Peter King + Karl Rove= Best Friends Forever

Newsday:
Karl Rove left without even a goodbye.

That's how Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) recalled his first meeting more than seven years ago with President George W. Bush's top political adviser, who resigned Monday.

The two men went head-to-head on "Meet the Press" over then-Gov. Bush's speech at Bob Jones University during the 2000 election campaign. King, supporting Sen. John McCain, criticized Bush for not speaking out against the school's "anti-Catholicism," while Rove defended him.

I guess King forgot to mention his objection that whole "no interracial dating" rule they had at Bob Jones.. musta slipped his memory.

"It got pretty heated. Afterward, he basically walked out without saying goodbye," King said Monday. "But we've come a long way since then."

Far enough, in fact, that King joined Rove at the White House two weeks ago for the signing of a Homeland Security bill. King said Rove didn't tell him of any plans to resign, but said they've remained in touch since their initial debate.

"He is not just a political operative. He's a historian. He can compare the election of 2004 to the election of 1896," King said. "Some Democrats ... think he was too partisan, but I think people in both parties admire him, even if you don't agree with him."

Oh, Peter King.. I bet he's going to miss his buddy, Karl Rove. Read the full article for Long Island's Democratic delegation smacking down ole "turd blossom."

Video: Peter King and George Bush, So Happy Together

"Artwork" for Peter King's New Website!

A zany and fun submission for Peter King's new website.

The quote is legit, the smiles are priceless. And yes, I have too much time on my hands.

Pictures for Peter King's Website!

Peter King has a new House website, complete with a photo section, coming soon..

I figured I'd help him out, since I've compiled a few favorites:

Peter King with George Bush, "thanking God" for the Bush presidency.

Peter King with Vito Fossella (NY-13) and George Bush, happy together on Air Force One.

And of course, Peter King and the fam, eating up Dick Cheney's every word.

I really hope Peter King takes into consideration these lovely photos for website, especially the Cheney one, which formerly graced King's website. It'd be a shame to see that nugget disappear.

Thank You, Senator Dodd

Chris Dodd just went on the Factor and gave windbag O'Reilly the ole smacketh down on DailyKos.


Thank you, Senator Dodd, for speaking truth to power.


What a head of hair on that man. The best part was seeing Dodd reduce O'Reilly to calling a U.S. Senator a "propagandist" and yelling "you should apologize to Lieberman!"

Peter King's Prez Pick Rudy Giuliani Picks a NeoCon Wingnut in Podhoretz..

It makes more and more sense that Peter King would endorse Rudy Giulani
for President. I mean, they've both built their reputations on talking tough on war stuff while screwing up in just about every conceivable way.

Now, the New Jersey Star-Ledger's Paul Mulshine has more juicy details
as to how batty Rudy really must be. He's just chosen Norman Podhoretz as a foreign policy advisor..

On a recent luxury cruise sponsored by National Review magazine, Podhoretz got into a dispute with NR founder William F. Buckley about the Iraq war. Buckley, the dean of American conservatives, termed the war a disaster. But Podhoretz, who like most "neo" conservatives has his roots in leftist politics, disagreed.

"It has been a triumph," said Podhoretz. "It couldn't have gone better."

The man is clearly off his rocker. Yet Giuliani seems blissfully unaware of that unpleasant fact. How could this be?

Wow.

...the so-called "war on terror" was not a defensive war but an intellectual fantasy, the goal of which was, as Podhoretz put it in 2002, "not just to clean up al Qaeda cells but to effect regime changes in six or seven countries and to create conditions which would lead to internal reform and modernization in the Islamic world."

Yeah... about that regime change thing.. it's not really working out so hot, see? And the American people are wising up to it.. too bad Rudy Giuliani hasn't figured that out. Even leading conservative William Buckley, the creator of the National Review, gets how disastrous the Neoconservative world view has been in reality:

"The neoconservative hubris, which sort of assigns to America some kind of geostrategic responsibility for maximizing democracy, overstretches the resources of a free country."

Word. Too bad Peter King and Rudy Giuliani haven't gotten the memo just yet.

Peter King Has NO CLUE on Osama, Part II

Chertoff remark more reminder than warning to security officials

Rep. Peter King of New York, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said there was intelligence indicating an increase of activity without any specific evidence of a threat.

