Steve King Still Stands by "Cantaloupe" Comments If the Republican Party is split between those who support immigration reform, and those who don't, it is also split between those who realize the necessity, for their brand, of speaking sensitively and sensibly about the topic - and those who don't. Rep. Steve King, Republican of Iowa, falls into the latter category. In July he made the ridiculous, now notorious claim that for every child of illegal immigrants "who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert." House Speaker John Boehner reprimanded Mr. King, calling his comments "deeply offensive and wrong." But Mr. King still stands by his 100-to-1 claim. On Meet the Press on Sunday he said: "My numbers have not been debunked. I said valedictorians compared to people who would be legalized under the act that are drug smugglers coming across the border. The "debunking" remark was cute - as if immigration experts were going to waste their time tallying up valedictorians versus drug smugglers in order to disprove an obviously preposterous ratio, which Mr. King obviously pulled out of thin air. That would be as futile as explaining to Mr. King how marijuana enters the market (hint: 75 pounds is a whole lot to drag across the desert, even if you have calves the size of cantaloupes). Such inflammatory comments confirm voters" worst suspicions about the Republican Party - that it's the "stupid" party (as Bobby Jindal once put it), that it's the uncaring party, that it's the party of white America.