When Representative Steve King got passed over for the chairman’s post on the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration last Friday, he suggested that House Speaker John Boehner made the call. In an interview with the National Journal this week, King made clear that he isn’t happy with Boehner (hat tip to the America’s Voice blog):
“I’m going to be OK with it. I’m going to be OK,” King told National Journal in a 40-minute interview. Even in the wake of the “unbelievably tragic” news of the Arizona massacre, King was obviously still smarting from the subcommittee rebuff. He didn’t mince words in placing the blame directly at House Speaker John Boehner. “The speaker holds the big gavel, and he decides who gets the other gavels,” King said. “It makes it very clear that it’s not a meritocracy.” […]
“John Boehner isn’t very aggressive on immigration,” King said, noting that the GOP “Pledge to America” barely mentions immigration or border security. “It’s the tiniest section,” he said.
Not a meritocracy?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives two definitions for “meritocracy”:
1: a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement
2: leadership selected on the basis of intellectual criteria
King’s never been mistaken for an intellectual powerhouse. His pronouncements about “anchor babies” betray ignorance of U.S. history and current demographic realities. Nor does King have a strong record of legislative achievements:
Steve King has sponsored 48 bills since Jan 7, 2003 of which 47 haven’t made it out of committee and 1 were successfully enacted.
King’s greatest legislative success was probably securing passage of the official English law when he served in the Iowa Senate (later used to stop state officials from providing voter registration information in other languages). Even then, he couldn’t have done it without a big assist from Democratic Governor Tom Vilsack, who later said he regretted signing that bill.
If Congress really were a meritocracy, subcommittee chairmanships wouldn’t go to people who regularly land on “10 worst” lists.
But in fairness to King, intellectual or legislative achievements don’t explain why Elton Gallegly of California will chair the immigration subcommittee. This decision, whether by Boehner or by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, was clearly about style rather than substance. Gallegly’s voting record on immigration is not much different from King’s, but he doesn’t routinely make the news with shocking, offensive statements. Gallegly also represents a far more diverse district than Iowa’s fifth.
Share any relevant thoughts in this thread.