Peter King

On Monday's Today show, NBC's Matt Lauer downplayed the criminal factor in the release of hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic communiques by WikiLeaks, twice labeling the website as only a "messenger" for the documents. Both Lauer and NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell insisted the State Department "crossed a line" by ordering diplomats to spy on foreign diplomats at the United Nations.

The NBC anchor interviewed Republican Congressman Peter King seven minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour on this latest release of confidential documents by WikiLeaks. Midway through the segment, Lauer raised the espionage issue: "Were you surprised to hear that Secretary of State Clinton and her predecessor, Secretary of State Rice, asked their diplomats to, in effect, spy on diplomats at the United Nations, asking for things like credit card numbers, computer passwords, DNA, fingerprints? This does cross a line, doesn't it?"

NBC's Meredith Vieira, on Thursday's Today show, invited on New York Republican Congressman Peter King and CAIR's Zead Ramadan to discuss the potential burning of Korans by Pastor Terry Jones and the furor over the Ground Zero mosque, but it was only King that was pressed by the Today anchor, as Vieira let Ramadan go unchallenged even when he equated opposition to the mosque to internment of  Japanese-Americans in World War II and even slavery.

First up, Vieira, after playing a clip of Feisal Abdul-Rauf, recited the Imam's concerns to King that if he moved the location of the mosque now it "would just be fueling the radicals" to which the New York Congressman shot back that "he seems to be equating the 71 percent of Americans who oppose this as being radicals." Then Vieira let CAIR's Ramadan go on, uninterrupted, as he proceeded to compare the protest surrounding the Ground Zero mosque to some of America's worst moments of intolerance as he went on to say: "The issue with the public sentiment is that when an issue is related to bigotry, unfortunately our history has shown that sometimes we're on the wrong side. For example we interred Japanese during World War II, we segregated our military, our schools, and it took on Executive Order to undo that. And we also enslaved our fellow Americans. So I mean when it comes to bigotry we've got to be careful about the public sentiment." [audio available here]

The following is the full segment as it was aired on the September 9 Today show:

Good Morning America's Dan Harris on Monday highlighted the worry that the proposed Ground Zero mosque could bring a "rising tide of Islamophobia in the country, with increasingly venomous fights over proposed new mosques in places like California, Wisconsin and Tennessee." [MP3 audio here.] 

He repeated the argument of the mosque's proponents, saying, "Defenders point out that also close to Ground Zero are two strip clubs, an adult/lingerie store and an off-track betting parlor."

Love him or hate him as a "conservative," MSNBC host Joe Scarborough just showed he hasn't been completely brainwashed at his network. On his Aug. 11 program, Scarborough demonstrated just how thin the veil is over the parlor tricks going on with in the U.S. House of Representatives controlled by Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

At the center of this was the back-and-forth between Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., over Sept. 11 responders compensation legislation. Their disagreement has been well documented dating back to Weiner's late-July outburst on the House floor accusing House Republicans of playing politics with this legislation. The two had one more dust-up on Fox News a day later, but since then it has been a he-said, he-said situation.

Weiner alleges this was a non-controversial bill that should have been passed easily with a two-thirds vote. King argues the Democratic House leadership could have offered it up and it would have passed with a simple majority. But there were some issues with offering the bill up under normal House procedure with the Hispanic Caucus.

Video and Partial Transcript Below Fold

CNN's Ali Velshi on Friday stopped Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) from divulging the name of the terrorist who tried to set off a bomb as a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam began to land in Detroit.

Velshi did this claiming, "[W]e have not got any information on anyone being charged. So thank you for bringing us information. But would ask you not to name anybody on TV right now, we do not have any word of official charges."

By this time, other news outlets including the Associated Press, CBS, and Fox News had given the suspect's name, Abdul Mudallad.

For some reason, Velshi twice asked King not to say it (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Steve Malzberg):

Filling in for Bob Schieffer on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, host Harry Smith helped finish the sentences of ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, while grilling New York Republican Congressman Peter King during a discussion on recent national security decisions by the Obama administration.

Smith began by asking Romero about the Obama administration’s decision to reinstate military tribunals for terror suspects: "The headlines from this -- no evidence admitted gained from harsh interrogation techniques. Hearsay, some hearsay will be admissible in court. To you, Anthony Romero, is there any good news in this?" Romero replied: "First, by continuing with the Bush military commissions, we are going to delay justice. It will take years before we see justice in these commissions." Smith helped to bolster the point: "Because, one, there’s -- already they said at least hundred and twenty days before this can go on."

Romero went on:

Perhaps it was her attack on his NBC "Football Night In America" colleague Keith Olbermann that spurred this reaction. But, for whatever reason, Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King dedicated a paragraph to conservative heroine Ann Coulter in the unlikeliest of places.

King, without citing the specific instance, aimed his attack at Coulter in his March 16 "Monday Morning QB" Sports Illustrated.com column. It made No. 10, Section b in the article headline "Ten Things I Think I Think."

In the Palin Derangement Syndrome parade, this one has to be at or near the front.

It comes courtesy of tax scofflaw, financial-disclosure report fudger, rent-controlled apartment hoarder -- Harlem's one, and only, Charles Rangel (D-NY). When asked Friday why Democrats are so afraid of Sarah Palin and her popularity, he answered:

You got to be kind to the disabled.

It's on video here at Breitbart (HT Palinmania via Maggie Thurber).

Here's the related report from CBS2 in New York (note that this is not a transcript of the video report; the full vid has reax from Congressman Peter King of New York, a spokesman for the disabled who points out that FDR was "disabled," and the McCain campaign):

As NewsBuster Justin McCarthy reported Monday, "View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg, who grew up during the "Jim Crow" era, actually said that America is "not as free as it was when [she] was a kid."

A few hours after this aired, Congressman Peter King (R) of New York was Steve Malzberg's guest on WOR radio.

Malzberg read Whoopi's comments to King, who responded by first saying, "They are absolutely insane these people," and then explained how they "reflect that hardcore base which is driving the Democratic Party, and which is causing otherwise fairly responsible politicians in the Democratic Party to do really wrong things, and to act totally irresponsibly" (audio available here with relevant section beginning at 8:30, partial transcript follows):