Republicans raising this story to attack Conlin

The Iowa GOP will be attacking Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Roxanne Conlin with this story about lawyers making out quite well in this class-action lawsuit against Microsoft.

Rural Midwestern States To Face Greatest Rise In Temperatures

Writing in The Huffington Post, Ryan Grim reports on a new analysis from The Nature Conservancy that, if correct, should stir major action in the rural Midwest.

The environmental group finds that rural Midwestern states will face the greatest consequences of climate change. The three that will face the steepest rise in temperature -- Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa -- are farm states whose soil will be significantly less productive as temperatures rise more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit there by 2100.

What does this mean?

The consequences to these farm states will be far reaching. As droughts become more common, their soil and climate will begin to look more like their neighbors' to the south in Texas and Mexico.

Clearing some air with Congressman King

Kiron pol takes fair shot at ‘Taking Note’

It is no news flash to readers of “Taking Note” (in the Carroll Daily Times Herald) that this column has been used with some frequency in the last 13 years to vigorously challenge our congressman Steve King.

A skilled orator and turner of phrases, King often presents views in provocative fashion.

This column has pulled no punches on calling out the congressman where we find him wrongheaded.

In a strongly worded but civil exchange with me following his town-hall meeting in Carroll on Wednesday, King, a Kiron Republican who represents Iowa’s 5th Congressional District, offered reasonable criticism.

Put another way, the congressman called me out. And he has a point.

King doesn’t mind the colorful barbs, the political shots. King trades in those, too. They are the coin of the realm in American politics, and have been since British colonial rule.

But King took issue with my direct labeling of him as a “racist” — which I have done. (In a column in March 2008 in which King expressed concerns about President Barack Obama's name and a June 2007 piece about King's thoughts on declining birth rates among certain Europeans.)

When I asked King a question Wednesday afternoon about the GOP gubernatorial race and how his own foot-dragging with a decision may delay important commitments from those who have long supported both King and State Rep. Roberts, R-Carroll, who is in the race, King said he’d happily take the question (See related story on Page 1 of the Carroll Daily Times Herald). But he wanted to clear the air first.

“That’s a well-stated question, Doug,” King said. “Let’s just compartmentalize some animosity here before I move to answer that question. You know that that exists between us. I’ll just tell you the heart of that is this: in one of your articles you labeled me a racist in print. And I take great offense to that.”

He added, “I’m not going to get engaged in a debate, and I’m not going to defend myself. I think my life’s activities do that well enough.”

We moved back to the 2010 race for Terrace Hill, and King fielded some more questions from me and Daily Times Herald reporter Butch Heman.

Following the session at the Santa Maria winery, I told King that while the column will continue to challenge and criticize him it will never again affix the label of racist to him.

King is right. That’s not fair on my part. I cannot divine what’s in Congressman King’s heart, and our public discourse is limited by the quick-draw labeling of people as “sexist” or “racist.” I have been called both.

Where this matter is concerned I will quote King and let readers draw their own conclusions as to the content of his words. There is much nuance where race is concerned and what may appear prejudiced to one person comes across as according to Hoyle to the other.

Talking 2012 presidential politics in Iowa

I spent the morning of my 40th birthday talking presidential politics in Iowa for 2012 on Iowa Public Radio.

Click here to listen to the show in its entirety.


On "The Exchange" host Ben Kieffer referenced a cover story I did for Cityview in Des Moines on possible contenders for 2012 in Iowa.

Vander Plaats to make official announcement

SIOUX CITY – Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, the 2006 Republican nominee for lieutenant governor who is leading the field for the party’s 2010 gubernatorial nomination, will officially launch his campaign on Monday, Sept. 7 in his hometown of Sheldon in northwest Iowa.

“Labor Day is the traditional start of the election season and Sheldon is the natural place for me to officially kick off the campaign. Sheldon is where I learned the value of freedom and leadership. It’s where my parents, teachers and neighbors instilled a traditional Iowa work ethic in me. And, it’s where I learned that the family is the foundation of society and it is government’s responsibility to foster a strong family instead of trying to replace it,” Vander Plaats said.

He continued, “The response we’ve seen since forming a campaign committee in January has been extraordinary. Support is growing every day around the state, pushing us far out in front of the five other candidates in the Republican field. Iowans of all political stripes recognize that Chet Culver is spending too much and demanding too little for taxpayers’ hard-earned money. They know he has to go and that we need a governor whose core principles will be less government, lower taxes and higher quality. They’re rallying behind this campaign because they know I’ll be that governor.”

Vander Plaats’ announcement will be at noon on Labor Day at the City Park in Sheldon. Vander Plaats will make a second appearance on Labor Day, visiting the Marlin Bontrager farm near Kalona. Bontrager and his wife, Becky, own and manage a livestock and grain farm. The couple and their 10 children have also formed the Bontrager Family Singers, a ministry that performs gospel/bluegrass music.

After growing up in Sheldon, Iowa, Vander Plaats pursued a career as an educator. After attending Northwestern College in Orange City on a basketball scholarship, Vander Plaats taught at Boone and Jefferson-Scranton High schools. Earning his master's and specialist's degrees in the area of educational leadership from Drake University, Vander Plaats also served as principal at Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn and Sheldon High schools.

In 1996, Bob became president and chief executive officer of Opportunities Unlimited, a Sioux City health and human services organization that provides rehabilitative services for young adults with brain or spinal cord injuries or other life-altering disabilities. In 2002, Bob led a positive and energetic campaign for governor. Though he narrowly lost in a three-way GOP primary, that campaign laid the foundation for a statewide organization that has continued to grow. Vander Plaats also served as Iowa chairman for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Vander Plaats is currently president of MVP Leadership, Inc., which specializes in strategic vision and executive leadership for business and industry, economic development, education, health care, human services, and private foundations.

'I'm at Slick Willie's place'

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The couple on the elevator snickered.

"You mean that trailer on stilts?" the husband said.

My companions on the ride from the fifth floor to the lobby of the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in downtown Little Rock, Ark., last Saturday were of course speaking of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, on the south shore of the Arkansas River.

After a country breakfast at the farmer's market, I walked several blocks from the River Market district in Little Rock to the Clinton museum, a silvery structure that is oddly rectangular and lounges off an incline toward the Arkansas River and a rusty relic of an abandoned railroad bridge.

The architectural comparison of Clinton's museum to a mobile home or a package of Reynolds Wrap hanging on a table isn't clever. It's obvious.

At the entrance outside the facility that archives the life and service of our 42nd commander in chief, I encountered some early-morning smokers, a husband and wife taking their last draws of nicotine before the tour.

The man, sporting a generous gut and speaking with a deep Southern drawl, pulled out his cell phone, and called a buddy.

"You'll never guess where I'm at," he said into the phone, laughing, and looking conspiratorially at his wife. "I'm at Slick Willie's place."

"Slick Willie's place" is much like President Bill Clinton. On the outside, it appears sort of white trashy, an easy punchline. But inside is a modern, intelligent, brilliantly organized presentation of Clinton's two terms as our president, with a dash of history about his life as governor, childhood and college years. Built with generous amounts of glass the Clinton museum allows visitors fantastic views of Little Rock and the sleepy, serene Arkansas River community. You get the distinct sense that you are in Clinton's brain looking at the outside world. It's a remarkable effect.

Inside the museum, I spent hours reading Clinton's speeches and going through displays. Among the most impressive was one dealing with the Internet and science. Clinton and Vice President Al Gore understood the intersection of technology and commerce in a way no president ever has, or perhaps ever will.

I'm on the edge of turning 40, a statistically likely halfway point for life. It's entirely possible that in 2050, if I'm near death and highly reflective, I will look back on the 1990s - the years of peace and prosperity under Clinton - as the best ones of my American life. Some will argue the Republican Congress deserves credit for those times and others maintain the positives of that period happened in spite of Clinton, not because of him.

For so many reasons, his presidency is deserving of reverence and high-minded debate. As is his work as a post president.

But with that there's always the taint, an eye roll.

In recent days, former President Clinton has been much in the news for his role in the retrieval of jailed American journalists in North Korea.

For this Clinton has been celebrated.

And mocked.

Because the reporters were female, there's been much late-night hee-hawing from Conan and Jimmy about the Clinton-led rescue - all stemming from Clinton's Monica Lewinsky infamy.

The jokes flow from the same theme: Did he hit on the journalists? It's a sick premise considering the import of the situation for the women, but let's face it, the thought occurred to more people than Rush Limbaugh.

As the man at the museum door said, "I'm at Slick Willie's place."

Carroll woman's answer to highly visible Obama: Selling her televisions

This first appeared in the Carroll (Iowa) Daily Times Herald and has since been picked up by news organizations and bloggers across the globe.

By DOUGLAS BURNS

A 78-year-old Carroll woman says she's so tired of seeing President Barack Obama on the airwaves that she's selling her television sets - two of them.

Deloris Nissen, a retired nurses' aide and former Kmart employee who was raised on a farm near Audubon, placed a classified advertisement with The Daily Times Herald for Friday's paper.

