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Rep. Peter King (R-NY) appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room Monday afternoon and when Wolf Blitzer asked him to explain his statement that compared Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to a “carnival barker,” the Republican congressman opted not to walk back his comments but instead take about a dozen steps forward. “We need intelligent debate in the country. Ted Cruz may be an intelligent person, but he doesn’t carry out an intelligent debate,” King said. “He oversimplifies, he exaggerates and he basically led the Republican Party over the cliff in the fall of 2013. He has shown no qualifications, no legislation...

Appearing on MSNBC on Friday, Congressman Peter King continued his epic verbal assault on Ted Cruz — and, to a lesser extent, Rand Paul — by describing the Texas Senator as a “RINO” (Republican in name only) and a “fraud.” Speaking with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, King called the ongoing government shutdown “the strategy of Ted Cruz” and wondered aloud “why more Republicans around the country didn’t join me in denouncing Ted Cruz” before the shutdown began. “We cannot allow our party to be taken over by the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul,” King continued, describing Cruz and Paul...

Rep. Peter King (N.Y.) would support a discharge petition on a "clean" spending bill if GOP leaders don't bring it to the floor soon, the centrist Republican vowed this week. King has long-pushed Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to take up the Senate-passed continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government. But he has refused to buck leadership further by endorsing the Democrats' discharge petition, which would force a floor vote on the bill. Until Friday. "If we have to do a discharge petition, ultimately, we will, but this is going to come [to the floor]," King said in an interview with...

WASHINGTON - Taking on one of the United States’ most prominent Israel critics Wednesday, Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican who is mulling a presidential run, defended the special relationship with Israel as essential for U.S. security. The sparring came when, at a Homeland Security Committee hearing on the threat posed by Somali al-Qaida affiliate Al Shabaab, former CIA al-Qaida analyst Michael Scheuer said that al-Qaida would leave the U.S. alone if they were to abandon their alliance with Israel. “If it was up to me I’d dump the Israelis tomorrow,” Scheuer said. “All I worry about is the...

Staunch GOP conservative Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) doubts that Sarah Palin will be able to resurrect her political career after calling it quits as governor of Alaska. King says he was saddened by the news that Palin, "a star" of the party, gave up the job because he doesn't see how she can continue "her political career on the path ... it was going." "I don’t know of anyone who has successfully and voluntarily pulled themselves out of political office and been able to leverage that into more political success," King said in an interview with The Hill on Monday....

PRESCOTT - U.S. Sen. John McCain denounced the escalation of Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip Monday, but added that he has seen Israel's residents running to shelters to escape border violence, too. "If we were being shelled from across our border, the American people would have demanded action," McCain said during an interview with The Daily Courier's editorial board Monday. Israel started launching air strikes on the Gaza Saturday after a week of intense Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza broke a cease-fire. Reports say more than 360 Palestinians have died. Some international leaders are calling for a cease-fire.

Clinton has been phoning pals with pieces of prose. Friends of Bill Clinton better start screening their calls. The former President is feeling chatty. For weeks, Clinton has been holed up in his Chappaqua home as he and Knopf editor Robert Gottlieb saw and chisel the 900-page autobiography titled "My Life." The book is apparently going through its final buffing this week, and the former Oval Officer has been reaching out to pals to give them tastes of his prose. They never know when he'll strike. Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.) was sound asleep at 6:30 a.m. this week when the...