My take on the Peter King hearings:

People shouldn’t pretend that there are no problems at all with radicalization among Muslims — clearly, we need to be aware of the extent, and do what we can to defuse it and deal with its causes, while preventing attacks from any fanatics who are already too far gone.

But by focusing exclusively on Muslims, King’s agenda also became very clear. Islam has become one of the GOP’s scariest demons with which to frighten the public, and that was the original motive behind this debacle. It was watered down quite a bit after the criticism started; I’m sure if people hadn’t screamed, Robert Spencer, Frank Gaffney, Brigitte Gabriel, and maybe even Pamela Geller would have been called to testify, and then it would have turned into a real circus.

If the Republicans had widened the scope and included other extremists, like the neo-Nazi who tried to bomb the Spokane MLK parade, or the anti-choice fanatic who murdered Dr. Tiller, or the numerous “Patriot” movement organizations, or the racist hate groups like the Council of Conservative Citizens, it would have been harder to criticize them for the evident bigotry of targeting one highly visible, already highly demonized group.