In the $5.50 ad, Nissen tells readers she has two television sets for sale.

The reason: "Obama on every channel and station."

In an interview Nissen said she is serious about selling two TVs - and genuine about her disgust with what she believes to be an overexposed president.

"I just got tired of watching him on every channel," Nissen said. "I thought, my gosh, does he ever stay at the White House?"

Nissen, who voted for U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the 2008 presidential election, said she could live with seeing Obama come on television to make serious announcements. But he seems to be on all the time, Nissen said.

When the president does appear on a channel she happens to be watching, Nissen said, she quickly turns.

"I have the remote real handy," Nissen said. "I have the batteries. I'm ready for him."

Nissen's annoyance with the president as a frequent presence on her television doesn't mean she'll abandon the medium altogether.

She's keeping a bigger flat-screen television and selling an older 20-inch Sony and possibly a 13-inch set.

"It's too heavy," Nissen said of the 20-inch TV. "I can't handle it anymore."

That said, she doesn't plan on selling it for less than $100 - even if Obama was just on Tuesday pitching his health-care-reform plans.

Obama's own advisers and political observers across the ideological spectrum have for months debated whether the now popular president is overexposed.

For her part, Nissen said she expects to take some flack for the advertisement in her local paper. After all, Obama did win Iowa and Carroll County in the 2008 election.

But she's not worried about any criticism.

"I'm an old lady, and I don't care," Nissen said.

The Des Moines Register carried its own column on Nissen today.

Tons of comments on the Washington DC Gossip site Wonkette. Most nasty and over the top.

Who's knocking in 2012?

In Des Moines' Cityview Douglas Burns provides an early handicapping of potential 2012 gubernatorial field in Iowa Caucuses.

Here is Cityview

There are no breaks in the business. Literally days after President Obama was elected, speculation started about potential challengers for 2012. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke in late November to a conservative crowd of about 800 people at the Sheraton in West Des Moines, feeding, of course, notions about White House-sized ambitions for the young GOP intellectual. And Sarah Palin seems to be everywhere with breathless analysts parsing her latest verbal contortions. Indiana Congressman Mike Pence hit both coasts of Iowa just two weeks ago. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour headlined a major Republican event at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines this summer. And U.S. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada) spoke to an American Future Fund-organized event in Sioux City. We can, of course, forget about that last one.

Read the rest of the story and the rankings at Cityview online ...

ROBERTS CALLS ON GOVERNOR TO BE “REAL” WITH IOWANS

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts today called on Governor Culver and his staff to be more honest with Iowans about the condition of the state’s finances.

“Iowans need a governor who will be ‘real’ with them about the health of the Iowa economy,” said Roberts. “Iowans realize that we are in an economic recession. The recession is real, and the governor needs to be upfront about how the recession is affecting the Iowa economy.”

Roberts, a 51-year-old state representative from Carroll, made the statement after the governor’s office claimed on Monday that the state experienced a strong boost in revenue for July 2009. The governor’s office suggested that a slight increase in gross revenue indicated that the state’s economy had improved. But Roberts noted that gross revenues only increased slightly for July 2009 because of a state bookkeeping change which now credits the state government with receiving tax dollars which must be passed along to local school districts. As a result, the state’s gross revenues are artificially inflated.

Roberts also pointed out that net revenues—not gross revenues—should be used to determine the health of the Iowa economy. According to a non-partisan state budget office, the Legislative Services Agency (LSA), net revenues for the state dropped 6.1% for the month of July compared to July 2008.

“Net revenue is the amount which the state actually has to spend. It is the true indicator of the health of the state’s economy,” said Roberts. “By focusing on a slight increase in artificially inflated gross revenue rather than a sizeable decrease in net revenue, the governor’s office is not being straightforward about the true health of Iowa’s economy.”

Roberts notes that this is not the first time that the governor’s office has failed to be real with Iowans about the health of the state economy. The governor’s office has also disputed that the state is in a budget crisis, even though the state budget for the fiscal year 2009 ended with a $161 million shortfall. The projected spending gap for fiscal year 2011 is approaching $1 billion dollars. Roberts says that he will be more candid with Iowans as governor.

“Iowans are concerned that the state and nation are in a recession. They don’t need a governor who denies the state’s fiscal challenges; they need a governor who will acknowledge them,” said Roberts.

Roberts said the solution to the state’s budget crisis is to enact fiscally responsible policies. According to Roberts, state government will emerge from its budget crisis by reducing spending and keeping taxes low on businesses and families.

Douglas Burns on Dave Price's 'Purple Matters' radio show

WHO-TV's Dave Price had me as a guest on his weekly radio program "Purple Matters" to discuss the gubernatorial campaign announcement of State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll.

That section of the hour-long program in which I am involved starts at about the 31:00 minute mark and goes for about 15 minutes.

We discuss Roberts specifically and the Republican race generally.

Roberts to announce intentions Tuesday at State Capitol

State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, this morning sent a press release across Iowa announcing a news conference at the State Capitol in Des Moines for next Tuesday.

Roberts, a five-term legislator who represents Carroll County and parts of Sac and Crawford counties, is expected to announce the formation of an exploratory committee for a possible run for governor.

The news conference will be held at 11 a.m.

"My early conversations and travels have gone extremely well," Roberts said in an interview this morning.

On Thursday night Roberts spoke with Greene County Republicans in Jefferson. That followed several other speaking appearances before GOP audiences across Iowa in recent weeks.

Roberts withheld any more comment on his political future until Tuesday.

If he forms an exploratory committee, Roberts would start by transitioning his legislative fund-raising and campaign apparatus to a gubernatorial one.

Should he later decide to drop out of the governor's race he could transfer the campaign account back to a legislative effort.

The GOP field eyeing an opportunity to challenge Democratic Gov. Chet Culver is widening. The list of candidates is expected - at this point - to include Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, Roberts, State Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone, GOP eastern Iowa activist Christian Fong and State Sen. Paul McKinley of Chariton.

"The race is wide open at this point and the entrance of Representative Roberts adds another candidate for grassroots Republicans," said Tim Albrecht, a Republican strategist who operates one of the state's more prominent conservative Web logs, TheBeanWalker.com.

Albrecht says the GOP in Iowa has a strong chance at ousting Culver because of the public's frustrations with the Democrat's handling of state finances.

For his part, Roberts lines up with Republicans on key issues, Albrecht said.

"Rod is not afraid to let people know what he thinks but does it in a non-abrasive manner," Albrecht said.

Chuck Grassley for president?

In talking on the phone with Iowa State University professor and WOI Radio “Dr. Politics” host Steffen Schmidt I couldn’t see if he was maintaining a straight face when he put forward this idea: U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, as a presidential candidate.

Schmidt, who has been in Ames for four decades as a political science professor, assured me he was serious, that his face was in fact straight, that he was basing his comments on conversations with people inside the Republican Party.

“It’s not a throwaway, B.S., or a joke or anything,” Schmidt said.

The GOP, Schmidt said, is in need of an “adult” who can speak for the party without embarrassing it — as former potential presidential candidates Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., have done in recent weeks.

Grassley fits that political adult bill, plus he has a workmanlike reputation on both sides of the aisle, says Schmidt.

And while party leaders may be concerned about Grassley’s charisma factor on a national stage and age (he is 75 and first served in the Iowa House when Dwight Eisenhower was president) he’ll be a steady, Midwestern voice, goes the line of reasoning.

“They know he’s never flown to Argentina,” Schmidt said in a reference to the embarrassing saga involving Sanford and his Argentine lover.

Of course, being relegated to defining a candidate or a party by what it is not, rather than what it is, raises troubling questions.

Dignity in politics

Writing in The New York Times, David Brooks has a must-read on dignity in not only life but politics. For those of us tired of public life in the national confessional, this column is spot on ...

Today, Americans still lavishly admire people who are naturally dignified, whether they are in sports (Joe DiMaggio and Tom Landry), entertainment (Lauren Bacall and Tom Hanks) or politics (Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King Jr.).

But the dignity code itself has been completely obliterated. The rules that guided Washington and generations of people after him are simply gone.

We can all list the causes of its demise. First, there is capitalism. We are all encouraged to become managers of our own brand, to do self-promoting end zone dances to broadcast our own talents. Second, there is the cult of naturalism. We are all encouraged to discard artifice and repression and to instead liberate our own feelings. Third, there is charismatic evangelism with its penchant for public confession. Fourth, there is radical egalitarianism and its hostility to aristocratic manners.

The old dignity code has not survived modern life. The costs of its demise are there for all to see. Every week there are new scandals featuring people who simply do not know how to act. For example, during the first few weeks of summer, three stories have dominated public conversation, and each one exemplifies another branch of indignity.

Palin's 'crazy' move may position her well in Iowa

We can't gauge Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with conventional political measurements.

Her appeal with Iowa Republican caucus-goers is precisely what was on display today -- an absolute thumb-nosing of establishment politics, conventional thinking, and on the day before the Fourth of July when Cable TV's heavy-hitting lampooners were out of the office on their first or fifth holiday drinks no less.

