Quote of the Day

"I decided I’m going to soften my language a little bit, and I did, and they’re still offended,"
-- Rep. Steve King (R-IA) explaining calling the First Lady's guest a the State of the Union "a deportable."


Yes, it's true.  Steve King told radio station WHO-AM on Friday that he was just being "kind and gentle" in his tweet that demeaned 21-year-old Ana Zamora.

No, he wasn't.  Because...well, okay, seriously, I don't believe that anyone needs an explanation as to why Steve King wasn't actually being kind and gentle and softened his language when he made up a smarmy word that never before was a noun.  And when I say "anyone," I include those who agree with his sentiments.  Even they know in their agreement that he wasn't trying to be kind and gentle about it, since I suspect they largely agree with him specifically because he was being blunt and insulting.

On the other hand, to be fair to Steve King, given some of the over-the-top, egregious, inflammatory insults he's regularly hurled often in the past, this was sort of kind and gentle for him.  But I don't believe that was through any warm-and- fuzzy effort of his, but rather because Twitter limited him to 140 characters, and "deportable" was the fewest number of letters he could come up with under the circumstances.

In trying to defend his insult to the young Ms. Zamora, Rep. King tried quoting a federal statute which describes the "classes of deportable aliens" who the attorney general has the right to remove from the country.  And so the far-right inamorato felt this justified the warmth and kindness of his made-up noun.  There's just one problem (well, there are a lot of problems here, but one really big one) -- because of President Obama's executive action on immigration, Ana Zamora no longer is in a class of deportable aliens.  So, when Rep. King referred to her as "a deportable," he wasn't softening his language...he was wrong.  

Wrong.  At best.  At worst, he was knowingly lying.  And in all cases he was being inflammatory and abusive.

But actually it's quite possible that that quote above is not really the "Quote of the Day."  Rather, it's when Mr. King explained in Friday's interview his deeper opinion of undocumented immigrants who support the Dream Act.

"They try to figure out what is it that they can hyperventilate about.  They want to live in a perpetual state of outrage. They're constantly scanning something they can be outraged against."

Really.  It was Rep. Steve King (R-IA) would actually said that.

This from a man who, pretty much the only time you hear about him in the news, is regularly hyperventilating against something that perpetually outrages him.  Like, say, when the First Lady of the United States invites a personal guest to the State of the Union Address who he doesn't approve of.

That's a fine Daily Double, even for Steve King.  Cowardly to not be willing to stand behind his insult but instead saying he was just trying to be kind and gentle.  And self-delusional.  All in one interview.

I'd be more blunt about Mr. King, but I've decided to soften my language.