Rep. Peter King on Weiner's Woes, Afghanistan, and How He'll Handle Civil Unrest
Informed that Imus was having some difficulty breathing this morning, Rep. Peter King graciously offered his prayers for a speedy recovery. Confused, Imus wondered why the Congressman, who normally supplies only “icky” remarks, would depart from tradition. “That’s only when you talk about your prostate cancer,” King clarified.
King, a Republican hails from New York, and represents a district not far from that of Rep. Anthony Weiner, the Democrat who has, over the last ten days, basically imploded before everyone’s eyes. Though the two are not friends and have engaged in several public squabbles, King told Imus they always got along well enough.
“This is a personal tragedy for him, for his family,” King said, referring to Weiner, who is married, admitting Monday that he has carried on several inappropriate, sexual online relationships with women. “He’s not going to be effective in Congress. I don’t see how he represents his constituents.”
Weiner’s admission came after he accidentally tweeted a snapshot of himself in his underpants to the public, rather than in a message to a woman in Washington as he had intended. He freaked out and lied, insisting his account had been hacked, but eventually the truth came tumbling out, as it always does. Weiner did not call King for advice even though, as Imus noted, King is a “pretty smart guy.”
“At a time like this, you need your close friends, the people that grew up with you, your family,” he said, adding that for himself or Speaker John Boehner to demand Weiner step down would “turn this into a partisan issue,” which it is not.
King, Weiner and the rest of Congress return to work Monday, after a week of recess, leading Imus to wonder how he could get a sweet job like that. “First of all, you’ve got to pass an IQ test,” King said. “So forget it.”
He’d also have to make tough calls on issues like whether to draw down troops in Afghanistan, where King believes progress is being made, particularly in the southern part of the country. “It’s not going to be easy over there, but I think to pull out now, you allow Al-Qaeda to come back, you allow the Taliban to come back, and we could replay something like we saw on September 11th,” he said.
Until the country is “reasonably stabilized,” King, the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, believes the U.S. should stay put. Though King is a wise man, Imus took this opportunity to school him on a very important fact.
“Do you know how long we’re going to be in Afghanistan for it to remain stable?” Imus said, gingerly. “We’re going to have to be there for as long as we’ve been in South Korea. And do you know how long we’ve been in South Korea? 50 or 60 years.”
But as the world’s only superpower, the U.S. has a grave responsibility, in King’s view. “Life isn’t easy,” he said. “This certainly isn’t easy.”
Neither is improving dismal unemployment figures, and the public’s outlook. King thinks Americans have more “stamina” than to resort to violence in the streets, as James Carville suggested earlier this week, but Imus does not want the Congressman to be caught unawares when his limo is set upon by an angry mob.
Luckily, King was prepared. “I’ll listen to you on the radio and say, ‘Life could always be worse—I could be Imus!’”
-Julie Kanfer
Reader Comments