Yes, at first blush, this announcement of her imminent resignation as governor, with its epic nonsequiturs and mom-unleashed-at-the -school board-meeting quality, hand-delivers ammunition for Palin's fleet of detractors.

And as several journalists have noted already, there does seem to be a piece, perhaps a big one, missing from this story. Will she have to make an Appalachian-sized amendment to the story as her fellow GOP governor Mark Sanford did just recently?

If not, this may work for Palin.

What made Palin popular with Iowans was not her resume of experience in Alaska. Those who cheered her in Sioux City last fall, with the most vocal applause for a Republican I saw in Iowa in the 2008 presidential cycle, knew little about it.

The boys with the Blackberrys tell us that Palin should have stayed in Alaska to finish her term. Then perhaps, as she is only 45, take a shot at the U.S. Senate. Build some credentials, burnish that resume.

That would put Palin on the same playing field as other politicians, and by that measure, she loses.

Palin is already a political figure too large for the office she holds. That speech today was clumsy but what matters is how Iowa Republicans will her now.

Will they hold it against Palin that she quit her job as Alaska governor to become a national advocate, a visible and likely effective one, for their values? It's hard to think of someone as a quitter when you see them more on television and at party dinners and in other venues than you did before.

Then there's this to consider: Many in the national media have this mistaken sense that Iowa Republicans are seeking a new indentity, that they'll reach out to moderates and carve out more widely palatable positions. Having been to two major GOP events in just the last 10 days in Iowa I get the distinct sense that the party is growing smaller, more insular, more angry -- and that it is likely to double-down on a candidate like Palin -- damn the torpedoes and the media and conventional wisdom -- and Gov, Haley Barbour who tried the other night in Des Moines (to no avail) to get rank-and-file Republicans to accept new demographics and dynamics of life in America.

Palin is exactly what many Republicans want. A time machine. We know that machine goes back, but whether there's a switch in it for the future remains to be seen.

Senator Behn, Mr. Vander Plaats: What should penalty for abortion be?

It's a line of a questioning most pro-life candidates don't like.

When I ask it, they often claim they never thought about it, that they don't answer hypotheticals.

That question: If your views prevail and abortion is made illegal, what should the penalty be for a woman who has an abortion and a doctor who provides one?

Should they be fined - like we do with speeders on our highways - or should they be strapped into an electric chair?

Misdemeanor or felony?

There's a big difference.

But pro-life candidates never talk about this.

"This may surprise you," Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats tells us. "I haven't thought through the whole 'what's the penalty piece of that.'"

That said, if abortion were made illegal, Vander Plaats, a Sioux City businessman who is strongly pro-life, thinks at the very least doctors should lose their licenses if they provide the procedure - if it is made illegal.

"I think for a doctor I would say he's violating the law and you take away his practice," Vander Plaats said.

And the woman who has an abortion? Should she be sent to prison or to death row?

Is having abortion a pre-meditated murder?

"It would have to be premeditated," he said.

But Vander Plaats didn't prescribe a punishment for the aborting mother.

"As far as the woman I really need to think that through," Vander Plaats said. "That's a very, very tough question."

If his side of the most divisive social issue in modern America carries the day, should the doctors be in Anamosa or Fort Madison, Iowa's two toughest prisons, for life if they do abortions?

"I think the first debate we need to have, I mean we as society need to have, is when does life begin," Vander Plaats said. "When is this life and why are we for the sanctity of human life?"

When pressed some more, Vander Plaats said that if legalized abortion is overturned, the state of Iowa would need to look at consequences and see if an aborting mother or abortionist is akin to the man who allegedly shot to death Ed Thomas, the beloved coach of the Aplington-Parkersburg football team.

Vander Plaats may find some pressure from his political right (if you can imagine that) on this issue.

One person who does have the stomach to talk about punishment in a Roe-revoked world is our former state senator, Jerry Behn, a Boone Republican who is considering running for governor.

In his two campaigns for the Senate here, Behn focused heavily on his passionate opposition to abortion. He stopped me after a Sac County Republican fundraiser last Saturday and recalled a previous interview we did in which Behn left no doubt about his views on punishment should abortion become illegal again.



He made it a point, with no prompting, to tell me that he stands by his remarks then - and would take the same position today.

In that earlier interview, Behn said he "hadn't really gone there in his mind either" when I asked him what penalties should be meted out for abortion.

But Behn, never one to dodge a question, quickly pointed out that "I frankly do believe it's murder."

In the case of the doctors who provide the abortion, Behn said, they are, in his mind, guilty of "premeditated murder."

"It's going to make it look like I'm a warmonger running around looking for doctors to execute," he said as the interview progressed.

But Behn said, "In principle it's the doctor I really get frustrated with. It is as premeditated and cold-blooded as you can get."

The Boone Republican said he'd stand by the statement that the doctor's action is murder.

"I'd be willing to have somebody make the argument that it isn't," he said.

Vander Plaats: Election can turn on marriage, smoking

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats says the 2010 election can be won on opposition to same-sex marriage and the one-year-old Iowa smoking ban, issues that provoke powerful feelings on their own but also serve as metaphors for increasing government intrusion into Iowa life.

"Those are issues that resonate with people and resonate quickly, and to be quite honest, are emotional issues, issues that I think can win an election or lose an election," Vander Plaats said.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Daily Times Herald that moved from the economy to the future of the Republican Party itself to other matters, Vander Plaats said gay marriage and smoking would be swing issues with Iowans in the governor's race.

"There's a couple of issues I think people are really starting to wrestle with," Vander Plaats said. "One is the marriage issue and separation of powers."

He added, "That's a huge issue that they understand and understand big-time."

Vander Plaats argues that the Iowa Supreme Court outreached its authority in early April and made law with a decision allowing gay marriage.

"It's not just about marriage," Vander Plaats said. "It's a court overstepping its bounds from the bench."

Vander Plaats has suggested a controversial remedy, saying that if governor he would issue an executive order staying same-sex marriages until the Legislature - and therefore the people - can deal with it.

"That's part of the balance of power," he said. "But what we've done too long I think in this country and in this state is we've said whatever the Supreme Court says goes. They can't do certain things."

Some conservatives have challenged Vander Plaats' proposal as a dangerous usurping of power that would give the governor's office, including possible future ones peopled by liberals, too much power. Legal scholars also have questioned the executive stay that Vander Plaats defended in the interview as appropriate.

"The people of Iowa didn't get to vote on this," Vander Plaats said. "I guarantee you so many people in Carroll woke up on April 4 or April 3, whatever, and said, 'What? We're a same- sex marriage state? Are you kidding me? When did that come about?'"

Vander Plaats said Gov. Chet Culver should have done everything in his power to prevent gay marriage from becoming legal.

"I believe he displayed absolutely no executive leadership," Vander Plaats said. "It was within his power to hold them in check and he chose not to and I believe the reason he chose not to is because of the far left wing of his party."

In terms of tapping into voter frustration, Vander Plaats said, "No. 2 is the smoking issue."

Vander Plaats himself doesn't smoke, although he said in the interview that contrary to popular portrayal, he will have a beer now and again.

Vander Plaats said the smoking ban, which turned a year-old July 1, is a direct assault on private-property rights served with a heaping helping of government hypocrisy with a casino exemption.

"You mean all these private establishments can't have smoking but your state-run casinos can?" Vander Plaats said.

Vander Plaats said he "would deal" with the smoking ban as governor.

"Freedom is really founded in private property," Vander Plaats said.

He added, "With the smoking issue, that should be a marketplace decision. That's how we operate."

All of that said, Vander Plaats acknowledged the challenge of repealing or altering existing law, particularly one that is so high profile and on which most people have an opinion.

"There is a lot of legislation that I wish never came to be," Vander Plaats said. "To go back and change legislation, that is a very difficult task."

A Sioux City businessman Vander Plaats is currently president and CEO of MVP Leadership Inc. MVP specializes in strategic vision and executive leadership for business and industry, economic development, education, health care, human services, and private foundations.

Vander Plaats, a Sheldon native who graduated from Northwestern College in Orange City, is a former teacher and a head basketball coach in Jefferson. He and wife, Darla, have four sons.

The 2010 race will be Vander Plaats' third consecutive run for governor. He was in the last primary for a time before signing on as Republican Jim Nussle's lieutenant governor candidate. Vander Plaats also ran for his party's nomination in 2002.

While he's been unsuccessful in three political runs, Vander Plaats built considerable political clout in the 2008 Iowa Caucuses as he chaired the campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the first-in-the-nation Republican presidential nominating contest.

"I believe we have a great network throughout the entire state of Iowa," Vander Plaats said. "We have really good name identification throughout the state of Iowa in particular with Republican voters."

Vander Plaats said he senses the mood today among Iowans is one of wanting people in political office with "real life leadership" and "real life experience."

"I think what they're saying is we'd like to get back to a citizens' form of government," Vander Plaats said.

