Two bigots fall

At a time when thousands are marching against racism and bigotry, two primary results help translate at least some of that passion into political action. After nine terms, Iowa Republicans finally booted America’s worst congressman, Steve King, whose career was pockmarked by a fresh anti-immigrant or racist comment every few months. The final straw came last year, where he was quoted in an interview, wondering “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”

His fellow Republicans, showing backbone they’ve displayed far too rarely when the offender is President Trump, denounced him. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy stripped King of committees assignments. Key conservative groups like the Chamber of Commerce and National Right To Life got the message — endorsing eventual winner state Sen. Randy Feenstra.

Meanwhile, frying a smaller rotten fish, New Mexico Democrats made a good call in keeping former CIA operative Valerie Plame (she who had been outed in a leak scandal during the George W. Bush administration) out of Congress. Three years ago, she retweeted an article claiming that “America’s Jews are driving America’s wars.” Bad enough as it was, Plame doubled down, bringing in the old trope about how many neocon hawks are Jewish. By the time that she conceded to missing “gross undercurrents” and failing to do her homework, it was too late.

Voters gave the nod to attorney Teresa Leger Fernandez.

Isn’t it nice when voters have the wisdom to oust their own parties’ worst elements from positions of power?