Dem. Homeland Chair: Peter King a Republican Hack

Q&A: New homeland security chairman gets tough with Bush administration

Q. Will you expect the committee to be more active than it was under your predecessor, New York Republican Rep. Peter King?

A. Absolutely. I think that what I saw former chairman King subjected to was a micro-managed chairmanship by the Republican leadership. He couldn’t really bring any legislation forward without being told, chapter and verse, what it had to include.

New Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson makes public something we've all suspected for some time: for all his rhetoric about being an independent-minded Congressman, when push comes to shove, Peter King takes his marching orders from George W. Bush and Co. When Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer came to campaign for Dave Mejias last fall, he claimed that as Homeland Chair, a Democrat from Mississipi (Thompson) would do a better job protecting New York than Peter King:

In response to a question posed by a Newsday reporter about whether New York would be better off with a chair from another state, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that King (R-Seaford) hasn't done enough to make sure that security-related dollars are directed to cities based on threat.

Let's connect a few dots here. Despite his frequent allusions to the tragedy of September 11th, King was strangely unable to prevent 40% cuts in funding to NYC and D.C., two prime terrorist targets:

The announcement that the two cities targeted on Sept. 11, 2001, would suffer 40 percent reductions in urban security funds prompted outrage from lawmakers and local officials in both areas, who questioned the wisdom of cutting funds so deeply for cities widely recognized as prime terrorist targets.

Of course, King acted outraged at these cuts, for one because they made him look irrelevant. But really, he had very little say in the matter. The Bush Republicans prefer to divvy up Homeland Pork to all their red state friends and corporations, consequences be damned. Peter King, with his record of siding with Bush 85% of the time, is a willing foot soldier of Bush-Cheney. Too bad it's already cost NY BILLIONS in Homeland Security dollars.