The Register's Editorial

If Steve King was your average, garden-variety bigot and was standing on a street corner while spouting his nonsense to passersby, he’d be easy to ignore. Everyone could dismiss his rants as undeserving of their attention and get on with their day.

Unfortunately, King has a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He’s a federal lawmaker. He’s on the public payroll. When he speaks, he represents — literally and figuratively — the people of Iowa.

So when he says things that are untrue, offensive or wildly irresponsible, attention must be paid. Responsible people have to step up and attempt to set the record straight or demonstrate that not everyone in Iowa, or in Congress, shares King’s distorted view of the world.

OBRADOVICH: Steve King says Iowa GOP should assume he's right about Western civilization

Unfortunately, King thrives on that sort of attention. He makes outlandish statements that seem intended to generate controversy, knowing they will provide him with a larger platform from which he can spew even more of his incendiary observations.

Example: On Sunday, King sent out a tweet that appears to be an overt endorsement of white nationalism. Referencing a far-right Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, who has advocated banning the Quran and has called Moroccan immigrants “scum,” King wrote: “Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can't restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

Given the opportunity to clarify his comments on CNN, King doubled-down, telling the network, "I'd like to see an America that's just so homogeneous that we look a lot the same.” He said he has advised leaders in Western Europe that to “rebuild” their civilization in the face of growing immigration, they need to keep their birth rate up and grow their population to strengthen their culture. “This Western civilization is a superior civilization,” King said, adding that “American civilization” is now threatened by immigrants who are “refusing to assimilate.”

To understand just how offensive King’s comments are, one need only consider the endorsement tweet they earned from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke: “GOD BLESS STEVE KING!!! …Sanity reigns supreme in Iowa's 4th congressional district."

People who don’t subscribe to Duke’s definition of “sanity” disagreed.

One GOP member of Iowa’s congressional delegation, Rep. David Young of the 3rd District, tweeted: “America is not about any one color, or one ethnicity, or one faith.” Former Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush tweeted, “America is a nation of immigrants. The sentiment expressed by Steve King doesn't reflect our shared history or values.” David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, was less diplomatic, tweeting, “Steve King is my colleague. This tweet is an open endorsement of white nationalism. Shameful.”

The executive director of the Iowa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Miriam Amer, issued a statement in which she said, “This racist tweet crosses the line from dog-whistle politics to straight-up white supremacist advocacy."

Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds said King's comments don't reflect "Iowa values."Gov. Terry Branstad condemned King’s tweet as "totally inappropriate” but then seemed to suggest that because the comments were in line with previous statements made by King they are to be expected. "You know, Steve King is Steve King, we all know that,” Branstad said. “From time to time, he just says things that we just don’t agree with, and we have always been honest about that.”

King’s words are predictable, but they carry weight only because he is a congressman. And he’s a congressman because, after Republican Party leaders repeatedly denounce his words in an attempt to claim the moral high ground, they then wallow in the mud by supporting King’s bids for re-election.

Reynolds, our governor-in-waiting, endorsed King in the 2016 primary, calling him an “effective advocate for his district and for Iowans.” King also was endorsed by Sen. Joni Ernst, who said King “stands strong for life and liberty." Sen. Charles Grassley and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey also endorsed King in 2016.

If King’s world view truly doesn’t match that of the Republican Party, then party leaders at both the state and national level need to stand together in supporting an opposing candidate in the 2018 Republican primary. Given King’s longstanding record as one of the least effective members of Congress, the GOP should have no difficulty finding a more thoughtful and qualified individual to represent the people of Iowa’s 4th District.

The only question is whether these party leaders have the courage of their alleged convictions.