8, 2006

The reason Iowa Fifth U.S. Congressional District Representative Steve King says the things that he does is that he knows that it gets him press coverage, “Love Him or Loathe Him, October 8, 2006.”



The Kiron, IA Republican, fashioning himself the “blue-eyed Tom Tancredo” after the xenophobic Colorado congressman and front man of the Bay Buchanan chaired Team America PAC, spent the last year bashing illegal immigrants



Yet according to campaign finance watchdog Web site Open Secrets.org, big agribusiness, long the primary employer of illegal immigrants, is King’s biggest overall contributor.



Congressman King is on record supporting the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, which, to much fanfare, President Bush recently signed legislation into law making this possible. But shortly thereafter, on October 6, the Republican dominated U.S. House and Senate passed appropriation bills so full of loopholes and exceptions as to render the border fence porous as Swiss cheese.



Representative King is not ignorant of this vote, yet that will not stop him from making outrageous race-baiting statements. It’s his stock in trade and what keeps him in the cushiest job he has ever had in his life.