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Inflammatory Rhetoric Does Not Belong in the House
House of Representatives - July 21, 2005

Mr. Speaker, it is hot outside, and we must cool off the rhetoric in this House.

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Mr. Speaker, it is hot outside, and we must cool off the rhetoric in this House.

We have had another bombing in London, and yet Members of this House are talking about bombing Muslim holy places. Members are quoted in the press as talking about shooting people in the press who are investigating the Karl Rove incident.

This issue is now on the front page of the Washington Post, just like Watergate was, and there is no place for that kind of inflammatory rhetoric in this House or by the membership of this House.

The Speaker should make it clear that Members have a major impact on the public when they talk in that kind of language. We do not want to be seen to encourage it or in any way say it is all right. Those kinds of things from a Member of Congress are clearly out of place.

I include for printing in the Record a story from the Editor & Publisher of a Member of Congress and what has been said in the press today. This must not continue.

Rep. King Says Russert and Others in Media Should 'Be Shot,' Not Karl Rove
Editor and Publisher Staff
Published: July 13, 2005
(Entered into the Congressional Record by Congressman McDermott)

NEW YORK From the transcript of an interview on Tuesday night on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," between host Joe Scarborough and Congressman Peter King, a Republican from New York, on the Plame case and the possible leak of the CIA agent's name by White House aide Karl Rove.

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SCARBOROUGH: The last thing you want to do at a time of war is reveal the identity of undercover CIA agents.

KING: No. Joe Wilson, she recommended—his wife recommended him for this. He said the vice president recommended him. To me, she took it off the table. Once she allowed him to go ahead and say that, write his op-ed in “The New York Times,” to have Tim Russert give him a full hour on “Meet the Press,” saying that he was sent there as a representative of the vice president, when she knew, she knew herself that she was the one that recommended him for it, she allowed that lie to go forward involving the vice president of the United States, the president of the United States, then to me she should be the last one in the world who has any right to complain.

And Joe Wilson has no right to complain. And I think people like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy such a free ride and all the media, they're the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove.

Listen, maybe Karl Rove was not perfect. We live in an imperfect world. And I give him credit for having the guts.

And I really—I tell you, Republicans are running for cover. They should be out attacking Joe Wilson. We should throw this back at them with all the nonsense that has been said about George Bush and all the lies that have come out.

SCARBOROUGH: Well...

KING: Let's at least stand by the guy. He was trying to set the record straight for historical purposes and to save American lives. And if Joe Wilson's wife was that upset, she should have come out and said that her husband was a liar, when he was.