District 5 can make a difference

(Okay, 25 from the time I post this, but only 19 from when it's published in the NEWSpaper!)

District 5 can make a difference
Page 3 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig Leader- Thursday, October 19, 2006

I can’t believe how many yard signs there are for political candidates. But it’s puzzling why there are so few yard signs for Democrats. Maybe it’s because Iowa’s Fifth District is so staunchly Republican. It’s a little fishy to me that in such a “Red State,” all of the Republican candidates have used blue ink.

It could be because the Democrats are notoriously less organized. A progressive friend told me that it was because “Lefties” have too much good taste to clutter-up their yards with advertising.

It could be that the Republican National Committee has truckloads of more money to spend on state and local races than the Dems.

Nah, lets face it, Western Iowa is about as red as congressional districts get. Political Junkies know that Steve King’s is just about the safest seat in the House of Representatives this election.
Which is too bad, because if there was a list of the nuttiest House Republicans, King would be near the top.

A friend of mine who is a Democrat, told me that he’d met King and found him warm, friendly and personable. Maybe so, but even a dog can shake hands. There are pitbull owners who think their dogs are good with kids.

A dear Republican friend of mine was pleased that he won the nomination because he isn’t from a major city, instead he’s “one of us,” a rural, regular guy. But the rural Iowans I know are wise and kind and use common sense.

He brought out props he had made to argue on the House floor for an electric fence that he designed for our border with Mexico. He even volunteered his family to help build it. He compared imigrants to cattle.

Helen Thomas was a respected member of the White House Press Corps. She’s been a reporter covering every President since Nixon. She happens to be of Lebbanese decent. When terrorist al Zarqawi said that he wasn’t afraid to face the death penalty because as a Muslim, e expected to receive 72 virgins in Heaven. King commented that Zarqawi was probably headed for Hell (fair enough, except for what he said next). Then King said that the 72 virgins would probably all look like Helen Thomas.

If I had my way, that would have gotten King kicked out as fast as Foley.
King has called Joeseph McCarthy a “great American hero.” The leader of the ‘red-scare’ witch hunts of the 1950’s, a hero? How many people had their lives ruined by his insinuation and slander? No one has violated American’s First Amendment rights more until the current Bush administration’s un warrented wire-taps. A hero? What does that mean King would like to do or that he’s already allowed? McCarthy and “McCarthyism” are a dark page in history, not a hero.
King was the chief sponsor of the English language only law (which by the way Republican Gubinatorial candidate Jim Nussle supported). Please. America has always been a melting pot. English is already the language of commerce and economic success by default, the only reason to make it the “official” language is to exclude people or to discriminate against them. That would be like making Christianity the official religion of the United States, or making “White” the official race.

I’m sure he’d like that. He opposed extending the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He doesn’t think that peace and civil rights activism is “consistent with American values.” A letter that he wrote against extending the Voting Rights Act turned out to have been “ghost written” by a leader of an anti-immigration group.

King has called Union organizers “economic weapons of mass destruction.” Yet he called the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Grab little more than fraternity hazing. Excuse me? If college kids do with broomsticks what was done to those prisoners, they should be locked up too.
King claimed that Washington D.C. was more dangerous to civilians that Iraq. He was one of only 11 lawmakers to vote AGAINST emergency relief funds for Hurricane Katrina victims.

A major backer of Steve King’s campaign, through his “Americans for a Republican Majority PAC is indicted former House Majority Leader, Tom Delay.

Last year at this time the Des Moines Register asked us (District 5 voters) in an editorial to “Spare us more embarrassment: Replace King.”

The Chidren’s Defense Fund gave King a zero on their scorecard that ranks lawmakers on how well they try to protect kids. The AARP also gave him an “F: for failing the middle class with his voes on taxews, small business, and family issues.

Surely we can do better. Replacing King could be the best thing Iowa Republicans could do for their party, even if it does help give Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives. If you can’t bring yourself to vote for Joyce Schulte on Nov. 7, then please consider writing in the name of some sane, smart, stable, Republican other than Steve King.

Democrats, take back the house. Republicans, please, take back your self respect.
__________________________________________________________________
Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. The feature’s motto is: ‘Sex, Politics, and Religion...Not necessarily in that order.’ Okay, so there’s no sex. There’s usually at least as much humor as politics or religion.