Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) repeatedly said in a television interview Sunday on WABC that his real opponent isn’t Nassau Legis. David Mejias (D-North Massapequa) but Newsday. King has made the same assertions for weeks in Newsday stories and his campaign literature.
But hold on a minute. King’s latest large postcard, titled “Pete King: Independent and Tough,” features a full-reprint of a column by Raymond J. Keating, titled “King is No White House Rubber Stamp,” published in Newsday on Oct. 30.
On the reverse side are glowing quotes from U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and Newsday, among others. The Newsday quote, taken from a June 25 editorial, describes King as “a stand up guy who isn’t shy about tangling with the powerful, even those in his own party.”
The editorial was part of the newspaper’s report card on the local congressional delegation. Below is the full text about King:
James T. Madore
Peter King
(2 1/2 Domes – as in U.S. Capitol Building - out of a possible 4)
Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) presents something of a conundrum. On almost every issue, he and this editorial page couldn't disagree more, and yet he has garnered high marks here for his work in Washington. He's a stand-up guy who isn't shy about tangling with the powerful, even those in his own party.
As the new chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, he could have done what others would do: soft-pedal criticism of party leaders. Not King. He took on the Republican White House to block a Dubai company's bid to operate American seaports, and he slammed Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for stiffing New York on anti-terrorism funding.
King's moxie and unfailing humor are laudable, but there's a problem: He's just wrong on too many big issues.
He championed punitive immigration reform that would fence off much of the nation's border with Mexico and make felons of 12 million undocumented immigrants. That's unworkable and too narrowly focused to solve the problem. He didn't reject a single tax cut in two years, despite a costly war, crippling deficits, and looming shortfalls in Medicare and Social Security. And he's too sanguine about the White House's excesses in privacy-shredding domestic spying.
As the lone Republican in Congress from Long Island, King has become a national figure and prime-time player who delivers for the region and his district. But too often, where he would lead is not where the nation should go.
King likes to use Newsday as a foil, so he may consider this a favor: From a rating of 3 domes in 2004, he has dipped this year to 2 1/2 domes
Comments (7)
newsday has a problem with anyone that doesn't see it their way...they use the ink they buy to bully politicans...the klurfeld/levy show is getting really old...look at the circulation numbers...if it wasn't for the sports pages who would read newsday...
Why Newsday is trying to get rid of the last GOP Congressperson on Long Island is beyond belief. Do they really want only democrats battling democrats in primaries here on LI like is the case in NYC?
That being said, King will prevail with at least 58% in a tough GOP year. I hope he spends every waking hour next year working to remove Mejias from public office.
I agree with the analysis that when it comes to reporting News or Opinion regarding President George W. Bush or U.S. representative Peter T. King, Newsday would appear to be engaging in bias.
This is what King Is referring to. Ray Keating's column was orchestrated by management to fend off the very legitimate criticism Newsday was hoping to refute.
Listen to Newsday's Editorials which were against Bush Tax Cuts, you would think we were living through the Great Depression of 1929. After 9/11, the Dow Jones hovered around 7200. Under the Federal Reserve's lower interest rates and Bush's Tax Cuts our stock market is over 12,000 and performing well.
Nowhere has Newsday mentioned that it was Mejias who was appointed head of the Nassau Industrial Development Agency by Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi. Mejias orchestrated $200 million in loans in exchange for $155,000 in campaign contributions for CE Suozzi. Did anyone see that item in the Newsday and NYT's endorsement of Mejias?
This is why King's criticsm has merit with people of all political persuasions.
Part 2
Mejias charges King has been a rubber stamp by voting with the Bush Administration 90% of the time.
Fine.
The proposition before voters is agreeing with President Bush equate with being a rubber stamp?
The Airline Services constitute a portion of King's district given proximity to JFK. Would anyone have voted not to approve funding for the bailout led by the Bush Administration of American and United Airlines?
The War on Terror? Mejias states in his commercial, "23,000 wounded or dead at a cost of 100's of billions of dollars."
My answer having worked in the World Trade Center is 3,000 people died on 9/11. Our economy lost over $2 Trillion dollars in a single day. Terrorists were seeking to decapitate our government and crush our financial services.
By all intelligence levels we now know that the Iraq government under Saddam Hussein was involved with the first bombing of the WTC in February 1993 in which 7 New Yorkers were murdered.
Under the Clinton Administration, hundreds of American citizens were murdered without provocation and our government took no action! Silence past as acceptance.
Right or wrong, Bush took action to defend our U.S.A. and as Americans, as Long Islanders, as New Yorkers.
What part would Long Islanders disagree with?
Part III (final-I promise)
President Bush and U.S. Rep Peter T. King are Conservatives. It is a disgrace that the U.S.A. supported Partial Birth Abortion. This is the process where a fetus up to 9 months is exterminated or murdered.
What happened to Adoption?
Congressman King has been a staunch Right to Life supporter at a time when our country seems governed by slick public relations associated with the Pro-Choice folks or Pro Abortion.
King has supported Bush with the No Child Left Behind act to make Public Schools more accountable.
Why is it Democrats like Mejias support "Choice" for Abortion but are against "Choice for Education?"
Final analysis
-Newsday loses credibility
-King wins by more than 20%!
To: Michael Mulhall
You wrote so much I want to respond to, but don’t want to go on for three posts. I will just say that your contention that King was not a rubber-stamp even though he voted with Bush 90% of time is pretty funny. Would 95% or 97% be more of a rubber-stamp. Well this year alone, King voted with the Bush administration 97% of the time. If King had been doing any kind of oversight, New York might not have lost 40% of its Homeland Security funding. You mention that Mejias’ commercials talked about wounded and dead in Iraq, and then you try and tie that into 9/11. When are you guys going to realize that the American people aren’t buying it anymore. Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror, or with the people who attacked us. And there is no credible evidence that he was involved with the 93 bombing of the WTC. The bottom line is Iraq was a war of choice, and on Election day, the American people overwhelming rejected the idea it had anything to do with the war on terror.
Jim A is entitled to his misleading opinions but not his own facts. I think there is ample evidence that Iraq had dirty hands.
Iraq sponsored terrorism worldwide. Iraq's involvement in the 1993 WTC bombing is well documented.
Look up inside911.org. Ramsi Yousef's unpaid phone bills were traced back to Baghdad,Iraq where his uncle was a top general in Saddam's inner circle.
After the U.S. Authorities released Yousef he fled the U.S.A. and returned to a home paid for by Saddam Hussein and the Iraq Government.
The Clinton Administration treated the terrorist attack that murdered 7 people at the 1993 WTC bombing as a Police matter.
The matter was handled by the NYPD instead of the FBI and CIA. This is one of the main reasons the 9-11 commission limited testimony to the period specific from 1996 forward. Jamie Gorelick and others knew this information would be very damaging politically to the Clintons