Rep. Steve King takes to the pages of the National Review, ostensibly to deride Rep. Mike Pence’s attempt to reach a compromise on immigration reform – but chooses to do so by bizarrely claiming that Pence, just like Odysseus, needs to be lashed to the right-wing mast in order to prevent such madness
The Pence plan is a siren song, even more dangerous than the Senate bill, because it threatens to lure Lifeboat America onto the rocks to be sunk in the hazardous Sea of Presumption. No matter how promising the placid waters look, how enchanting the melody of enforcement sounds, or how luring the lyrics for legalizing cheap labor may seem, the result will be tens of millions of aliens pouring across our borders, both newly legalized and illegal … Odysseus escaped the powerful temptation of the siren song only because his sailors, out of respect and affection for their captain, tied him to the mast. He thrashed about and called on his crew to untie him, but they refused until they had sailed past the temptation. Mike, Lifeboat America’s passengers and crew have to strap you to the mast as we chart this course through the rocky waters of the immigration debate.
Of course, in Homer’s version, Odysseus had himself bound to the mast; King has a less voluntary plan in mind for Pence.
