House Republicans have taken a decent share of ridicule over their cinematic motivational rituals, but now, they’re even taking friendly fire over their use of the film Braveheart‘s central character, William Wallace, to get pumped about the payroll tax cut fight. In an interview with Fox Business’s Connell McShane, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said he was in the Braveheart meeting, and was thinking “Mel Gibson was also in Gallipoli, which was one of the worst military defeats ever.”

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) appeared as a guest on OutFront Tuesday night, and he took the occasion to destroy Newt Gingrich as a self-centered egomaniac who will cause more problems than he will solve if he’s elected President. King pulled no punches, saying that Gingrich, “does not have the capacity to control himself,” and charging him with an inability to stay focused.

Adding to the growing chorus of Republicans publicly denouncing the Occupy Wall Street protests, Congressman Peter King referred to the protesters as “anarchists” yesterday, comparing them to similar left-wing demonstrations of the 1960s. King was speaking on the Laura Ingraham Show.

Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee raised some eyebrows today at Republican Congressman Peter King’s Muslim Radicalization hearings. While King and the other members of the House Committee were focused on the threat of the potential radicalization of American Muslims, Jackson Lee thought other groups were just as dangerous and should be included in the Committee’s investigation.

New York state Rep. and Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security Peter King has called on the FBI to launch an investigation into whether Rupert Murdoch‘s now-defunct New of the World hacked into the phones of 9/11 victims. In a letter addressed to FBI Director Robert Mueller, King, a Republican, wrote, given the district he represents lost over 150 constituents during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, it is his “duty to discern every fact behind these allegations.”

Republican Congressman Peter King appeared on Fox & Friends and very heavily talked up the prospect that former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was going to enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination. The fact that Rudy would run again often seemed like a far-fetched rumor, but with the Republicans apparently eager for someone to add excitement to their primary contest, this could explain why King says “as of this moment [Rudy's] very much inclined to run.

Proof that today was a special day for the nation to come together can be seen with one of the guests Chris Matthews interviewed on Hardball. Republican Congressman from New York Peter King appeared on the show to discuss President Obama‘s success in capturing and killing Osama bin Laden, which was somewhat surprising given that Matthews in the past repeatedly described King’s hearings on Muslim extremism as “show trials” and “appalling.”

It didn’t take a genius to know that, once it was revealed that detainee intel was used in the successful hunt for Osama bin Laden, the question of waterboarding would come up, or that both sides of the torture debate would eagerly await vindication of their viewpoint. Yet, from the sounds of the responses given by several Obama administration officials, you would think they anticipated never being asked this question.

One of many secondary headlines that has come from this weekend’s stunning capture and killing of al Qaeda chief of Osama bin Laden is whether or not waterboarding led to actionable intelligence that led U.S. forces to his location in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Last night, Rep. Peter King made some news when he claimed to Bill O’Reilly that waterboarding did in fact lead to crucial information, but during an appearance on Morning Joe earlier today, White House Counterterrorism Chief John Brennan somewhat countered that claim, saying he had no knowledge of the use of that technique.

Earlier today word surfaced that critical information that led to the attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound came from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Others, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, hinted that some interrogation techniques at Gitmo may have contributed to the successful capture of bin Laden. During tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, guest Rep. Peter King (R-NY) claimed to host Bill O’Reilly that the information that led to bin Laden’s death came as a result of waterboarding.

It’s unclear whether this was a botched remake of the famous Godfather scene or a botched remake of the famous Rahm Emanuel story, but Rep. Peter King received a strange package today: a bloody pig’s foot, possibly in protest of his recent calls for investigating Muslim groups for involvement in terror.

The emotion shown by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) at Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) Muslim radicalization hearings garnered much attention, and we have a feeling Ellison’s appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight will get its share of play as well. Maher and Ellison had an interesting conversation about Islam (Ellison converted in college) – but perhaps most interesting were the harsh words Maher had for the radical element of Islam…an opinion he had no problem sharing to Ellison’s face (or the screen it was on, anyway).

