There is plenty of anti- immigrant sentiment to go around on the right as the immigration reform debate rages on. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) just happens to be the one in the spotlight at the moment.

The controversy started when King did an interview with Newsmax, in which he said of immigrants:

[for every valedictorian]there’s another hundred out there who they weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’ve been hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.

Now, this is obviously a baseless assertion, and highly offensive to anyone who is not a raving bigot. Even people in King’s own party, such as House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor(R-VA) have distanced themselves from King’s remarks. Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) even went so far as to say that the comments were” reprehensible.”

King, however, remains undaunted. According to Crooks and Liars, King had an interview with right wing talk show host Laura Ingraham, in which he was asked about the comments. He continued to defend what he said, even going so far as to claim that he has had “personal experience picking people up with calves the size of cantaloupes.”

That description comes from many days down on the border, riding and sitting with the border patrol and without them at night, no night vision, watching the shadows come across the border, picking people up personally with my hands, unloading illegal drugs out of a vehicle with a false bottom under the truck,” he explained. “I mean this is a personal experience, and I sit there at night and border patrol agents would come to me one at a time in their civil clothes and talk to me clandestinely.

I have to roll my eyes at that comment. Nobody in their right minds, no matter their political persuasion, believes any of that. Further, even if it were true, he cannot say that it is true for all Americans who happen to be immigrants.

In the interview, Laura Ingraham asked Rep. King about his comments:

“So they have calves the size of cantaloupes? What?”

King answered:

“I insulted the illegal drug dealers, the drug smugglers. I insulted them, I admit that. I don’t know why anybody else would be insulted.”

When Ingraham asked if he would apologize for what he said, King replied:

“No, I won’t do that, Laura. If I did that, that would further marginalize, and that would be a confession that the statement that I made was wrong or inaccurate.”

Yeah, and we all know how hard it is for a self- righteous bigot to admit to making a mistake. They never do, so that statement comes as no surprise. I really do think that we all need to realize something though. When our elected representatives are open and total bigots, they are not representing all people. King’s comments show him to be a flaming, unabashed racist. No one who holds those sorts of narrow minded views should be anywhere near public office. After all, when you hold office you are supposed to serve the people. That means all people.