"The biggest message is for Americans to realize we have to assume we can be attacked any day," King said. "The fact that there is more talk out there heightens our vigilance. ... It's like chasing ghosts."

Does Peter King even believe the words that come out of his own mouth anymore? I do, in fact, assume we can be attacked whenever.. but only because Osama bin Laden is still on the loose! If we could dismantle al Qaida, we wouldn't have to live in this constant state of fear that Peter King seems to relish. What has he done lately to help capture Osama? NOTHING.

"Chasing ghosts", huh? If by 'ghosts', King means Osama, then yes, let's drop this Iraq nonsense and get on with it. The only 'ghost' Peter King seems to be chasing is his own political future, since all he seems to do is keep people afraid and compliant with his, uh self-proclaimed "expertise" on the subject of terrorism.

I'm not on the House Homeland Security Committee like King, but my "gut feeling" is that we'd all be a lot safer if Osama bin Laden were captured and eliminated. Give up on the ghosts of Orwellian fear and go after bin Laden, Peter King!

Peter King Has NO CLUE on Osama and Iraq

Officials say Al-Qaida strongest since 9/11

WASHINGTON - A new U.S. intelligence assessment concludes that the al-Qaida terrorist network has rebounded and is at its greatest strength since it was expelled from Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Calling al-Qaida the most potent terrorist threat to U.S. national security, the classified draft makes clear that the Bush administration has been unable to cripple Osama bin Laden and the violent terror movement he founded.

The US Intel community is reporting what we've known for a long time. Al-Qaida is the real threat to American security. Bush had the chance to rope them in years ago, but dropped the ball and got us into the Iraq quagmire instead. In the mean time,Al-Qaida's now stronger than ever, and Bush lackeys Michael Chertoff and Peter King don't have a clue what to do about it:

Rep. Peter King said intelligence "chatter" monitored by government agencies is at levels as high as those seen in the summer of 2001, when officials described the system as "blinking red" before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"The chatter, the noise that's out there is similar to what it was in the summer of 2001," said King, of Seaford, ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. "It's more than it was several months ago. It could be coming from questionable sources trying to throw us off. Or it could be very serious. But based on the history, it's being taken very seriously."

King and several homeland security officials stressed there was no specific or credible evidence of a planned domestic attack...

There's "chatter" from Al-Qaida, but we don't know anything about it, and there's no planned attack or anything. (Al-Qaida's just been using up those anytime minutes a lot lately..)But you know, be afraid! says Peter King.

Seems to me like Osama bin Laden is the perfect Bogeyman for George Bush Republicans like Peter King. Since Osama's a credible threat, why isn't the entire US military scouring the desert for him? Oh, that's right, that war that has NOTHING TO DO WITH AL-QAIDA, IRAQ:

The U.S. intelligence community's assessment of the al-Qaida threat comes as more bad news for President George W. Bush.

Bush has repeatedly tried to cast the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq as part of the struggle against worldwide terrorism.

But many of the government's own counterterrorism analysts say the Iraq war has fueled anti-Western militancy and served as recruitment aid for bin Laden and like-minded Islamic extremists.

Whoops, my bad. The old Iraq didn't use to have anything to do with Islamic extremists, but now that Iraq's destabilized, we've created a prime recruiting ground for Al-Qaida.
Is Peter King supposed to have any credibility here? I mean, King's been with Bush 100% on Iraq, and now Bush's own Intelligence community says he screwed up when he gave up on Osama and destabilized Iraq.

Peter King had a chance to redeem himself yesterday, but instead he voted for more war, more quagmire.

I've got a question for Peter King: Why should your constituents believe anything you say? You've built your image on being "tough on terror", yet your muddled world view, force fed to you from on high, has done irreparable damage to the security of the United States.

Admit it: like George Bush, you're too stubborn to admit that Iraq is a quagmire, that it's distracted us from actually defeating Al-Qaida. Right now all I hear from you is endless talk of "chatter". I'm sick of you driving fear into the hearts of Americans, when all you do is make things worse in Iraq.

We could've had Osama years ago, if Peter King and George Bush didn't drop the ball and get us into the Iraq quagmire.

