Seaford Republican Peter King is no stranger to defending people in trouble.
The congressman, now in his seventh term, stood with former President Bill Clinton against a GOP-led impeachment drive and now backs House Majority Leader Tom DeLay despite calls that he resign over alleged ethical lapses.
Now King is rushing to the defense of presidential adviser Karl Rove, who is at the center of a controversy about the release of a CIA agent's identity.
"Pete King is no longer a moderate. He's now an extreme partisan who defends the indefensible simply because they are Republican," Suffolk Legis. David Bishop (D-West Babylon) said Friday. "I guess he's tough on crime unless he knows the guys."
Unfazed by criticism, King says he's just being consistent.
"When a person is being unfairly targeted, I'll defend them, no matter what side of the aisle they're on," King said.
Instead of Rove, King says, the crosshairs ought to be set on the news media, which weren't tough enough on former Ambassador Joe Wilson, the husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. Wilson has criticized Bush administration claims that Iraq attempted to obtain nuclear material from Niger.
"And I think people like Tim Russert [host of NBC's "Meet the Press"] and the others who gave this guy such a free ride, and all the media, they're the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove," King said Tuesday on MSNBC.
The congressman said he was making a literary allusion to Sophocles and Shakespeare about not shooting the messenger.
"Karl Rove is the messenger," King said. "He did nothing wrong in telling the truth that Joe Wilson's wife was in the CIA.