Fred Thompson Picks Up an Endorsement

That's popular Republican Congressman Steve King, of the Iowa-5, who yesterday, in the midst of an endorsement speech, veered suddenly away from Mitt Romney (whose people were in the room, all smiles) and unexpectedly endorsed ex-Sen. Fred Thompson in the Iowa caucuses.

An astute reporter for Radio Iowa asked Congressman King after the endorsement whether he had spontaneously made up his mind while he was speaking, and the congressman replied, "You have great intuition."

Because, see, Congressman King had not actually said anything particularly encouraging about Fred Thompson in his endorsement statement and had also said, "That candidate [I will endorse] also has to have the fire in his belly to go the distance and the brains and resources to get there." "Fire in his belly"? Definitely not Fred Thompson.

It's like Congressman King decided to stay completely out of the real battle in Iowa, the one between Mitt Romney and upstart Huckleberry, and instead throw his considerable weight behind someone who's never even been in the horserace, not by anybody's estimation.

"His considerable weight"? Congressman King is by some accounts beloved by the entire state of Iowa. He's as ultra-conservative as they come. He has a 100% rating by the National Right to Life, a zero from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a zero from the Humane Society, and a zero from Americans for the Arts (just to give you a taste of his legislative priorities). So he doesn't exactly sound like a Mitt Romney Republican to us, but this Iowa blogger, who runs the site "Iowans for Romney," was absolutely convinced that King would back Romney.

Michelle Malkin (bless her heart) thinks the sudden stampede away from Romney was because of his performance on Meet the Press, particularly his waffling on immigration.