The latest racist in question is Representative Steve King of Iowa, who, in an interview with The New York Times , expressed wonderment that the terms “white nationalist and “white supremacist” have “become offensive.”

Last week, congressional Republicans had their Captain Renault moment, as they were shocked! shocked! — to discover that there are racists in the Republican Party.

One of the most famous scenes in the film classic “Casablanca” comes when Captain Renault, played by Claude Rains, is “shocked! shocked!” to discover that there is gambling in Casablanca (of course, he’s not actually shocked).

Congressional Republicans have responded by falling over themselves to condemn King’s words. House Republicans stripped King of his committee seats, the full House censured him, and there is a growing groundswell for him to resign his seat. According to House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, “I think we spoke very loud and clear that we will not tolerate this type of language in the Republican Party.”

But in fact Republicans have long tolerated King’s racism. Over the years the Iowa congressman has offended practically every nonwhite minority group in America. He’s suggested that nonwhite Europeans have contributed little to civilization. He’s referred to “demographic transformation” as “cultural suicide,” and tweeted that “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”


He’s cultivated right-wing Islamophobes and nationalists like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Marie Le Pen in France, and the Freedom Party in Austria. He’s been photographed with a Confederate flag on his desk, which is a strange thing for a guy from Iowa to do.

Above all, however, he’s been a longtime and consistent demagogue on immigration. In 2006, when Donald Trump was still starring on “The Apprentice,” King went to the House floor and called for a 12-foot concrete wall that would be electrified at the top so as to serve as “a disincentive for people to climb over the top or put a ladder there.” According to King, “We do that with livestock all the time.”


In 2013, he complained about undocumented immigrants who have “calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

That Steve King is a bigot and xenophobe is not exactly a breaking news story. What’s different now is that Republicans have decided they care.

For years they simply looked the other way. Take, for example, Mitt Romney, who this week called on King to resign. In 2012, during a campaign stop in Iowa, Romney sang a different tune as he urged the state’s voters to send him back to Congress. “I want him as my partner in Washington!” Romney said.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has been particularly critical of King over the past several days. But when she ran for the Senate in 2014, she happily accepted his support.

Just two years ago, when King’s comments about demographic suicide emerged, then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s response was muted. “I’d like to think that he misspoke and it wasn’t really meant the way that that sounds and hopefully he’s clarified that.” (He hadn’t).

There were calls then to censure King or strip him of his chairmanship of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Rights (irony duly noted). But they fell on deaf ears.


So on the one hand, the GOP’s move against the Iowa congressman is long overdue and to be applauded.

On the other hand, Republicans suddenly condemning King’s racism is a bit like an arsonist denouncing a tire fire.

Republicans were happy to ignore King’s unabashed white nationalism as long as it wasn’t causing political problems for them. But now King has become a liability.

He barely survived the midterm election in a district that favors Republicans. A Republican state senator has already announced his intention to challenge King in a GOP primary, and King’s continued presence in Iowa politics could become a problem for Ernst, who is up for reelection in 2020. Jettisoning King now has little political downside for Republicans and the political upside of making them look like they are actually taking racism in their midst seriously.

But condemning racism and bigotry only when it’s politically convenient to do so is not something worthy of praise. If anything, it only magnifies the moral cowardice of previously saying nothing.

If Republicans really wanted to take a stand against immigrant-bashing and xenophobia, they’d have a few choice words for the president, who is a virtual carbon copy of King, particularly when it comes to attacking immigrants.

They’d be criticizing the president for closing down the government and using racist rhetoric about dangerous undocumented immigrants to justify it. They’d be censuring Trump for his repeated prejudicial and bigoted statements toward people of color. In short, they wouldn’t be demonstrating situational morality.

But don’t hold your breath on any of the happening. It wouldn’t be in their political interest to do so.

Michael A. Cohen’s column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @speechboy71.