Makes You Long for the Days of Fred Grandy

TPM reports:

GOP Rep. Steve King Is Only Vote Against Recognizing History Of Slave Labor In Capitol

Here's an interesting example of those famous lone "No" votes in Congress -- the contrarian who is willing to stand up alone against the overwhelming majority of his or her colleagues, and vote against something that was passing easily.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted 399-1 for the Capitol Visitors Center to have a plaque acknowledging the role of slave labor in the construction of the Capitol. The resolution has information in it that even this history fanatic didn't know about -- for example, slave labor was involved in constructing the "Statue of Freedom" atop the Capitol Dome.

At the time it was unclear why King would make such a stand, but INOTBB has learned the following from King spokesperson John B. Irchers, "Congressman King has grown worried over the past few weeks that he was losing his vaunted spot as the most ridiculous Republican. John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Sarah Palin--they've had too much news time of late, and then there's Michele Bachmann who is at least a St. Paul short of a Twin Cities. King is sure this vote will help cement his reputation that he prefers is not tarred."

What's more Irchers claims that Congressman King "thinks this whole thing about a few slaves is just part of what the media wants you to believe. Look, if history taught us one thing, if we only kept going with all those very much legal immigrants we wouldn't have the illegal immigration problem we have today. Heck, after they got done with the Capitol, they should have built that electric fence the Congressman's been asking for."