Rep. Steve King's (R-Iowa) anti-immigrant attitudes aren't exactly new. But he keeps finding new ways to be even more offensive.
In 2006, making the case for an electrified fence along the Southern border, King famously compared immigrants to livestock. Yesterday, he changed the metaphor to dogs.
As Alex Seitz-Wald explained:
King told the crowd in Pocahontas, Iowa, that he's owned lots of bird dogs over the years and advised, "You want a good bird dog? You want one that's going to be aggressive? Pick the one that's the friskiest ... not the one that's over there sleeping in the corner."
King suggested lazy immigrants should be avoided as well. "You get the pick of the litter and you got yourself a pretty good bird dog. Well, we've got the pick of every donor civilization on the planet," King said. "We've got the vigor from the planet to come to America." The liberal research group American Bridge captured the comments.
When GOP officials wonder why they struggle with Latino voters, they should try to keep Steve King in mind.
Incidentally, King also argued this week that he, as a member of Congress, deserves a raise.
All that anti-immigrant demagoguery is hard work, which King apparently believes should be rewarded.
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I disagree; Mr. King deserves to be terminated from his position, rather than being paid more by the USA to vent his idiocy. If he wants to get paid for it, Fox has a few openings since Newt and the like went rogue.
Simple to understand his type - Republicans and Cancer are the same disease that works only to destroy the Spirit of the American people while they in Congress sell their souls to the lobbyists that own the Congress. Now add the five (5) supreme court justices that sold out the American people when they voted that corporations are people, especially the clown of the supreme court Thomas, who should never have been put on the court which was supposed to have HONOR, these five (5) justices HAVE NO HONOR!
For anyone wondering what's wrong with Americans in this day and age, take a look at this guy's facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/don.blackford
Note the first comment regarding Steve King; compare it with literally everything else on the page. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the world we live in.
I don't know about Iowa, but I have long experience in California and the immigrants here work at least as hard as the rest of us, if not harder.
I was born in Arizona and have lived almost my entire life here. Working an entire day outdoors in reflected sun in July (think 112F) was pretty routine. But I hope I know my limits.
The crew of brown dudes with serious Hispanic accents who replaced my roof a couple of years ago in June (well over 110F) would have driven me to exhaustion in a couple of hours. They did end up replacing a couple of gringos who couldn't handle the conditions.
Or you can ask anyone who it was did the rebuilding of New Orleans the summer after Katrina.
Iowa has a significant Latino workforce, thought it certainly does not rival CA or AZ percentage-wise. Unfortunately, I don't think there are enough of them here to help vote out Mr. King. King is a continuous embarrassment to this otherwise fine state. I'm just glad he's not in my district; that way I only hear it when he opens his mouth and removes all doubt nationally.
We could make the same kinds of comparisons with politicians. We want the smart ones, not the stupid ones like Steve King who push phony issues, go out of their way to offend people, and don't accomplish anything useful in exchange for their bloated pay.
Though, I must admit, I'm not sure who's dumber: Steve King or the idiots who keep electing him.
I can't stand Steve King I have Tweeted him many times asking him to change his sir name because I am ashamed to share a name with him. He was on C-SPAN Washington Journal last week and I did something I never do I Tweeted a message in saying "C-SPAN Please get that EXPLETIVE DELETED off the air.
King doesn't need a raise as much as he needs to be fired by the voters from his job! In the 21st century do these bigoted, closed minded, hateful people not care or understand? I get it, the GOTP has appealed to the lowest base information voter, and yet they cry foul when things like this are pointed out! Does this man not even realize that he holds a public office, and is therefore supposed to represent "all of the people"? Every time I think these people have sunken to lower lows, they amaze me by going lower; and yet this is the same crowd that wants people to believe they have "family values, morals, character, scruples", really, seriously?! What pack of jackals/hyenas do they descend from again?
The lazy immigrant trope? Really? Immigrants are some of the hardest-working people I've ever met. If anyone's lazy, it's old white men sitting around waiting for their investment portfolios to mature while screwing over the middle class.
Simple to understand his type - Republicans and Cancer are the same disease that works only to destroy the Spirit of the American people while they in Congress sell their souls to the lobbyists that own the Congress. Now add the five (5) supreme court justices that sold out the American people when they voted that corporations are people, especially the clown of the supreme court Thomas, who should never have been put on the court which was supposed to have HONOR, these five (5) justices HAVE NO HONOR!
You know how it is...
Those lazy shiftless
black brown white yellowothers deserve contempt!King needs more than just being diselected. He needs to disappear from the entire scope of political discourse in our country.
From my experiences, growing up in a very small town in Illinois that had a vegetable canning factory employing more than a 1000 seasonal migrant workers who were virtually all Mexican or Mexican-American, latinos were consistently uncomplaining hard workers.
From my experiences in the military, where I supervised at various times soldiers of Puerto Rican and Mexican-American decent, latinos were consistently quality soldiers. For better than 1 year, in El Paso Texas, I shared an off-base apartment with another Sargeant who was of Mexican-American heritage. He was among the best and most honorable persons I have ever known, even if he was from San Francisco and grew up in a home where speaking Spanish was not allowed and I had to translate for him when we were out & about in a community 90% hispanic.
From my experiences in civilian life, during 5 years working in El Paso Texas, I managed multiple Mexican Nationals (Maquiladora operation in Juarez) and multiple persons of Mexican-American heritage in the United States. I worked and managed along side several hundred persons of Mexican and Mexican-American heritage. Consistently, these persons were of the highest caliber, hard working, and committed to doing a great job.
The slanders of Steve King are insults to every person of American heritage, regardless of what nationality they originated from, including us of Scotch-German-American heritage. What makes this country great is its amalgam of heritages, cultures, and variations.
Go to hell Steve King, you @sshole pretend Christian!
Whew, glad I never get p!ssed off...
Yeah, because the ones who brave desert, storm, gangsters and border guards to sneak into the USA are the lazy ones.
I think he is just insane, and why anyone pays attention to his psychotic babbling is beyond me.
Steve King couldn't be any scarier if his name was Stephen King. Both men give me the willies.
Ergh does anyone have his entire statement? I am not sure this clip is accurate in the way it's being presented. He used past tense in his sentence if you notice which leads me to believe he was making a statement about immigration from generation to generation (listen to what he says again). If he was talking about that then this is misleading. If he was, however, attempting to make the insinuation that past immigrants were better than Hispanics today, then the criticism is valid.
Steve King?! I LOVE that guy. I just recently reread "'Salem's Lot" for the first time several years, in fact!
/s