Rep. Peter King is getting a lot of attention for the controversial hearings he led yesterday that focused on the radicalization of American hearings and not all of it is good. On Wednedsay, Jon Stewart pointed out that while King is staunchly opposed to terrorism of the Muslim variety, it appears that he’s actually supported the Irish type (aka the I.R.A.) Last night, Stewart doubled down on his critique of Kings apparent hypocrisy, calling out the Long Island based congressman to hilarious effect.

Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) congressional hearings on radical Muslims in America have sparked a good deal of controversy, and a lot of compelling video. The latest example is an Andrea Mitchell clip that’s zipping around the conservative blogosphere with headlines like “MSNBC‘s Andrea Mitchell ’You and I Are Both White‘ We Don’t Get This Whole Getting Offended Thing Like Muslims Do.”

All this week, there was growing opposition to the Muslim radicalization hearings led by Republican Congressman Peter King. In case you missed it, here are just some examples of criticism in the media from Jon Stewart, The New York Times, Chris Matthews, Cenk Uygur and Donny Deutsch. Well now that the first day of hearings is complete, King has a message for the media.

While they may not make us any safer, Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) congressional hearings on radical Muslims in America are already providing compelling video, with the promise of more to come. Case in point: this clip of Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) saying “I haven’t heard any member of our committee say there’s too many mosques,” only to be reminded by King that the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, actually did say just that. What are the odds?

Rep. Peter King‘s hearings on radical Muslims has been a controversial subject across the political spectrum. King argues the importance of looking into any efforts made by Al Qaeda to recruit U.S. citizens. Critics sees this singling out as leading to more ill-will towards the US by the Muslim world, and an examination of extremism should include all groups. But Rep. Keith Ellison (D-NY), who is also a practicing Muslim, added a thoughtful perspective with an emotional testimony about a Muslim first responder who lost his life on 9/11.

Republican Congressman Peter King begins his hearings today investigating the potential radicalization of Muslim Americans, but the Morning Joe panel is split on whether they should be taking place at all. In one corner is Donny Deutsch who thinks the hearings are “scary” and demonstrates the “extremism” of the Republican party and in the other corner is Pat Buchanan arguing the hearings are legitimate and any criticism should come only if and when the hearings are conducted in an unjust manner.

Criticism continues of Republican Congressman Peter King‘s efforts to hold congressional hearings on the potential radicalization of Muslim Americans. First Jon Stewart noticed King’s past sympathies for a different type of terrorist organization and The New York Times dug deeper into King’s potentially hypocritcal background with the I.R.A. Now Chris Matthews is piling on too, calling King’s “show trials” of Muslim Americans “appalling.”

Republican Congressman Peter King not only refuses to back down from holding congressional hearings on the radicalization of Muslim Americans, but he also isn’t afraid to stand up to claims that his past sympathies for the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.) make him a hypocrite. King tells The New York Times he does not regret his past pro-I.R.A. statements.

Jon Stewart discussed Republican Congressman Peter King‘s efforts to hold hearings on the alleged “radicalization” of Muslim Americans. In doing so, Stewart unearthed some past footage of King and suggested King might want to think twice about targeting people who might have any association with terrorist organizations.

Republican Congressman Peter King is hearing opposition from many liberal groups regarding his plans to hold hearing in Congress on the “radicalization” of Muslim Americans and admits he even is receiving many hostile phone calls and death threats. However, King told Megyn Kelly today that he is not at all intimidated by the harassment and has no intention of backing down.

It’s a cliche in American politics to attack the other side with some variation of “you can’t handle the truth,” but sometimes it’s hard to find any other way to describe moments when prepackaged political views and hard data collide. MSNBC host Cenk Uygur had one such moment today as he appeared to refuse to read data on a chart by his guest’s institution that showed black separatists groups were in the top three kinds of hate groups in America today.

New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg called lawmakers on the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition together for a City Hall meeting to discuss the Arizona shooting that left six dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords recovering from a bullet to the head. Among the issues discussed was gun control, a topic which inspired an impassioned speech from the Mayor on what, exactly, we should be taking away from the weekend’s events.

On Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor last night, host Bill O’Reilly told senior political analyst Brit Hume that, in his opinion, New York Representative Peter King holds more power in the Republican party than incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner. More like the O Rly Factor, amiright?