Other GOP candidates in the emerging field, such as State Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, and State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, have legislative records that can be easily attacked by Culver.

"I believe Chet Culver does not want to run on his record," Vander Plaats said. "I believe he wants to run by attacking somebody else's record."

Vander Plaats said while he may agree with the voting records of Roberts or Rants he thinks they make his fellow Republicans more vulnerable to negative advertising.

"There's always something in a bill that you can exploit," he said.

He added, "Culver with Jim Nussle, all he did, was hang Jim Nussle with his record."

Vander Plaats said another defining political choice Iowa Republicans face when sending a candidate to challenge Culver is this: do they stick to core values or moderate or water down positions in an attempt to reach out to independents and Democrats.

"One of the reasons I'm a Republican is because I'm pro-life," Vander Plaats said. "One of the reasons I'm a Republican is I'm pro one man-one woman marriage. Those are vital planks to our party."

Last week, at a major GOP event in Des Moines, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour urged his party to open a "big tent" and accept candidates and members who are pro-choice on abortion.

"From what I've heard, when he made those comments, it was eerily quiet," Vander Plaats said.

That's an accurate description of the response about 1,000 Republicans activists gave Barbour at the Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines.

"I am not going to compromise my stance on who I am for the sanctity of life, who I am for the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman, the way it was designed," Vander Plaats said.

Vander Plaats warns the GOP about compromising with a moderate Republican, someone who could be a "Manchurian candidate" for liberal forces looking to cripple conservatism in the state from within the Republican Party.

On the economy, Vander Plaats said the state has an environment that is hostile to business. He pledges to focus on streamlining government and creating competitive tax and regulatory climates.

Specifically, he advocates simpler tax forms and a system that is "more flat."

Vander Plaats advocates corporate state income tax reduction with an aim of eliminating it.

"We need venture capital in this state," he said.

Vander Plaats also said property taxes are killing small-town businesses.

He said instructional money for K-12 public schools and mental health services now provided by the counties should be funded by the state, not through local property taxes.

This first appeared in Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Vander Plaats: Republicans should be held to higher standard on family values

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City tells the Carroll Daily Times Herald that his party should be held to a higher standard when it comes to values questions of the sort now swirling around South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, an admitted adulterer.

While extra-marital affairs occur in both parties, it is fair to judge Republicans more harshly on such matters, Vander Plaats said.

"I think its an added dimension for our party," Vander Plaats said. "The reason I say that is we highlight one man-one woman marriage. We highlight family values. And if we do that that's where the trust comes in. Are you going to walk the walk or just talk the talk."

He added, "As Republicans if we are going to highlight that, that puts us to higher standard."

The party is searching for ways to attract new voters and authenticity is key, said Vander Plaats.

"We talk just recently family values and we get Governor Sanford," Vander Plaats said.

Should Sanford resign?

"I think what it is is a compromise of his leadership and I think honestly he has a family in crisis," Vander Plaats said. "I think he needs to put his attention on the family right now. If I was counseling him I would say, 'Governor Sanford, not only for your state but I believe for you and your family I'd resign.'"

32-year-old Cedar Rapids political newcomer files as Republican for governor's race

Campaign press release ...

(Cedar Rapids, IA) Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong has launched his campaign for Governor, calling for a restoration of the Iowa Dream.

Fong is the son of a Chinese immigrant who fled Communist China as his family was being killed for their Christian faith. “I’ve been blessed to live the Iowa Dream where hard work and determination are rewarded. But sadly, today I see that dream being put farther out of reach for future generations. And that’s why I’m going to spend the next year traveling the state asking for Iowans’ support, because I believe I can provide the leadership needed to restore the Iowa dream,” said Fong.

Fong continued, “Restoring the Iowa Dream starts by replacing the CEO of our state. I share the belief of the majority of Iowans that we are in desperate need of new leadership in state government. The current administration thinks we can overspend and bond and borrow our way to prosperity. As a businessman, I know that’s the wrong approach to pull Iowa through this recession.

The experience I would bring to the Governor’s office is not the experience of elected office, not the experience of broken government, but the experience of commonsense private sector conservative principles to lead our state.”

Fong was instrumental in helping Cedar Rapids recover from the devastating floods of 2008. He led over 5,100 volunteers as the CEO of Corridor Recovery, offering his leadership skills to help people in need during the 4th largest natural disaster in U.S. history. In addition, Governor Culver also appointed Christian to serve on the Generation Iowa Commission, where he has worked with peers to address Iowa’s “brain drain”.

Fong concluded, “Iowa families cannot shoulder the burden that state government is placing on them. State government is broken, and we need new leadership. I’m going to spend the next year applying for the job with the people of Iowa.”

Fong graduated from Underwood High School in Southwest Iowa at the age of 16 and then attended Creighton University, graduating at age 19. After college he and his wife, Jenelle, located in Cedar Rapids and Christian started work at AEGON. After locating in Cedar Rapids, Fong attended Dartmouth. After earning his MBA, Christian and his family returned to AEGON and Cedar Rapids, where they reside today and attend River of Life Ministries church. The Fongs have three children.

GOP 'stars' can't shine without ideas, party identity

Is our nation so polarized that even prayers are overtly partisan?

At last week's Iowa Republican Party "Night of the Rising Stars" at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines our own state senator, Steve Kettering of Lake View, and state Sen. Linda Upmeyer, R-Garner, handled the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer.

Kettering, the Senate Republican whip, did his job on the pledge without a hitch.

But in the prayer Upmeyer took what was a clear shot at Gov. Chet Culver and President Barack Obama when she said, "We are frustrated with the current leadership" for taking us down a path we don't want.

I had to paraphrase part of that because, with head bowed, it's challenging to take notes. There are limits even in journalism.

To be fair to Upmeyer this was a crowd of 1,000 Republican activists. Still, you'd think they could wait until after the prayer to start hurling rhetorical grenades.

Overall, the young Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn deserves accolades for the event. He's seeking to reach out to younger voters with new media and plenty of pizzazz while not alienating, or dare we say, confusing, older stalwarts in the party.

At the beginning of the night, the Iowa GOP urged all those in attendance to "tweet" the event - to use the social-networking or hyper-blogging tool, Twitter, to move the message from this historic Sherman Hills mansion to cell phones and computer screens all over the state.

Strawn came on to the stage to the trendy beats of Tomoyasu Hotei's popular song from the edgy film "Kill Bill Vol. 1" - which perhaps was a little overboard considering the audience. But it was part of an effort to choreograph a new face for the party.

My friend Chuck Offenburger, the accomplished Iowa journalist, author and Republican, prepared me for the night by saying it would be like no other GOP one I'd attended in Iowa. He was right.

All of this said, while reaching out to young voters, the party couldn't go too far. When keynote speaker Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, led into a great line about hotel magnate Conrad Hilton he asked the assembled if they recalled "The Ed Sullivan Show." Most people clapped in the affirmative.

The great Hilton line: When Sullivan asked what message he'd have for the millions of Americans watching the show Hilton didn't hesitate when he urged people to put the shower curtain in the tub.

The GOP used the evening to introduce a number of new leaders "or stars." Locally, State Rep. Jason Schultz of Crawford County made the list.

For my money, an elected official to watch in the party is at the county level right now. Republican Story County Auditor Mary Mosiman had a natural presence and clean, charismatic delivery on the stage. If you can do the financial books and speak that well, there surely must be a bright future.

Strawn's party still has long way to go to reach out to the significant voting block of independents in Iowa - or to pull any Democrats.

"We don't need to change who we are to win elections," Strawn said at one point in his remarks.

Just a few minutes later he noted that the Iowa GOP for the first time had a booth at Des Moines' Asian American Festival.

Strawn spent a good deal of his speech criticizing Obama. The GOP chair characterized U.S. economic policy as "Barack's bailout." Employing the commander in chief's first name in a cheap reach for casual alliteration, or calling the governor "Chet" in an effort to diminish him, is not the stuff of an energized party. It's annoying and alienating, and Strawn can do better.

Republican strategist Tim Albrecht told me the GOP needs to find "ideas" candidates and leaders.

This is possible. The party has time to rebuild itself for 2010 and 2012.

But it must get beyond psychological breastfeeding for the base. There's room for red-meat barbs for Obama and Culver to be sure. But right now there is an absence of those big ideas of which Albrecht talks.

I left Hoyt Sherman and a Sac County GOP fund-raiser last week with the distinct sense this is a party that is more energized by what it against than anything else. They provided no new ideas for the media to cover. And we were there looking for those storylines.

"We can't just point out the negative," Strawn himself acknowledged.

Here's a suggestion for Republicans: Call a brief moratorium on attacks on Democrats and stay on message with well-crafted, thoughtfully articulated Iowa GOP policies, principles and pledges.

They already have the playbook for this. It was such an approach that fueled a national GOP resurrection, or Republican revolution, in 1994.

(Photo: GOP Iowa chairman Matt Strawn (left) with Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour in Des Moines)

Rural Iowa must avoid 'majority-minority' isolation

Soon, if the time is not at hand, white Iowans won't have the luxury of being racists.

