House Speaker John Boehner says Steve King's racist attack on immigrants was "hateful," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says it was "inexcusable," and even conservative firebrand Rep. Trey Growdy says King is outside the GOP mainstream. But as Benjy Sarlin
points out:
Just one month ago, King introduced an amendment to halt a decision by President Obama to defer deportations for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children. Immigrant advocacy groups universally condemned the proposal. But far from dismissing King as an irrelevant gadfly on the issue, the House GOP lined up behind him. All but six Republicans voted for the amendment, which passed on a 224-201 vote. Among the “ayes”: Cantor and Gowdy.
And despite the fact that the Senate-passed immigration reform bill would pass the House if it were allowed to come up for a vote, House GOP leadership refuses to bring it to the floor because it isn't supported by a majority of Republicans.
The bottom-line is that while Republicans are talking a good game about how bad King's words were, when it comes to substance, they have yet to show any daylight between themselves and King. And, at the end of the day, the policy substance is what really matters. Boehner can criticize King's rhetoric all he wants, but if Republicans vote in lockstep with King, then what meaningful difference is there between them and him?