I've been searching for a word that describes what I think our candidates, both political parties and all of America should do about Rep. Steve King and his despicable claim that Al Qaeda will dance in the streets if Barack Obama is elected President and withdraws from Iraq.

What I've come up with is rebuke.  To me, rebuke is stronger and more personal than reject or denounce.  A rebuke is something that is done man to man, and it implies a right to chastise the guilty party.  We the people do have that right.

I belong to a school of thought that holds that the first person who sees a snake kills it.  And, in Steve King's words, I see the snake of a latter day McCarthyism slithering out of the hole we drove it into fifty years ago.  So, although I know my boots aren't big enough and my words will not be eloquent and persuasive enough, I am going to step on this snake's head, hoping better men will  step up too and kill it.

Joseph McCarthy exploited America's fear of Communism and the spectre of communist infiltration and espionage in America in the 1950s.  His rise coincided with Mao Zedong taking control of mainland China, the Korean war, the conviction of Alger Hiss for perjury in a spy investigation, and the arrest and execution of the Rosenbergs for stealing atomic secrets.  It was a time when America felt under attack, and when the Democratic Party was accused of "losing China."  McCarthy, who launched his persecution of intellectuals, labor leaders and anyone who could be associated however tenuously with  Communism in an address to a women's club in West Virginia, was finally stopped by the combined efforts of the Press, including Edward R. Murrow, the Congress, and, finally, the President of the United States, after destroying hundreds of lives.

And now we are under attack again.  Once again, an important part of the world -- this time the Middle East -- is being contested.  The Republican candidate and demogouges like King are accusing the Democratic Party and our candidates of being the party and candidates of surrender.  If we win the election and redeploy our forces from Iraq, if Iraq falls further under the Iranian sphere of influence, if terrorists are emboldened to attack us and Israel even more viciously, we are certain to be called the Party who "lost the Middle East."  And the Republicans and their stooges will do that no matter which of our candidates is elected, because both of them are committed to finding a way out of Iraq.

Mr. King's attack on Senator Obama is despicable.  Not only because it uses his race and his name against him, but because it attempts to make Senator Obama a friend of terrorists instead of what he is:  Their implacable foe. 

There well may be dancing in the streets in the Middle East if America withdraws from Iraq.  But there will be dancing no matter who the American President is who ends the occupation of Iraq.  And there will be dancing in the streets of America as well.

Mr. Obama has not infiltrated the United States Senate or the race for President.  He has, along with Senator Clinton, been propelled openly to a position of leadership in his Party by the will of millions of Americans.

On behalf of those millions of Americans, I rebuke you, Steve King.