HuffPo - Rep. Steve King (R) Grabs Cameraman After Questions On IRS Attack (VIDEO)

[TomCADem]

Here is another Republican getting a free pass for assaulting a reporter who asked him about the following statements with respect to the right wing terrorist attack on the IRS in Texas:

KING: []I think if we'd abolished the IRS back when I first advocated it, he wouldn't have a target for his airplane. And I'm still for abolishing the IRS, I've been for it for thirty years and I'm for a national sales tax. <...> It's sad the incident in Texas happened, but by the same token, it's an agency that is unnecessary and when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the IRS, it's going to be a happy day for America.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/steve-king-grabs-camerama_n_539967.html

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) grabbed Think Progress' Victor Zapanta Thursday at a tax day tea party rally and argued with the cameraman, after being asked to defend comments he made in February that seemed to justify a Texas man's suicide attack on the IRS.

Soon after Joe Stack, an angry software programmer, flew a plane into IRS offices in Austin, King called the Internal Revenue Service "unnecessary" and said that "it will be a happy day for all Americans" when the agency is abolished. Stack's suicide attack killed 68-year-old IRS employee Vernon Hunter.

The video, posted by Think Progress, shows Zapanta asking King to defend comments that "justified the murder of American federal employees." King, who appears to have misunderstood or ignored the basis of the question, responds by grabbing the Zapanta's arm and getting in the cameraman's face:

King: Are you accusing me of that? Are you accusing me of that? Turn that camera off. I'm not going to have those allegations. You accuse me of murder. That is despicable behavior.

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Someone please place Rep. Steve King's behavior under ethics committee

and expluse this a-hole. Thanks!

[LiberalAndProud]

2. As a retailer, it will be interesting if he gets his way.

Abolosh the IRS and let me collect, report and pay that national sales tax.

The reptilian part of my brain is picturing a Shylock-inspired hand gesture. Hmmm... Tempting. Very tempting.

What's that prayer they say ... "Lead me not into temptation" That one.

[theothersnippywshrub]

3. Who does he think would administer the national sales tax?

Any new revenue department would be larger and more intrusive administering a national sales tax than the IRS is now.

[Angry Dragon]

4. With a national sales tax the burden

would still rest on the shoulders of the ones on the bottom and they would pay more of a percentage of their income than the top.

[WCGreen]

5. It's the most regressive of all the taxes...

Which is why the Right wing loves it...