Rapidly changing demographics mean that places like Carroll, even if they remain largely lily white, will need to become more accepting of cultural diversity for economic reasons: people in other cities with whom we must interact in business are increasingly going to look less like us.

It used to be the argument against racism was made on moral and religious grounds. They still stand.

But those who haven't been persuaded may want to reconsider. A May census report shows that 47 percent of the nation's children under age 5 are minorities - and 25 percent of all kids in America that age are Hispanic.

The census is projecting that by 2042 the United States will be a "majority- minority" nation. In other words, whites of European descent will make up less than 50 percent of the population. For young people those numbers will change more quickly.

Which raises a concern: In areas with little diversity, like Carroll, is there a danger of a sort of cultural isolation that could hamper businesses here, prevent new development as decisions increasingly will be made by minorities?

Are there steps we can take to foster an accepting environment that will make a dramatically changed America in 2030 comfortable with what likely will remain a white Carroll?

"We all know that economic development is about building relationships," says Paul Lasley, chairman of the sociology and anthropology departments at Iowa State University. "If we do not have the ability to build relationships, we are going to be disadvantaged.

An expert on rural issues, Lasley is urging students to look at the imminent changing of the colors in the U.S. population as an opportunity.

"I have been telling students at ISU for years that unless they have a second language they are going to find themselves increasingly disadvantaged," Lasley said.

In particular, rural Iowans with agricultural interests should heed this advice as it can benefit trading opportunities.

"Companies need folks who are conversant in either Spanish or Chinese," Lasley said.

I asked Lasley if largely white rural communities like Carroll were in jeopardy of losing business and jobs and opportunities simply because we can't relate or connect to a new world that won't look like ours.

Not so fast, Lasley said.

Money still talks.

Lasley expects that in the future the divide in America will be less about race than education and income levels.

"Skin color is going to become less important. but social class may become more important," Lasley said. "I see that among young people."

Rants calls for special session

SIOUX CITY, IA – Rep. Chris Rants made the following statement today in response to the numbers released by the Department of Revenue and Finance on tax receipts collected for the fiscal year.

“Governor Culver has allowed the budget mess to become far too problematic for him to handle on his own – we have gone from having a projected deficit to an actual deficit. He needs to call the Legislature back for a special session to balance the budget. He then needs to ask the Legislature to reduce the budget for the coming year by an equal amount.

“Everyone in the state has seen this day coming, except for Governor Culver. Taxpayers and local governments cannot afford a ‘wait and see’ approach any longer. Action is needed now.

“It is time to quit worrying about the political ramifications of admitting that we have a deficit and get about the business of fixing it. Governor Vilsack put aside partisan politics and called a special session in 2001 and 2002 to balance the budget after revenues declined; Culver needs to do the same."

Roberts makes first foray into governor's race

Carroll legislator joins four other likely candidates for GOP nomination at Sac County event

SAC CITY - State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, made his first public appearance Saturday as a potential candidate for governor. Roberts urged more than 50 party activists in Sac City to hold firm on core principles but understand that Republicans can't alienate independents and conservative Democrats if they are to take Terrace Hill.

"We need to be as thoughtful and considerate about the messenger who carries the message as the message itself," Roberts said.

Roberts noted that in representing Carroll County and parts of Sac and Crawford counties, he has a district with a high combined percentage of independent voters and Democrats - but he's still run unopposed in the last four elections.

"People have taken note of that," Roberts said.

He said Republicans can stand on principle but also need to be approachable and engaging in term of political style - traits Sac County Economic and Tourism executive director Shirley Phillips credited Roberts with possessing in her introduction on him.

Roberts, who is close to announcing an exploratory committee, was one of four likely GOP candidates for governor to speak at the Sac County Republican Central Committee's "Breakfast With Gubernatorial Candidates" in the historic Chautauqua Building in Sac City.

Bob Vander Plaats, a Sioux City businessman who has already announced his intention to run, State Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, who has formed an exploratory committee, and State Sen. Jerry Behn, R-Boone, who said he's closer than ever to formally entering the race, attended the event.

For his part, Roberts said Iowans appear ready for a change from Democratic control of the Legislature and governor's office.

"I can detect that people are very interested in a change of direction," Roberts said.

Roberts, a five-term legislator, said Iowa government needs structural changes and promised to downsize bureaucracy.

Hitting on a theme that ran through all the GOP speeches Saturday, Roberts said the people of Iowa, not the state's seven-member Supreme Court, should make a decision on the definition of marriage. The Court ruled in April that gay marriage in Iowa is legal.

Gov. Chet Culver should allow Iowans to vote on the matter, Roberts said.

"What that signaled to a lot of Iowans is our leaders do not respect the people," Roberts said.

On that issue Behn urged voters to say "no" on judicial retention for the justices who are in the next ballot. Their decision to legalize gay marriage is the type of move that should be left to the elected lawmakers, the Boone Republican said.

"Let 'em run for the Legislature," Behn said.

Vander Plaats said marriage is a winning issue for Republicans in 2010. He says 70 percent of Iowans are with him on it.

"Republicans need to start talking about marriage between one man and one woman," Vander Plaats said.

Vander Plaats repeated a statement that has drawn fire from within his own party in saying he would issue an executive order as governor to stay the Court's decision on same-sex marriage until the Legislature can weigh in on the matter. Critics contend such a move, if legal at all, would confer too much power in the executive branch that could be exploited by future liberal governors as well.

Behn spent some of his remarks using Carroll as an example of a city in Iowa where competition between public and private K-12 education benefits both. He called for increasing the tuition tax credit for private schools - but didn't spell out a specific dollar figure. Additionally, Behn said, Iowa should establish a scholarship fund that would allow parents to get the same amount of money the state spends on their children for public education to help pay for private school.

Vander Plaats, who earned the most frequent and sustained applause at the event, said he would not retreat from socially conservative positions.

"You don't win the governorship by selling out who you are," Vander Plaats said. "Republicans need to be trusted."

Without specifically referencing the situation of South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, who acknowledged an extra-marital affair last week, Vander Plaats made it clear he believes such episodes need to be scrubbed from the party.

"If we campaign on family values, we better walk the walk of family values," Vander Plaats said.

Earlier in the week, Vander Plaats told the Daily Times Herald Republicans should be held to a higher standard on personal behavior because they often run on family-values issues.

In terms of a broader platform, Vander Plaats said Republicans can go after Culver's base with well-articulated policies in the arenas of health care and education.

Rants, the political veteran of the GOP's Saturday morning political foursome, focused his speech primarily on the economy, saying he would work on key indicators such as property-tax burden and friendliness of business starts.

The Democrats are making the state less competitive with its neighbors by advancing an aggressive anti-business agenda, Rants said.

At the same time, Rants said, he has a strong record in opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

The next GOP candidate for governor must cobble a coalition of fiscal and social conservatives, said Rants, a former House speaker now is his ninth term in the Legislature.

"I'm a Republican who has my feet planted squarely in both camps," Rants said.

After hearing the speeches, Sac County Republican Party chairman Brian Krause, pastor of Faith Bible Church in Sac City, told the Daily Times Herald, "It's going to be a tough choice."

Krause said Vander Plaats clearly had the strongest connection with the crowd, and Rants owns the credentials debate, having been elected as House speaker at just age 25. Krause said Roberts presented himself as "approachable" - something that is vital in winning independent voters.

"I think they all threw out a good message," said Sac County Sheriff Ken McClure.

This story first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Indiana's Pence now in Iowa presidential mix

Add another name into the mix of Republicans wading into Iowa presidential politics.

The Iowa Republican Party has just announced that U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., will travel to Iowa in July for events in the Cedar Rapids area.

As GOP House Conference chairman Pence is the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. House and recently has been outspoken on Iran and the climate change bill.

A former talk-radio show host in Indiana, Pence has been mentioned by Iowa GOP insiders as a potentially formidable candidate.


”Throughout his career in public service, Congressman Pence has been a forceful advocate for our party’s principles of limited government, personal responsibility, and political, economic and religious freedom,” said Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn, adding that he anticipates this message resonating with many Iowans and Republicans.

A John Edwards sex tape?

The New York Times today has a story on a former John Edwards aide inking s tell-all book deal. The aide says Edwards asked him to take the fall -- or paternity -- for the pregnancy of the presidential candidate's paramour.

The aide, Andrew Young, sold his book proposal to St. Martin’s Press for an undisclosed price late last week. In his proposal, Mr. Young quotes Mr. Edwards, a Democrat who was his party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2004 and ran for president last year, as begging him to confess to fathering Ms. (Rielle) Hunter’s baby.

“ ‘You know how much I love you,’ Edwards said. ‘You know I’d walk off a cliff for you, and I know you’d walk off a cliff for me,’ ” Mr. Young wrote in the book proposal. “ ‘I will never forget this. And I will always be there for you.’ ” The proposal was shared with The New York Times by a book publishing industry executive. Portions of it were reported over the weekend by The Daily News of New York.

