If it wasn't obvious already, the black sheep of Iowa's congressional delegation has to be Congressman Steve King. The man has been an embarrassment as the Representative for Iowa's fifth district since being elected in 2003.

In case you're unfamiliar, this is a guy who stated in 2004 that the Abu Ghraib torture and prison abuse "amounts to hazing".

Who in 2006 said that his wife is at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington DC than an average civilian in Iraq.

Who in 2007 tried to amend a State and Foreign Operations bill to restrict the travel of the Speaker of the House, but couldn't answer why the measure didn't apply to Republican colleagues who made similar trips.

Most recently, he's the moron who said that al-Qaida and radical Islamists would be dancing in the streets if Barack Obama was elected President, that Senator Obama's middle name is relevant because it has special meaning to the terrorists, and that Senator Obama will be viewed as a savior to them if elected.

Congressman King was at it again on Friday, this time taking aim at our service men and women and their spouses. The Des Moines Register wrote last week about a law that makes widows automatically face deportation if their U.S. citizen spouse dies less than two years after their marriage. This has caused heartbreak and hardship for many widows who came to the United States legally:

Anca Braniste left her native Romania in 2005 for love and marriage in the United States.

Three years later, she is...in immigration limbo. Braniste is facing deportation because her husband -- a dentist and a U.S. citizen of Romanian descent -- died just four months after their wedding.

Thankfully a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to ease the law. And naturally, Crazy Steve King, who was kind (AKA, delusional) enough in 2006 to bring to light the baseless claim that illegal immigrants are committing sex crimes against "eight little girls" a day as part of a "slow-motion terrorist attack," opposes the law.

Congressman King would rather have a cap on LEGAL immigration and more protections to ensure the good moral character of immigrant spouses before allowing them to come to the United States...

You read that correctly.

Why? Because evidently soldiers are immoral alcoholic scoundrels who in their spare time stumble around foreign nations getting drunk and getting married. I'll let Congressman King explain:

"A soldier, man or woman, could get drunk in Bangkok, wake up in the morning and be married, as will happen sometimes in places like Las Vegas or Bangkok, be killed the next day, and the spouse who was a product of the evening's celebration would have then a right to claim access to come to the United States on a green card," King said.

Congressman King's approach to this bill is completely idiotic and offensive to every man and woman who has served in the military. To make the blanket claim that every marriage between citizens and foreign nationals is fraudulent and the product of one too many long island ice teas would demonstrate a level of competence not befitting of a member of Congress.

Not to mention the law he opposes would allow for the United States to view these marriages on a case by case basis to separate the truly fraudulent from the truly loving.

Douglas Burns in his commentary on Congressman King on Iowa Independent really hits the nail on the head:

There are thousands of mixed-race military families that are beautiful unions, brimming with the family values King's crowd espouses. To suggest that our military men don't have the character to connect with foreigners in a meaningful, loving way is demeaning. King's also saying our soldiers don't have much self-restraint or self-respect.

If King trusts our servicepeople to do his fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan then surely they ought to be able to avoid unwanted marriages in Bangkok.

Congressman King is nothing more than a hypocritical right wing ideologue, stubborn in his views on what an American family should be, unyielding in his blatantly xenophobic views on immigration, and a true buffoon whenever he is asked to open his mouth and give an opinion about something.

Rob Hubler is running against Steve King to represent Iowa's Fifth District, and while I'm not a resident in the district I am tempted to do whatever I can to take the microphone out of Congressman King's hand.