One of These Pols is Not Like the Other

Steve Levy (D), Tim Bishop (D), Ed Koch (D), Steve Israel (D), Carolyn McCarthy (D), Peter King (R), Tom Suozzi (D).

Hmmmm..

long island

i kind of dig it.

LIVEBLOGGED: Matt Stoller In the Building

LIVEBLOGGED. more to come.

Please Help FREEP Peter King Poll!

Hello friends. Peter King is featured in this week's "Naked Ambition" Poll run by Newsday, where basically they pick a few dumb quotes from the week and vote on which is most ridiculous. Help make it Peter King, especially since his quote is overblown rhetoric about why we need to keep brown people out of America.

PLEASE VOTE FOR PETER KING HERE NOW

"they're stealin' ar jebs!!" (has anyone else seen that south park? i thought it was pretty hilarious.)

Republicans are great at irony..

It just occurred to me; there's the slightest bit of irony to the fact that Republicans deify the man from their party who said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", yet many insist on constructing a literal fence across Mexico?

Is this just a matter of semantics, the former instance denoting Republicans' distaste of walls, whereas the latter instance represents their preference for fences? A bit of a conundrum.

We'll have more on Peter King's fencecapades, and his "amnesty" broken record.

Peter King Absent on Voting Security

From ReformNY we learn that Peter King is one of only 9 NY representatives who have not co-sponsored a key piece of Voting Reform legislation:

Twenty-one out of New York’s 29 Representatives are cosponsoring Congressman Rush Holt’s bill that would establish minimum security requirements for voting systems and minimum procedural requirements for the administration of elections. Most significantly, the bill would mandatevoter-verifiable paper ballots and spells out detailed guidelines for conducting post-election audits. More details in this Press & Sun-Bulletin editorial.

Read the post and the editorial to find out why King ought to support to this measure, if he supports a healthy democracy.

Newsday Reports, One Month After Us...

Maybe they got around to reading Nasty Letters, because Newsday is finally reporting on Q1 fundraising numbers, over a month after we did:

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) raised $87,571, four times as much as he did in the first quarter, but had the least cash on hand among the local delegation.

King attributed his $287,090 in the bank to a tougher-than-usual re-election race last November and his decision to pay more expenses early.

Peter King was outraised by Steve Israel, who has a safer seat, and has much less COH than safe Democrats McCarthy and Ackerman.

Of course, they also neglect to parse the details as thoroughly as Nasty Letters; King actually spent more than he raised this last quarter, so he LOST almost $17K, not to mention the fact that he's down 500K from this time last cycle.

But hey, at least they got around to reporting a good story.

Peter King and Dick Cheney: Best Friends Forever?

This is precious..


Peter King, gazing intently at Dick Cheney, featured on King's own website. Now, if King were thinking logically, he'd probably scrub that picture a long, long time ago. Dick Cheney's approval ratings tend to reside in the low 20's or so. But then, Peter King shares one thing in common with Dick Cheney: they both "thank God every night that George Bush is our President."

Peter King: No Hurry on Homeland Security

Joshing Politics has some choice words for King's latest, uh, "triumph".. namely, getting a WMD unit for NYC, so now that we're on par with places like Topeka, Kansas...

The two Republican Congressmen from the area, Vito Fossella and Peter King announced at a little press conference to strut their stuff. They claim to have jumped several Congressional hurdles to introduce this, but it seems like a no-brainer to have brought more security to the NYC area immediately following 9/11.

He's definitely on to something here. Peter King loves to portray himself as Mr. Homeland Security, especially now that he's fairly irrelevant with the Dems in charge of the Homeland Security Committee. But the truth is, in the years after 9-11, when it really counted King was nothing more than a lapdog for Bush.

Now that Democrats run the show, no-brainers like the 9/11 Committee recommendations see the light of day. Still, King's taking credit for acting like he's in control.

Except, well, he didn't even introduce the legislation to establish the NYC WMD Unit..

The key move was an amendment, offered by Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., of Watertown, to the House's 2008 Defense Authorization bill, providing funding for a second team in Gotham.

Peter King: A day late, a buck short, taking credit for other people's work.

