King, the hardest of hardliners on immigration, is the ranking Republican member of the House Immigration Subcommittee and was expected to be named chairman of the subcommittee. But he was passed over and Elton Gallegly of California was named in his stead.
King had engaged in some antics at the beginning of the year that may have angered the new House leadership, including an argument for the unconstitutionality of the health care reform plan that invoked the image of babies being tossed into garbage cans by their mothers (see video below). Gallegly is equally hardline, but a bit more in control of his rhetoric.
King told Fox News last week that the failure to appoint him as head of the subcommittee “makes a difference on the effectiveness [of the subcommittee], and it clearly does.”
King assigned responsibility for his snub to John Boehner. “The speaker holds the big gavel, and he decides who gets the other gavels,” King said. “John Boehner isn’t very aggressive on immigration,” he added.
Image courtesy of ryanjreilly via Flickr.
