Peter King’s self-righteous ‘bloviations’

U.S. Rep. Peter King’s controversial House hearing on radical Islam went off Thursday as expected—and it was followed by a pretty knee-jerk story from The Washington Post and Slate wondering where CAIR was.

The New York Times also wrote an editorial blasting King, and particularly taking aim at his self-righteousness. It’s not often you see religion in an NYT editorial, though I guess when it involves issues of Islamic terrorism the line between religion and politics is really difficult to see. And that’s part of the problem.

The Times opined:

Instead the New York Republican offered fresh variations on his sound and fury — first taking care to praise the “vast majority” of Muslim Americans, then impugning their patriotism in archly demanding, “moderate leadership must emerge from the Muslim community.”

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By the end of hearing, Mr. King was claiming personal courage in defying “political correctness.” There is nothing courageous about pandering or sowing hatred and fear.

The only good news is that Congressman King’s main success was how he punctured his own bloviations. This is small comfort to patriotic Muslim Americans, whom Mr. King unfortunately is promising to further bedevil at more hearings.