Salon.com: Obama Defender Rep. Peter King
11 June 2012
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Salon.com: Obama Defender Rep. Peter King
by Glenn Greenwald
Many Democrats love to scorn GOP Rep. Peter King as the embodiment of right-wing extremism and Islamophobia, and with good reason: among other things, King, the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security and an outspoken supporter of the IRA, last year held McCarthyite hearings to investigate the threat of radical American Muslims on U.S. soil. But Rep. King has another role: he’s one of President Obama’s most outspoken defenders and supporters when it comes to civil liberties and Terrorism. On CNN this morning, King offered his latest vigorous defense of a signature Obama policy:
House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-NY) on Sunday refused to confirm the existence of U.S. drone strikes in other countries, but later insisted that the unmanned flying machines were being used to “carry out the policies of righteousness and goodness” . . . .
“There’s evil people in the world. Drones aren’t evil, people are evil. We are a force of good and we are using those drones to carry out the policy of righteousness and goodness.”
Rep. King apparently sees the U.S. as the Justice League — a heroic “force of good” slaying the Evil Villains in pursuit of “righteousness and goodness” — so it’s unsurprising that he’s an enthusiastic supporter of Obama’s drone program, given that this is the Saturday morning cartoon mentality that drives it (yet again, here we find that the critic of Obama’s foreign policy conduct in a media debate is a progressive Democrat (Rep. Lynn Woolsey) while Obama’s stalwart defender is found on the far right).
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