But in a case of burying the lead we learn that Young contends there is an Edwards sex tape.

Mr. Young’s proposal states that he was writing the book because he had become disillusioned with Mr. Edwards’s behavior and recklessness, which he said included participating in the production of a sex tape with Ms. Hunter that Mr. Young later discovered.

Roberts: GOP must reach out to independents, Dems

Potential Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts says simple math will make for some complicated political choices in 2010.

Roberts, a veteran state representative from Carroll who is close to forming an exploratory committee for a run at Terrace Hill, says the candidate who emerges from what could be a large GOP primary must not be so entrenched with the base to be hamstrung in efforts to appeal to other voters.

“The price can’t just be winning the nomination,” Roberts said.

According to the Associated Press, voter registration in Iowa as of June 1 showed 684,443 registered Democrats, compared with 577,645 Republicans. Iowans who registered without a party preference outnumbered both groups, with 694,397 people, The AP reported.

An ordained pastor (although he hasn’t been behind the pulpit for 20 years) Roberts is development director for the 125-congregation strong Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in Iowa. Roberts is a skilled orator who uses consensus-building language, measured words, not the vitriol of some in his party. His votes may be the same as many hot-blooded conservatives on social issues but Roberts says “some of the hyperbole goes to excess.”

“Having a healthy dose of humility is helpful,” Roberts said. “There’s still something very powerful about the spoken word.”

While the GOP is at a voter registration disadvantage in Iowa — and President Barack Obama likely will be a crucial campaign surrogate for Democratic Gov. Chet Culver — Roberts said the race is winnable.

“Governor Culver is vulnerable,” Roberts said. “I think he can be defeated.”

Republicans may have to do it with less campaign money than Culver, Roberts said.

Roberts has been meeting with potential advisors and supporters from a geographic diverse cross-section of Iowa.

As he’s unannounced a Roberts platform is still very much evolving but he makes it clear economic issues will be primary.

Roberts will be one of what is expected to be a handful of potential candidates for governor to attend a Sac County GOP fund-raiser on Saturday.

UC Davis Prof: Absence of rural voice on Supreme Court does matter

In a story published Monday in the Center For Rural Strategies' Daily Yonder, I wrote about the lack of any significant rural connections in the biographies of the likely next U.S. Supreme Court, one that would appear to replace Justice David Souter and his rural New Hampshire background with Judge Sonia Sotomayor from the Bronx, N.Y.

Lisa Pruitt, a University of California Davis School of Law professor who contributes to the Web log Legal Ruralism, picked up the story on the Internet and added expertise to my pedestrian instincts. Among Pruitt’s specialties is an area she calls law and rural livelihoods.

“Some judges are clearly more sensitive to rural realities than others, and this sensitivity influences their decision making,” Pruitt writes on the Web log. “Whether this sensitivity is due to those judges’ rural upbringings or other rural exposure, I cannot say. But rural difference from what has become an implicit urban norm is often legally relevant — as I’ve often argued in my scholarship.

“I have no doubt that we need judges (and justices!) who have a capacity to recognize that, judges who — at a minimum — are open to learning about rural realities when presented with them.”

In theory, judges born in Trenton, N.J, — such as Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia — should be able to apply the law and follow the Constitution in cases that pit urban interests against rural.

That said, I’d agree with U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who while supporting Sotomayor, is urging President Obama to make his next Supreme Court appointment with consideration given to candidates outside the Ivy League, maybe even someone who went to night law school in a heavily rural state.

Hopefully, Professor Pruitt and others involved with scholarship at the intersection of rural life and law will follow our urban-dominated Court to see if any decisions show bias to-ward their collective citified biographies.

If Hispanics are cheering probable newfound representation with Sotomayor on the Court shouldn’t rural Americans be troubled (if not outraged) at the absence of anyone with our geo-graphic orientation?

Cityview publishes column on Rod Roberts

By DOUGLAS BURNS

When Rod Roberts embarked on his first Statehouse bid in 1998, I was skeptical. In fact, the candidacy of this ordained Christian conservative pastor frightened me.

With a passionate belief in separation of church and state, I had visions of Rod as something of a localized Pat Robertson, an evangelical bent on Bible-beating his view of life and Christianity into his politics, his representation of us. Most of all I feared that if Roberts, a Republican, shirt-sleeved his brand of Protestantism, he’d expose rifts in this city that we’ve long since repaired to make way for collective progress and respect.

After hundreds of interviews and interaction with Roberts over the last decade, I can now say that my initial suspicions, which I think Rod himself would admit were fair and not borne out of any malice, were dead wrong.

Simply put, Roberts has demonstrated himself to be a member of that proud tradition of Christians in politics, those whose private faith informs their public acts.

Over his nine years in the Iowa House, Roberts, the Iowa development director with the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, has been a reliable vote on social conservative issues to be sure. He’s vehemently opposed to abortion and is steadfast in his religiously based view that marriage should be between one man and one woman. Organizations such as the decidedly right-of-center Iowa Family Policy Center know this and tell us they’re quite comfortable with the prospect of a Governor Rod Roberts. They trust him.

But it is not with social issues that Roberts has made his name in the Legislature and Iowa politics. Specifically, Roberts fought for legislation that has dispersed money from casino-rich counties to the rest of the state through Endow Iowa. Rural areas without slot-machine-fed streams of cash benefit enormously from this. It is a signature accomplishment.

The full column is published in Cityview

A moving take on late-term abortion

Lynda Waddington, the talented eastern Iowa journalist and essayist, has a thought-provoking and exceptionally moving piece in the London Guardian newspaper about her decision to have a late-term abortion some years ago. It was a baby this mother of three wanted. Lynda explains her painful situation and in so doing explodes some of the myths about late-term abortions.

This should be read with an open mind -- and a heart.

Here is The Guardian:

The death of a child is like a shotgun blast to your chest. In the beginning, you just numbly stare at the raw hole, wondering what happened. Then the pain takes hold and every other aspect of life is obliterated. With time, the raw edges scab over, but it never fully heals. Unfortunately for American women living in such a politically charged climate, such wounds are often reopened.

According to the popular wisdom spouted by anti-abortionists, women like me who have late-term abortions are promiscuous, neglect birth control and are then either too lazy or too ignorant to schedule an earlier abortion. This rhetoric, elevated to obscene levels, has become even louder since the killing of Dr George Tiller, the US abortion doctor who was shot last month in Kansas, where I had my termination.

Roberts close to announcing exploratory committee

State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, says he’s close to announcing the formation of an exploratory committee for a gubernatorial campaign in 2010.

“I’m pretty much 95 percent decided to do this with the exploratory committee,” Roberts said.

At this point the veteran legislator said he was not prepared to release names of those who would serve on an exploratory committee.

The ability to reach voters in Iowa’s vast geography will play a major role in Roberts’ ultimate decision, he said.

“There’s a lot of ground,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot of folks.”

The key charge of the exploratory committee will be to determine if Roberts has the fund-raising muscle to be competitive. He would look for a green light on that before announcing a run.

A large field is emerging of possible GOP candidates to challenge Democratic Gov. Chet Culver. As it stands that Republican list would include: Sioux City business consultant Bob Vander Plaats (who ran in 2006 before joining forces with the eventual nominee, Congressman Jim Nussle) U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, State Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, former State Sen. Jeff Lamberti, an Ankeny lawyer and board member of Casey’s General Stores, State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone and Vermeer Corp. president Mary Andringa of Mitchellville.

Roberts knows he doesn’t go into the starting gate with the best odds. That suits him just fine.

“I kind of like being the darkhorse person in the mix of names,” Roberts said.
Roberts has been receiving more media attention around Iowa in recent weeks.

WHO-TV’s Dave Price ran a Web log post titled “Don’t forget about Rod Roberts” which went on to analyze some of the possible field and Roberts place within it.

Roberts will be one of what is expected to be a handful of potential candidates for governor to attend a Sac County GOP fund-raiser on Saturday, June 27.

Last week, Roberts attended the Iowa Association of Business and Industry event in Arnolds Park in which former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was the featured speaker. Roberts said the event gave him an opportunity to further network with leaders in Iowa and potential supporters.

Supreme Court will lack a rural voice

By DOUGLAS BURNS

With the swirl of barbs and recriminations over Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination centering on race, little attention is being paid to what is a glaring lack of representation on the high court: Rural America.

If Sotomayor is confirmed, she will break a barrier as the first Latino to be seated on the Supreme Court. But as she joins the court and Justice David Souter, who grew up in Weare, N.H., leaves, the Court’s collection of nine biographies will be decidedly urban, Eastern and heavy on Ivy League education.

Of the nine justices, only Clarence Thomas can lay claim to any real rural ties. He was born in Pin Point, Ga., a rural community founded by free slaves. But Thomas lived there for only six years (albeit without indoor plumbing) before his house burned and a grandfather took him to the nearby city of Savannah. Thomas’ wife is from Omaha, Neb., and as the Omaha World-Herald pointed out this weekend, he does know University of Nebraska Husker football.

