Congressman Steve King (R-IA) asked Scott McClellan today whether he could not have "taken some of this with you to the grave and done this country a favor?" If I were McClellan's insurance carrier, I would assess that he is a better risk now that this testimony is on the record under oath. You, too, can do your country a favor, and help Steve King achieve the retirement of his dreams--building a border fence as a volunteer citizen to keep the brown people out.
You remember Steve King. When Obama wins, Al Qaeda will be "dancing in the streets." Something about his name and color. Iowa Democrats caucused for Obama, but King and his supporters were in a different location caucusing for Fred Thompson or Tom Tancredo.
Steve King is an odious bigot, and he does not even represent his red district very well. Iowa conservatives are, by and large, more decent than this guy, and their conservatism is more old-style than hate-filled, on balance. Today King put his views of government accountability on display while questioning Scott McClellan. In summary: don't ask about Bush administration lawbreaking, and for God's sake, don't tell.
Let's go to the tape, and a rough transcript of this YouTube clip (thank you Desmoinesdemand Bleeding Heartland). After an intro devoted to rehabilitating the infamous 16 words about uranium in Africa, King got to the point, such as it was:
"What is your advice, to your successor secretaries, White House press secretaries, um, as to how they should handle themselves and how a president might want to handle them, there's two parts to this question.
"What would you say to the succeeding secretaries, on whether at what point they should step up and tell the world in the middle of their job perhaps, and how will the president handle it from this point, does he have to then put the next press secretary into a cubicle, and slide press releases to him under the door, for fear that he'll be coming either write a book or come before the Judiciary Committee and divulge information that I believe was at least from a national secur-, not national security but from the integrity standpoint, could you not have taken some of this with you to the grave and done this country a favor?
For an opportunity to assist in ridding the Congress of this ideologue, go give Rob Hubler some love. He is a decent, smart progressive Democrat who is trying to help Steve King achieve retirement. He would have voted against the gutting of the fourth amendment today. Bonus. That he is a "better Democrat" is a real opportunity to turn a red district blue in a way that will mean something. But any Democrat with a pulse would be an improvement.