Boyz In The Hoods

Republicans are finally punishing one of their own for racism.

House Republicans, now in the minority, have removed Iowa Congressman Steve King from all committees for making racist comments. This is a huge loss for Iowa, as it’s an agricultural state without a representative on the Agriculture Committee. After being sent back to the House for a ninth term, there’s apparently nothing more important in Western Iowa than pork and racism. If it wasn’t for his power to vote with the rest of the members of Congress, King would be as powerless as the representatives from D.C. and Puerto Rico.

King’s remarks became too toxic, even for Republicans. What they refused to stand for were comments about Mexicans being rapists and murderers, saying a judge of Mexican descent was unqualified to judge him because of his race, calling black athletes “sons of bitches,” questioning the intelligence of African-Americans, calling a Senator with Native-American heritage “Pocahontas,” referring to nations where brown people come from as “shithole countries,” and defending Nazis after a riot where a young woman was killed.

My mistake. Each of those comments was by Donald Trump, the current Republican president of the United States. Republicans are OK with his racism.

There was a time Republicans called Trump a racist, but then he won the presidency, and they all bent over for him. Regarding King, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “I have no tolerance for such positions and those who espouse these views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms.” Regarding racist comments by Donald Trump, McConnell is deaf.

The comments King made that were unacceptable to the House GOP were said in an interview with The New York Times. King asked, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”

My question is; why did that language just now become offensive to Republicans?

He’s being criticized by Iowan Senators Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, with the latter calling for his resignation. But both of those Republicans endorsed him in his reelection bid despite a long history of racist comments.

In the past, he’s courted far-right foreign leaders, endorsed a neo-Nazi, proposed electric wiring atop a border wall to treat illegal immigrants like straying livestock, said young migrants had “calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” and talked about the impossibility of sustaining “civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

The House is probably going to censure Steve King, he already has opponents for 2020, and two of Iowa’s largest newspapers, The Des Moines Register and The Sioux City Journal, published editorials Tuesday urging King to resign.

Censuring and even removing Steve King from Congress won’t help the GOP with their image on race if they defend Donald Trump from impeachment and endorse him in 2020, which they will do.

For all their condemnation against racist remarks, the Republican Party will remain a magnet for white nationalists, white supremacists, Nazis, and Klansmen.

Note: Tonight, my interview by Mr. Media, Bob Andelman, debuts on YouTube at 9:00 p.m. EST. We talk about cartoons and stuff. There will be a live chat with me during the debut in which you can ask questions. Toon in.

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