He’s a good congressman. A solid, conservative congressman, and the senior member of New York’s Republican delegation. He’s chairman of the Homeland Security Subcomittee. He has a big, big job.
And he’s a mystery novelist, maybe not John le Carré, but a published author nonetheless. How many members of Congress can boast that?
So why does the Long Island congressman insist on diminishing his reputation by feigning a run for higher office every year? Every single year.
Today we read that he’s floating a presidential bid. I hate to be unkind — King is a leader in my Party and a fellow Notre Dame alumnus to my father and brother — but the words “get real” spring immediately and forcefully to mind. The idea is preposterous. It is a lie.
Pete King is in no way, shape, or form running for President, nor is he presidential material. He is a good congressman. He may have once been able to achieve higher office, had he actually tried and not just talked about it.
Last year King was running against Kirsten Gillibrand for U.S. Senate, except he wasn’t. Before that he was running against Hillary Clinton for Senate. Except he wasn’t. He was running against Chuck Schumer before that. But he didn’t. He was running for governor at least twice. But he skipped both runs. I think he talked up runs for Attorney General — it’s difficult to keep track — but, if he did, he skipped those, too. There were other feigns, too, I’m sure.
I am flummoxed by King’s trial balloon habit. You can float your name for higher office only so many times before your credibility is shattered, and King’s was shattered several cycles ago. He is a political pro. How can he not know that?
Suggesting a presidential run now is utterly insulting to the intelligence of the voters and news media.
Pete King has to stop it. For his own good.
Dang. Now I’ve got to reassign my vote.