And he was this close to solving (unspecified world issue)
The hammer has come down on Rep. Steve King, connoisseur of melon-based anti-immigrant slurs. He shall not get to
go play diplomat for a while.
Speaker John A. Boehner canceled a foreign trip by Rep. Steve King in retribution for his opposition to Boehner’s cave on “clean” Department of Homeland Security funding, according to the Iowa Republican.
King told a local radio station last week that he was all set to travel abroad on “a very important diplomatic mission,” when he suddenly got word that official funding for the trip had been canceled.
There doesn't seem to be any mention of which country Rep. Steve King was going to visit on this "very important diplomatic mission," leaving us to speculate on just what Steve King was planning and which nation was going to be the brunt of it. Surely, however, we can all agree that keeping Steve King quarantined to the United States is the least we can do for the rest of the world.
Lest anyone get the idea that John Boehner was muzzling Steve King something other than the pettiest possible reasons, though, let the record show that your optimism was misplaced.
A source familiar with House Republican campaigns told CQ Roll Call that King’s unwillingness to give back to the party is particularly glaring in light of what the party has done for him.
In 2012, King was fending off the biggest electoral challenge of his congressional career from Democrat and former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack. The National Republican Campaign Committee’s $600,000 investment in the race was crucial to King’s victory in a presidential election year when Obama ultimately won the state by 6 points.
Yet King still doesn’t come close to paying his annual NRCC dues, said the same source: “[He] likely wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the support of the leadership team and other Republicans who bailed him out in 2012. He is not a team player in any way, and can’t be expected to be rewarded with perks like taxpayer-funded overseas trips.”
The implication here is that House members who
do pay their annual Republican dues
do get rewarded with "perks" like unnecessary overseas taxpayer-funded trips, which as a taxpayer seems like a rotten deal for me. Perhaps we could agree that Steve King does not get to play "overseas diplomat" on the taxpayer dime because America already has plenty of "diplomats" whose actual job that is, and Steve King is conspicuously not among them.
But I digress. The important point is that House Speaker John Boehner and House Anti-Immigrant Nutjob Steve King are embroiled in a top-notch slapfight, and that's good news for America. Oh, and is also hilarious.