The full story is published at The Daily Yonder.com.

Q&A with possible GOP White House candidate

SIOUX CITY - The Daily Times Herald and La Prensa, an Iowa Spanish-language newspaper, inter-viewed U.S. Sen. John En-sign, a Nevada Republican, this week in Sioux City.

Ensign, chairman of the Republican Policy Commit-tee, delivered an American Future Fund lecture in Sioux City after visiting Blue Bunny ice cream in Le Mars and Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center. The senator is viewed by some in the party as an "ideas" leader, and his visit to northwest Iowa sparked much speculation about a possible presidential bid in 2012. Ensign has not announced such a move.

Daily Times Herald: On your way here from Le Mars and Sioux Center you went through farm fields and saw wind turbines that are sub-sidized by the federal gov-ernment. You've advocated free-market principles, keeping the government out of as much business as pos-sible in your view. What should the federal govern-ment's role be in Iowa agri-culture?

Senator Ensign: First of all, let's look at energy. We subsidize oil with our mili-tary. That is the bottom line. I think we subsidize oil to a great degree. So for a period of time to subsidize some of the alternative energies until they can become more competitive, I don't have a problem with that. If oil was truly a free market and we didn't have to use our mili-tary to subsidize it, then put everything on a level play-ing field.

But because we do subsi-dize that right now I have no problem subsidizing some of the renewables.

As far as farm subsidies, you have to remember I come from a state that gets no farm subsidies, even for our farmers that we have. We don't grow any of the crops that get that so I've voted against farm bills in the past because they don't benefit Nevadans and I rep-resent Nevada.

Daily Times Herald: (Joking) Just make flights cheaper from Omaha to Las Vegas.

Senator Ensign: (Laugh-ing) Well, we have a new airline that at least makes it reasonable for people to come Las Vegas called Alle-giant Air. I encourage peo-ple to check it out.

La Prensa: In 2007 you opposed the immigration reform bill. Your state is one with more immigrants. What are your thoughts on that issue for the Hispanic com-munity?

Senator Ensign: That bill itself was actually never voted on. That bill was pulled from the floor. What I believe should have hap-pened with that bill, if we would have taken the so-called amnesty, the green card, out of the bill so we could have proven that we were securing the borders, that we were sanctioning employers that were not following the law, and that the program was working, that for instance people who were here were getting signed up - we were doing background checks, elimi-nating people who were criminals. A certain per-centage are going to be criminals. We want them out of the country.

And then we also want to encourage people, for in-stance, with work visas to give them more time in this country that they learn Eng-lish, they learn it well, that they learn what it means to be an American, that they have a job with health insur-ance. Reward them for things that are good for America that are also good for the immigrants.

In six, seven, eight years down the road, once we've proven all those things work, then revisit the issue of green cards and citizen-ships and things like that.

The problem is in 1986 all of those reforms were prom-ised when they gave am-nesty but they never did the reforms. So let's prove to the American people that the reforms are working first and then we can talk about the green-card issue and things like that down the road.

Daily Times Herald: Senator, do you think the United States is less safe today than it was on January 20 of this year and what evi-dence would you have to support you answer.

Senator Ensign: I be-lieve that certainly we've put ourselves in a much more difficult position to keep us safe because we've taken away some of the tools that potentially could be used. Enhanced interroga-tion techniques without a doubt have kept us safer. We have stopped several terror-ist attacks against the United States using en-hanced interrogation tech-niques. We no longer have those tools available. So if we get a situation to prevent the next 9/11 and now we don't have those, could it potentially? It's potentially less safe because we don't have the tools that kept us safer in the past.

Rants is wrong about fallout from a Roberts bid

Last week in Sioux City I had the chance to talk with a state representative from there, Christopher Rants, a Republican who is considering running for governor.

It's quite possible that Rants could face State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, and many other GOP candidates in what promises to be a crowded gubernatorial primary field as the party works to redefine itself in the wake of a 2008 thrashing. Roberts is mulling his own Terrace Hill bid.

Rants applied the expected niceties to his fellow Republican, calling Roberts a swell fella and holding true to Ronald Reagan's famous 11th commandment: Never speak ill of another Republican.

But Rants told me a Roberts announcement for governor would open the door for Democrats to run for his House seat, that if Roberts entered the primary, and lost, voters here wouldn't be accommodating and send him back to the Legislature.

I'll be direct: Rants is wrong.

First, I have heard no rumblings about a Democratic contender for Roberts' seat.

Both Roberts and State Sen. Steve Kettering, R-Lake View, ran unopposed in their last races in districts in which Carroll is the dominant city. This is an embarrassment for the local Democratic Party.

Voters in Carroll should have no problem giving Roberts a chance to run in a gubernatorial primary next summer and keep his name up for re-election to the House should he fall short with his greater ambition.

The truth is voters probably won't have a choice. I'll be surprised if a viable Democrat steps forward even though there are several highly qualified potential candidates here.


This appeared in Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Nevada senator's Iowa visit fuels White House speculation

SIOUX CITY - U.S. Sen. John Ensign, a conservative Republican from Nevada, said Monday in Sioux City his party can appeal to women and minorities on educational choice.

"This is an issue we can actually take back," Ensign said.

Stirring speculation about a potential presidential run in 2012 the telegenic, silver-haired veterinarian spoke to more than 100 people in attendance for an American Future Fund lecture at the main library in downtown Sioux City. Earlier in the day Ensign toured the Blue Bunny ice cream plant in Le Mars and Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center.

Before he entered politics, getting elected to Congress in 1994, Ensign opened the first 24-hour animal hospital in Las Vegas.

"We need new idea leaders, new conservatives, that come out with brand-new ideas, new solutions for the challenges America faces," said Tim Albrecht, communications director for American Future Fund, a conservative, free-market political advocacy organization. "Senator Ensign is definitely an ideas guy and that's what conservatives are thirsty for."

The chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, a top position in his party's leadership structure, Ensign is not a declared for the presidency. But his visit to northwest Iowa drew CNN and Fox News cameras - as well as early vetting from Republicans eager for an alternative to President Barack Obama.

"We need as a party new ideas," said State Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City. "That's the Republicans' way back to the majority. It's not just saying 'We're Republicans. It's 'We're Republicans with ideas on energy, with ideas on health care, that are reaching out to younger voters, to minority voters.'"



Rants, a possible gubernatorial candidate who had dinner with Ensign Monday night, said the Nevadan is doing all the right things to position himself as a national voice for the party.

Ensign touched on many conventional GOP themes, and strongly criticized Obama, but didn't do so in harsh or shrill terms, an approach not lost on Rants.

"You can be just as conservative as anybody else out there, but you need to deliver that message in a non-threatening way," Rants said. "It doesn't change your values. It changes in how you deliver it to people."

Ensign drew some his most sustained applause at the event, peopled by a decidedly conservative crowd, with his call for changes to the American educational system.

"I think more choice in education will lead to better schools," Ensign said, making the case for vouchers and other programs aimed at creating private school options for more young people in the K-12 range.

Ensign said bad teachers shouldn't be able to hide behind strong unions.

And he sees educational choice as the "new civil right." Too many families are mired in underachieving school districts, he said.

"We can take that issue away from the Democrats," Ensign said.

Ensign joked that his political orientation was as a Democrat - one who at age 18 voted for President Jimmy Carter. But Ensign said he changed his political allegiances quickly.

"Once you learn to meet your own payroll you certainly understand why limited government is a good idea," Ensign said.

Ensign said Obama's stimulus plan, bailouts of the auto industry and budget plans, amount to a modern-day New Deal.

"I don't think we (the federal government) should be owning auto companies," Ensign said.

Of Obama's budget Ensign said: "That was the scariest thing I've ever seen come to Washington, D.C."

Ensign acknowledged that "there's a crisis going on in the United States" with health care.

But he said the Democrats under Obama are steering the nation toward a Canadian or European model of health care in which the Republican senator thinks bureaucrats will be positioned between doctors and patients.

On the energy front, Ensign favors federal support for transitioning biofuels and other renewables into viability but he argues that the nation needs more clean coal and nuclear power in the mix.

Albrecht said Ensign's remarks resonated with the audience in Sioux City.

"It was like a sea of bobble heads because there was a lot of nodding going on," Albrecht said.

Added Albrecht, "Conservatism, despite reports to the contrary, is alive and well. We saw it tonight in Sioux City."

This story first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Behn, former senator for Carroll, considers gov run

BOONE - Republican State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone, who represented Carroll County for most of two terms before redistricting after the 2000 elections, says he's "seriously considering" running for governor in 2010.

Behn said he's talking with supporters and others about a possible bid. He joins what is a growing list of potential candidates that includes State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll.

Behn said he had no firm timetable in mind at this point for making an announcement.

A social conservative with strong credentials in the pro-life community, Behn spent much of the interview hammering Democratic Gov. Chet Culver on fiscal and economic matters. Culver is borrowing too much money and spending the state's future away, Behn contends.

