It's apropos that Rep Duncan Hunter's (R-
Hell, Yeah!) official website banner features a California skyscape dotted with hot air balloons . . . just sayin'.
In case you're not that familiar with Hunter he's the son of Duncan L Hunter (R-CA), former US congressman (1981-2009) and Republican presidential hopeful, for about two straw polls, in 2008. Hunter, Sr., a former Army Ranger who served in Vietnam, rose to chairman of the House Armed Services Committee during the 108th and 109th Congress.
Hunter, Jr. slid right into Dad's seat, in 2009 -- House Armed Services Committee assignment and all -- and has taken up many of Dad's causes, as well -- things like fetal person-hood, walling in the southern border, voting down international trade agreements and keeping the Military-Industrial Complex humming.
Hunter, Jr. has only been in Congress for five years but recognizes the value of the sound byte and appears to be Fox News' Megyn Kelly's go-to-guy on things military or national security-ish. Hunter is equally comfortable, though, with others much further to the right like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Hunter has had quite a few chinwags with Perkins over issues homosexual like the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and marriage equality.
Look out below . . .
OK, so Hunter the Younger, clean-cut Marine and SoCal congressman may be telegenic but it's becoming increasingly clear, the more the young man's mouth runs, that he is perhaps not the sharpest legislator in the caucus.
Show you what I mean:
Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson was forced to get himself on the teevee to mop up after that one:
Let's not unduly create fear and anxiety in the public by passing on speculation and rumor," Johnson said Wednesday on CNN's "Situation Room."
Johnson said that there is no "credible, specific intelligence to that effect" and, therefore, public officials should "be responsible in what we decide to share with the American public, so that the public is informed."
Looking right at
you, Rep Hunter . . .
Johnson went on to describe how he, and other sane people in the intelligence community, go about assessing credible threats:
I look at the intelligence reports from overseas, from our southern border, from our intelligence community virtually every day, numerous times a day, to be on the lookout for something of that nature.
. . . we're vigilant in looking out for individuals of suspicion that may be crossing our border, and we have no specific intelligence that ISIL is planning to come into the U.S. through our southern border.
Which sounds like a smarter approach than dialing 1-800-BorderPatrol and shooting the breeze with a chatty anonymous agent who's more than happy to fill in junior congressmen interested in what kind of extra-scary bad guys brave BP agents are taking down.
When a DHS spokeswoman said that Hunter's statements were "categorically false," Hunter retaliated on Facebook (where else?) in this manner:
Oh dear! now he's linking to crackpot Larry Klayman's
Judicial Watch website to source his info.
Based on the foregoing, I think it's pretty safe to say that, at best, Rep Hunter is a pretty naive rookie congressman even by current House standards. At worst? he's an irresponsible, opportunistic fear-monger who doesn't appear to be spending much time representing the people of his congressional district. Unless, of course, they are all credulous dupes of crackpot conspiracy theorists, in which case he's doing a bang-up job. As a side note, I would advise Rep Hunter to stay far, far away from any high stakes poker games because he's a really amateur liar.
The other interesting angle on all of this is that back in August, Rep Hunter was busy telling us all how insignificant a threat ISIS is -- jayvee terrorists, if you please. Here he is giving Megyn goosebumps, again during a story on Americans and Europeans joining ISIS:
So. There you have it, directly from House Armed Services Committee-guy:
Americans joining ISIS are just like all those "liberal elitists" who joined the Communist Party to fight against Franco, in the Spanish Civil War. You know, like the ones Ernest Hemingway wrote about in For Whom The Bell Tolls.
But, fear not, conservative non-elitists, Duncan's here to make sense of it all . . .
[Islamic State] in Iraq is not an existential threat to us. They’re not going to harm the United States. They’re bad guys, yes. If you’re there.
But a bunch of guys wearing pajamas pushing up logs, they are not an existential threat to U.S. like North Korea is, like Iran is, like Pakistan is. They are not like that.
[Note to self: Look up "existential threat"]
But, wait for it . . . here's a talking point opening -- “the only” threat the Islamic State poses directly to the U.S. is if they can get their operatives inside the United States to carry out attacks. Which was essentially the overall point and fear factor of Megyn's report -- that it shouldn't be too tricky for Westerners joining ISIS to get back into their own countries.
People with US passports need only hop on Qatar Airways to come home. Of course, flying into Newark isn't all that sexy or terrorist-y but they certainly don't have to go to all the inconvenience and discomfort of hooking up with Mexican drug cartels to sneak them over the Mexican border.
Nevertheless, undeterred by logic, Rep Hunter boldly soldiers on:
That’s why it’s so important that you secure the southern border ... and start denying visas in totality to people from the Middle East, from this area unless they’re persecuted Christians. And then we have to allow them in.
Unless, of course, persecuted Christians start joining ISIS . . . then we might have to reassess.
Or, perhaps, the Congressman would like to expand his dragnet and not allow anyone who has traveled to the Middle East back into the country?
Nice work, California. He's all yours . . .