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PETER KING


Let me preface this by saying that I have never lived in New York City. I have visited a number of times over the last few years, both for business and pleasure. I love the city. I've actually wanted to live there since I was five years old; I recall riding in a car with my family and passing by a some nameless statue somewhere in New Orleans. I made a comment about it being the Statue of Liberty and my mom corrected me saying that the Statue of Liberty was in New York and not New Orleans. Right then I knew that I had to live in a place where they had cool stuff like the Statue of Liberty.
All that being said, I may have to rethink my position given NY Rep. Peter King's comments that Baghdad is like being in Manhattan. (Think Progress has the video.)

Now, in my handful of visits to the city, I've been to Times Square, visited Central Park, walked along Fifth Avenue, seen Grand Central Station (or is it Terminal), hung around Washington Square Park, been down to the Financial District and saw Ground Zero. And not a single time during the entire time of those visits did I ever see or hear a car bomb going off. Not once did I come across a mass grave of tortured and murdered bodies. Never did I feel like I was taking my own life in my hands as I walked the streets in broad daylight. So, I'm really not sure what the hell King is talking about when he says that going through Baghdad is like being in Manhattan.

However, I'm tentatively scheduled to fly up there on business sometime in November so if I happen to see anything like what Baghdad looks like, I'll be sure the give Mr. King a call and let him know that he might be onto something and should probably not consider a job as a member of the NYC tourism board when his time in Congress is at an end.