Dana Milbank: Rep. King's Red Scare
[Dana Milbank is an op-ed columnist for the WaPo.]
Peter King staged his investigation into the loyalty of Muslim Americans in an appropriate place: a hearing room once used by the House Un-American Activities Committee....
The New York Republican was eager to avoid the Red Scare taint, and he allowed the 84-year-old dean of the House, Democrat John Dingell of Michigan, to open the session with wisdom learned during his time as a chairman. “I kept a picture of Joe McCarthy hanging on the wall so that I would know what it was I did not want to look like,” Dingell said, cautioning the committee not to “blot the good name or the loyalty” of Arabs or Muslims.
But the ghost of Tail-Gunner Joe would not be denied. It found a host in the body of freshman Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), who asked Los Angeles Sheriff Leroy Baca, a witness, about his work with a large Muslim group called CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations....
I’m no fan of CAIR, which was one of about 300 unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist finance case of 2007. But the FBI doesn’t call CAIR a terrorist group. Nor does it allege that CAIR was founded or financed by Hamas. In America, if somebody has committed a crime, even somebody unpopular, we bring charges. We don’t float Internet rumors at a congressional hearing.
Happily, King won’t become another Joe McCarthy. This time, the opposition has no fear. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a Muslim, sobbed as he testified about a Muslim American who died as a first responder on Sept. 11, 2001; King looked away. It could not have been any more comfortable as King and his white Republican colleagues listened to Democrats — most of them black or Latino — speak up for another minority. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Tex.) theatrically waved a copy of the Constitution and proclaimed: “This breathing document is in pain!”...
Read entire article at WaPo
Peter King staged his investigation into the loyalty of Muslim Americans in an appropriate place: a hearing room once used by the House Un-American Activities Committee....
The New York Republican was eager to avoid the Red Scare taint, and he allowed the 84-year-old dean of the House, Democrat John Dingell of Michigan, to open the session with wisdom learned during his time as a chairman. “I kept a picture of Joe McCarthy hanging on the wall so that I would know what it was I did not want to look like,” Dingell said, cautioning the committee not to “blot the good name or the loyalty” of Arabs or Muslims.
But the ghost of Tail-Gunner Joe would not be denied. It found a host in the body of freshman Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), who asked Los Angeles Sheriff Leroy Baca, a witness, about his work with a large Muslim group called CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations....
I’m no fan of CAIR, which was one of about 300 unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist finance case of 2007. But the FBI doesn’t call CAIR a terrorist group. Nor does it allege that CAIR was founded or financed by Hamas. In America, if somebody has committed a crime, even somebody unpopular, we bring charges. We don’t float Internet rumors at a congressional hearing.
Happily, King won’t become another Joe McCarthy. This time, the opposition has no fear. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a Muslim, sobbed as he testified about a Muslim American who died as a first responder on Sept. 11, 2001; King looked away. It could not have been any more comfortable as King and his white Republican colleagues listened to Democrats — most of them black or Latino — speak up for another minority. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Tex.) theatrically waved a copy of the Constitution and proclaimed: “This breathing document is in pain!”...