Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) may be staff-sharing, Obamacare-repealing BFF's in the House of Representatives, but does that ensure that Bachmann will receive King's endorsement in the run-up to next year's Iowa caucuses? Conventional wisdom suggests that it's a done deal. Just last month, the Sioux City Journal's Christopher Rants called the pair "foxhole buddies" and opined, "I can't imagine him not putting his organization to work for her."
But what does King have to say when he's put on the spot? Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson reports:
“You can take the best raw material, the person that’s got the best talented gifts to be president of the United States and pluck them out of whatever walk in life it might be and put them in the Oval Office and they would not be near the president for us that they will be once they go through this crucible of the nominating and the election process,” King says.
Translate that thought-salad back into English, and it seems that King's primary criteria for a candidate he'll support is one who will show up and make a big retail-politics push in the Hawkeye State? So, let's think: Romney's not coming, Huntsman's not coming, and Gingrich has a skeleton staff at best in Iowa. Meanwhile, Tim Pawlenty is now "downplaying the importance of the Iowa caucuses." That leaves Bachmann, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul, and while all three have appeared on the stump with King (and Paul has invested heavily in winning the upcoming Ames Straw Poll), there's only one person on that list who can realistically be described as King's "foxhole buddy."
As Henderson reports, King's likely to stay mum until the Ames Straw Poll is over and done with, and he seems to enjoy biding his time -- he didn't make an endorsement last cycle until "a couple of weeks before the 2008 Iowa Caucuses." Those of you who are wondering how important King's endorsement is should bear in mind that the recipient of this honor in 2008 was Fred Thompson.
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