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December 30, 2011 2:28 PM How About “Never?” Does “Never” Work For You?

By Ed Kilgore

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So one of today’s new items from Iowa (apologies to the commenters who hate reading about the caucuses, but sorry, the subject is dominating what little political news we have) is that Rep. Steve King, the savage nativist whose name is supposedly magic in Iowa conservative circles, is attacking Ron Paul and hinting he might yet endorse someone else to stop him.

Gee, Steve, have you looked at a calendar lately? The caucuses are on Tuesday, after a holiday weekend when even Iowa political junkies will be distracted. They say “better late than never,” but at some point “late” becomes the functional equivalent of “never” (as suggested in the title of this post, borrowed from one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons of all time).

In the last presidential cycle, King waited until December 17 to endorse Big Fred Thompson, and has reportedly regretted not moving earlier; Fred finished third behind Huckabee and Romney, though he did survive to keep Huck from winning a South Carolina victory that might have derailed McCain’s nomination. But it’s long past December 17, and you gotta wonder if King’s losing his touch for real, or maybe just can’t bring himself to diss his doomed friend Michele Bachmann.

Or perhaps King himself is a bit distracted this year. He’s facing his toughest re-election fight ever, against Christie Vilsack, wife of the former two-term governor and current Secretary of Agriculture, and a very popular figure in her own right (it was Christie, not Tom, who gave John Kerry a crucial push in 2004 with a pre-Caucus endorsement). The district (changed significantly by redistricting) is pretty conservative, but word on the street is that Iowa Republicans are worried that King was slow to get his campaign up and running.

In any event, the political world is hardly holding its breath for King to indicate his choice in the Caucuses, and unless there are an awful lot of undecideds who cherish his opinion, he probably shouldn’t even bother.

Ed Kilgore is managing editor of the Democratic Strategist and a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.
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  • Burr Deming on December 30, 2011 2:37 PM:

    Steve King is more than anti-Immigrant and anti-Muslim. He is nostalgic for the times when only male property owners could vote. He may appeal to Republicans. That's hard to fathom. But it's not hard to imagine Ron Paul hoping for more attacks from Steve King.

  • chi res on December 30, 2011 2:52 PM:

    The caucuses are on Tuesday, after a holiday weekend when even Iowa political junkies will be distracted.

    The Sunday before an election is the absolutely best time to move the evangeligal vote.

    craptcha: office maryja. Hey, who told!?!

  • jjm on December 30, 2011 2:57 PM:

    All I can say is "GO CHRISTIE VILSACK!"

  • hells littlest angel on December 30, 2011 3:10 PM:

    I thought you were quoting something Nancy Pelosi said about cuts to Medicare.

  • ericfree on December 30, 2011 3:29 PM:

    Yes, they do battle down to the wire. Last night I got a robocall from the head of the National Organization For Marriage (acronym NOMMIES, fighting to the death of the National Organization Against Marriage), slamming Ron Paul for not being sufficiently anti-gay. If they called me, they must be calling everybody in Iowa.

    And, mournfully, Steve King is now my congressperson. To which I can only echo ljm. This nowhere district has become one of the most important races in the country.

  • ComradeAnon on December 30, 2011 4:42 PM:

    If he loses, it will be interesting to see if he gets wingnut welfare. Would ANYONE want this kind of stupid in their organization. Other than the contracting organizations he was involved with prior to politics.

  • Mike on December 30, 2011 7:00 PM:

    http://theleastobviousanswer.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-ron-paul-can-beat-romney-in-iowa.html

  • Anonymous on December 30, 2011 8:19 PM:

    I previously commented on being tired of Iowa, etc., but THIS is welcome news. I hope Christie Vilsack gets that arse out of the House! He's an embarrassment at best and dangerous at worst.

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