As usual, when a state race comes down to the final moments and the polls are too close to call, surrogates for the contenders will pull out all the stops. And why not? In the final 12 or 24 hours you can throw pretty much anything at the wall to see if it sticks and there won’t be time for the media to fully tear it apart before people are already on their way to work or to the polls. I have to wonder if there isn’t an element of that syndrome in play with Iowa GOP congressman and party power broker Steve King. He’s pushing for a Cruz victory, but with the last polls showing Trump with the possible upper hand, King started dropping some hints of scandal and skulduggery. Specifically, he seems to be more than implying that some of The Donald’s endorsements came with more than just strings attached. Kerry Picket reports for the Daily Caller.

Rep. Steve King , an Iowa Republican and Ted Cruz supporter, says Donald Trump bought his endorsements. Trump recently received high profile endorsements from Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and Liberty University president Jerry Falwell, Jr.

King reiterated his statement about the endorsements to the Daily Caller on Saturday during a Cruz rally at the Gateway Hotel and stressed that he “knows things.”

“He has, from a regular person’s perspective, unlimited resources and he’s willing to use whatever access he has in order to get the endorsements that he wants,” King explained.

This is the same thing that King was saying to Politico last week, but there are no more details offered now than the first time. The timing and other references seem to imply that he might be talking about either Falwell, Arpaio or Palin, but honestly… how likely does that sound to anyone? The idea that Falwell needs his cash – or Palin for that matter – is a stretch to say the least. Does Joe Arpaio really need his own reality show? (And I think Sarah Palin has already demonstrated that she can have her own show whenever she wants.) So who else could King be talking about?

Also, if you “know things” about somebody then one would assume that you have some evidence to back it up. If there were something on paper or a person in a position to know who was willing to talk, wouldn’t you put that out on the table when you make the charge? Nothing about this passes the smell test. Perhaps the most curious aspect of this accusation is that it doesn’t really throw much of a dagger at Trump. He’s a rich guy who does a lot of deals and if he wound up getting an endorsement from somebody who had profited from their engagement with him that wouldn’t exactly be headline news. What Steve King is really doing here is casting aspersions at all of the people who offer the endorsements because such a deal would put their credibility on the line, implying that their support and beliefs were on sale to the highest bidder.

If this gains any traction at all during the closing hours I’ll be quite surprised. Rumors and innuendo with no sources cited, along with tarring the names of several prominent conservatives is all it adds up to. I smell something cooking on the grill here and it’s got the scent of desperation to it. The guy may be trying to help out Cruz, but this doesn’t seem like the way to do it.