Well, you can click, and it will get larger, but ... do you really want to see more?
From U.S. Rep. Steve King's official biography on his Congressional website:
"The Fifth District ranks first in the nation for hogs and pigs ..."
Rep. King's biography mentions no record of U.S. military service. He comes from a law-enforcement family and founded a successful construction business.
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The Spencer Daily Reporter
Spencer, Iowa USA
Saturday 8 March 2008
King announced bid
for fourth term
[Agence-Vleeptron Presse nominates
this headline and lede for
2008 Miss The Whole Point of Story Award]
by Russ Mitchell, Daily Reporter Staff
U.S. Rep. Steve King [Republican, 5th Congressional District] on Friday announced his bid for a fourth term in Congress -- and he raised some eyebrows with comments about National Security under a potential Barack Obama administration.
King held major press events in Sioux City and Council Bluffs as part of his announcement tour. He met with local reporters during stops in Spencer and a handful of other cites in his district, which covers the western third of Iowa.
It was during a stop at the KICD studios in north Spencer that he also talked about the presidential campaign and his decision not to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Tom Harkin. King said he would support presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in part because of alternatives coming from the Democratic Party.
"I don't want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name - whatever their religion their father might have been," he said. "I'll just say this: When you think about the option of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States -- I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam?"
He continued: "I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror."
King thinks radical Islamists will say the United States has capitulated because the Obama administration would be pulling troops out of any conflict associated with al-Qaida.
"Additionally, his middle name (Hussein) does matter," King said. "It matters because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world. That has a special meaning to them. They will be dancing in the streets because of his middle name. They will be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says: Pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict."
[The Editorial Board of Agence-Vleeptron Presse says: Pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict Yesterday. Republican presidential nominee John McCain says the USA should stay in Iraq for 100 years if necessary to achieve victory.]
He continued: "There are implications that have to do with who he is and the position that he's taken. If he were strong on national defense and said 'I'm going to go over there and we're going to fight and we're going to win, we'll come home with a victory,' that's different. But that's not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he's elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror."
King made his remarks after describing how the presidential campaign played a factor in his decision to run for a fourth term in Congress instead of the U.S. Senate seat held by Harkin.
"I came to a conclusion of asking the voters of the Fifth District to send me to Washington for another couple of years was the better option that was out there," King said. "It's been an absolute joy to serve the people."
Rob Hubler, a Presbyterian minister from Council Bluffs, is the only known candidate seeking the Democratic nomination for King's seat.
GO RON! GOOD LUCK!
MAZEL TOV!
MAZEL TOV!
Cedar Rapids businessman Steve Rathje has announced plans to run against Harkin as a Republican, but he's a political newcomer who isn't well known around the state, according to political analyst Mike Glover of the Associated Press. Glover said former state legislator George Eichhorn, of Stratford, has also expressed an interest in seeking the GOP nomination, but Harkin would begin the race as a prohibitive favorite against either.
"One of the factors -- and actually it was a fairly significant factor -- is the McCain nomination," King said of his decision not to seek the senate seat.
King said he would have been more likely to run for senate if Fred Thompson would have emerged as the Republican nominee. A bid for senate would have been less likely if Mitt Romney received the nomination and lesser still if Mike Huckabee would have received the nomination. McCain reduced the chances even more.
The congressman suspects the presidential campaigns will reach out to moderates with a centrist message. The hypothetical race between Harkin, a staunch liberal and King, a hard-line conservative, would have created an incompatible contrast.
"Given the likely nominee, John McCain to the Republican side and given what is emerging among Democrats, be it either Barack or Hillary, that presidential race is going to color this differently than it might have if it had been a different nominee," King said. "It will be colored a lot closer to the middle than it would have been. That means a lot of my campaign would have been running on a track that wouldn't have been very parallel to the presidential campaign. I think that could have split the Republican party worse and my job is to bind us together, reach out and reconstruct the Reagan coalition and that's what I'm committed to doing as well as work for John McCain for the presidency."
Political observers have noted King's potential interest in a gubernatorial bid two years from now. He wouldn't rule the prospect in or out during his stop on Friday.
"That's always a hard thing," King said. "If I would say 'no,' then I would preclude an opportunity that might emerge at some point between now and 2010. If I said I'm thinking about it, then it starts the rumor mill churning along. I can just give it to you the way it is, the way my wife understands it -- and actually, she doesn't ask me about this: I don't get out of bed in the morning thinking about it. I don't go to bed at night thinking about it and I'm not planning my strategic moves with that in mind."
King said he's learned a lot from his three terms in Congress. He was first elected to Congress in 2002 and is a member of the U.S. House Agriculture, Judiciary, and Small Business Committees.
"I'm a healthier cynic than I was in the time that I've been there," King said. "You can't function well in that environment without being somewhat of a healthy cynic."
He and his wife, Marilyn, raised three sons and have two granddaughters all living in western Iowa. King started an earth-moving contracting company and saw that small business, with roots in the agribusiness industry, grow. King Construction is now owned by the Congressman's oldest son, David, and his wife, Meghann.
"Soon I'll have as much time in Congress as I had in the Iowa Senate," King said. "This is a higher level, more intense, and it is a faster pace. Something else that I didn't expect, going there, that is clear now, is that many, many more of our decisions are through staff-to-staff relations rather than member-to-member or member-to-constituent. We can do a lot more that way. One of the best decisions I made was that our staff people reflect my philosophy."
King is encouraged a McCain Administration would choose strict constructionists to the Federal judiciary. King said McCain also will fight and win the War on Terror and secure the border between the United States and Mexico.
"I have to come to this realization and acceptance that John McCain will be the nominee," King said. "It isn't that hard for me to get happy about this when I think about the alternative. So, here's my speech: I'm going to love John McCain. I am going to love him as a president and as a Commander in Chief. John McCain is an authentic American hero and you can't take that away from him. There's questions about other presidential candidates in previous races. This man is an authentic American hero. No one can deny that or challenge that."
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