Peter King Declines; Dave Mejias Ascendant

Peter King Watch caught the story about Long Island Press' annual Power List of the 50 Most Influential Long Islanders.. Turns out Peter King dropped 22 spots:

27. Peter King

Last year #5

U.S. Representative

Since the Democrats won the House of Representatives last November, this Republican congressman representing South Nassau lost his seat as chair of the Homeland Security Committee, a significant blow to the clout he once held. But King is still a seasoned lawmaker nonetheless. Among his most notable achievements is securing funding for the Long Island Rail Road’s East Side Access project, which is still years away, but will save many commuters about a half hour daily once completed. Sure, he’s a polarizing figure who doesn’t let criticism roll off as easy as some, but he is still on the committee he once chaired and lobbies for more security funding for the region.

So basically Peter King isn't nearly as powerful as he used to be, but hey, he still does his job, so kudos from the Press..

The real point of interest is the surge by Peter King's '06 Challenger, Dave Mejias. He went up 3 spots from last year, besting Peter King by 5 places:

22. David Mejias

Last year #25

Nassau County Legislator

Don’t misconstrue this perennial Power Lister’s failed attempt to unseat U.S. Rep. Peter King last year as a failure. Many thought this to be a quixotic attempt when in reality, Mejias took his shot for Congress only after fellow Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) dropped out of the race. Within only a few months, Mejias proved to be a superb campaigner and (perhaps more importantly) a powerhouse fund-raiser. The first Latino to be elected to the Nassau County Legislature, Mejias is a valued advocate in the Hispanic community and a successful businessman with high-powered connections throughout the state.

Good on Dave Mejias, I say. Really hoping for a rematch. King's going down in '08, if he gets a strong challenge, and Mejias is just the guy we need. If I were Dave, I'd be sure to rally the Hispanic Community around this race, given King's regressive and unworkable immigration positions..

Rep. John Murtha: A True Patriot

Compare Peter King's bluster to somebody who fought in the trenches of 'Nam:



Jack Murtha kicks ass. Seriously.

Peter King: How Dare GOP moderates Rethink Iraq?!!? GOP Shill Agrees..

From Newsday: King assails war detractors

WASHINGTON - Rep. Peter King attacked as "disgraceful" yesterday Republican moderates who warned President George W. Bush on Wednesday that his handling of the Iraq war threatens to damage the GOP's future.

"Members of Congress, whether in my party or the other party, who supported the war and are now turning against it because it's unpopular, that to me is disgraceful," said King. "If you can't take a political hit, then you can't send soldiers into war to take real bullets."

King, who shouldered his tightest re-election campaign ever amid last year's Democratic landslide, acknowledged he is feeling the heat as he continues to back the president despite growing public disenchantment with the war.

So Peter King calls it a "disgrace" that members of his own caucus would dare to defy Bush's marching orders; so much for the marketplace of ideas, free expression, all that jazz. King's marching in lockstep to Bush's orders so much that he can't fathom anyone seeing Iraq for what it really is: an intractable quagmire.

King acts as though his blind support for the war is a principled stance; anyone who changes their mind is simply worried about the "political hit". But even King acknowledges that he "feels the heat" from voters. Does he think they're just blowing hot air? Peter King's so far over the deep end he no longer... LISTENS TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. You know, the people he's supposedly... REPRESENTING in Washington.

Good thing for King that Newsday found someone who's on his side:

Political consultant Michael Dawidziak said King is not likely to be hurt by his continuing support of the president's war position because his district is particularly conservative.

Too bad he's a Republican Hack.A simple Google search reveals much about "Political consultant Michael Dawidziak". His business, Strategic Consulting, has a client list that reads like a Who's Who of the GOP:

Presidential	U. S. Senate
Bush-Quayle 1988	Lazio - New York
Bush-Quayle 1992	Roth - Delaware
Dole-Kemp 1996	Coats - Indiana
Forbes 2000	Grassley - Iowa

A man with a PhD. gives the smackdown:

But Stanley Klein, a C.W. Post political science professor, said King could suffer politically.

"There is only one kind of politician who is above the polls," Klein said. "And that's an ex-politician."

And on that note, I leave you with an '06 Dave Mejias ad that sums things up perfectly..