"I really want to leave an Iowa to my children and grandchildren that is every bit as good as the Iowa left to me by my parents," Behn said.

He said Iowans instinctively know the state is heading in the wrong direction and are looking for a turnaround.

"If you look at the Titanic, if it was aiming the other way, it wouldn't have hit the iceberg," Behn said.

Specifically, Behn hammered Culver's $830-million bonding plan, which is aimed at creating jobs and improving infrastructure. The borrowed money will be paid back through certain gambling revenues over 20 years.

Behn was first elected in 1996 in a Senate District that included Carroll and Greene counties. Four years later he defeated Democratic challenger Joan Phillips, then of Manning, and represented Carroll until being redistricted into a more central Iowa region, District 24, that includes Boone, Waukee, Perry and Adel.

"Carroll County has a special place in my heart," Behn said. "You essentially put me in the Senate."

Conservative voters only have to look to Behn's voting record on social issues, the Boone Republican said.

Behn thinks he can hold the GOP base while reaching out to independents on the economy.

"I think the economy moves voters," Behn said. "The independents are worried about money - pure and simple."

This doesn't mean Behn won't use the issue of recently legalized gay marriage in Iowa in a potential campaign.

Behn makes the case that the three branches of government shouldn't be equal, that the courts should take a lesser role to the legislative and executive branches, the latter two of which he says are closer to the people.

"Absolutely," he said, when asked if that's the power structure he favors in Des Moines.

"The judiciary was supposed to be the weakest of the three," Behn said.

In April the Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriage.

Republicans need to return to the "ABC's," said Behn who said that should stand for "anyone but Culver."

"You have to have someone who fundamentally disagrees with the direction we're headed," Behn said.

Behn, 55, is a longtime grain farmer who lives just south of U.S. 30 in Boone. He and his wife have four children, three grown and living in Iowa and the other 13 years old.

Besides Behn and Roberts a GOP gubernatorial field is emerging that includes some well-known politicians and candidates with big-time business credentials and bases. As it stands that list would include: Sioux City business consultant Bob Vander Plaats (who ran in 2006 before joining forces with the eventual nominee, Congressman Jim Nussle) U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, State Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, Bettendorf businessman Mike Whalen, former State Sen. Jeff Lamberti, an Ankeny lawyer and board member of Casey's General Stores and Vermeer Corp. president Mary Andringa of Mitchellville.

Behn said that no "big name" - such as King - has announced. The Boone senator said that his decision isn't necessarily connected to the moves of other Republicans.

He worked closely with Carroll's Roberts, and Behn says he holds him in high regard.

"He's a quality candidate," Behn said. "I like Rod personally. I like Rod professionally."

Racing Committee recommendation makes sense

Prairie Meadows Racing Committee recommends that Iowa pass a law requiring all casinos in the state to simulcast horse races from the Altoona, Iowa, track.

This should pass. While not all Iowa counties can benefit directly from casinos, the equine industry does have a presence in them all. This law would be a way to spread the benefits from gambling beyond those locales with the political muscle -- or geographic good fortune -- to obtain licenses.

The fact that I love horse racing has nothing to do with this opinion.

Kaul: Enjoy American cars while you can

By DONALD KAUL

Packard, Studebaker, Hudson, Auburn, Oldsmobile, DeSoto, Pierce-Arrow, Stutz, Cord, Mammon, Dusenberg, Nash, Franklin, Edsel, LaSalle, Essex, Stanley, Graham, Reo, Crosley, Kaiser---the pages of automotive history are heavy with the obituaries of car nameplates that have gone on to that Great Junkyard in the Sky.

Why should Pontiac be any different, or Chrysler for that matter? It’s no great tragedy, at least not one that we haven’t experienced time and time again. It’s been obvious for some time that the global auto industry was overstocked in production capacity and understocked in customers. Some winnowing was inevitable.

Right now it seems that American manufacturers are the ones being winnowed. Chrysler is CURRENTLY on life-support, Italian style, and General Motors is undergoing a series of painful amputations. Whether either can survive remains an open question. It would be a tragedy to lose them. Not the bogus tragedy referred to earlier---an automotive icon of your youth disappears, so what? -- -but a real, practical tragedy; hundreds of thousands of jobs gone, whole towns dead.

It was and is worth trying to save these companies but there comes a time when the situation becomes hopeless and it’s time to cut your losses and move on. We’re not there yet, but you can see it from here. To one who grew up in mid-Twentieth Century Detroit the thought of GM collapsing is almost unimaginable. It was the all-powerful Ozymandias of the auto industry---“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair,” it seemed to say.

But now we’ve moved to the close of that Shelley poem:

“Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

“The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Or, as we like to call it these days: Detroit.

Actually, downtown Detroit doesn’t look too bad; it’s got a pulse. Like so many center cities these days it exists primarily as an entertainment center, with extravagant athletic and cultural facilities as well as fine hotels, restaurants and casinos. But move off into the neighborhoods---former neighborhoods really---and Shelley’s desolate vision is made flesh. Much of the city is a wasteland of vacant lots and derelict buildings framed by weeds growing through long-unused sidewalks.

There’ll be dozens of other cities joining Detroit in the urban ash-heap if the automakers go down.

Car companies die for a variety of reasons, only sometimes because they make bad cars. More often it’s mismanagement that does them in. That’s pretty much been the case here in recent years. Our auto executives have been locked in a mindset that believed a decent profit could be turned only by making big cars, trucks and vans. Which was fine so long as the American public loved big, not so fine now with $4-a-gallon gas a recent memory. When the mood turned to small, the Japanese manufacturers moved in and ate their lunch.

You could make a case that Chrysler stopped being a car company years ago, that it invented the van and was content to make its money on them, with cars as an afterthought. Now it’s going to be run by an Italian company that makes its money on small cars, very small. We’ll see. General Motors was conceived nearly as century ago as an automotive giant that would have a specific car for every income class. Cadillac and Buick were the luxury brands with Chevrolet and Oldsmobile for the common man. Then they decided there was a hole to be filled in the luxury field and the LaSalle was born. The Pontiac was developed to fit between Olds and Chevy.

All of this demanded a huge dealer network and a vast bureaucratic superstructure. It worked, but to keep people buying cars they had to make cars that wore out quickly and “planned obsolescence” became the watchword. That was when old Ozymandias started to crumble.

I wish our car companies well, I really do. If they go away we will feel the pain in places we didn’t know we had places.

Distributed by Minuteman Media.

Why Rod Roberts should run for governor

When Rod Roberts embarked on his first Statehouse bid in 1998 I was skeptical to say the least. In fact, the candidacy of this ordained Christian conservative pastor frightened me.

With a passionate belief in separation of church and state I had visions of Rod as something of a localized Pat Robertson, an evangelical bent on Bible-beating his view of life and Christianity into his politics, his representation of us. Most of all I feared that if Roberts, a Republican, shirt-sleeved his brand of Protestantism, he'd expose rifts in this city that we've long since repaired to make way for collective progress and respect.

After hundreds of interviews with Roberts over the last decade and in interaction through Rotary and elsewhere I can now say that my initial suspicions, which I think Rod himself would admit were fair and not borne out of any malice, were dead wrong.

Simply put, Rod has demonstrated himself to be a member of that proud tradition of Christians in politics, those whose private faith informs their public acts. In hindsight this shouldn't have come as a surprise. Rod's father, Jack, now retired, was a longtime history and government teacher at the Colo-Nesco School District east of Ames. Rod probably learned about church-state separation somewhere around the time the training wheels came off his first bike.

Over his nine years in the Iowa House, Roberts, the Iowa development director with the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, has been a reliable vote on social conservative issues to be sure. He's vehemently opposed to abortion and is steadfast in his religiously based view that marriage should be between one man and one woman. Organizations such as the decidedly right-of-center Iowa Family Policy Center know this and tell us they're quite comfortable with the prospect of a Governor Rod Roberts. They trust him.

But it is not with social issues that Roberts has made his name in the Legislature and Iowa politics - or in Carroll. Specifically, Rod, a man who clearly keeps close counsel with successful economic-development leaders in Carroll, fought for legislation that has dispersed money from casino-rich counties to the rest of the state through Endow Iowa. Carroll County and other rural areas without slot-machine-fed streams of cash benefit enormously from this. It is a signature accomplishment.

On the education front, Roberts, a former member of the Carroll Community School Board, has shown a keen understanding of the state's public systems, which consume a lion's share of the tax dollars we send to Des Moines. What's more, he provided crucial advocacy for private schools with support of tuition tax credits and the rescue of logical state transportation programs for parochial students - funding that was under heavy assault at one point from former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

With regard to constituent service, an underrated but perhaps the best measure of a legislator, Rod's performed diligently. He's listened and delivered, most recently where the city of Carroll and a much-needed traffic signal project at U.S. Highway 30 and Griffith Road is concerned. I've personally never seen Rod Roberts unprepared or ill-informed on legislation. This teacher's son does his homework.

In an in-depth analysis of a potential Roberts gubernatorial bid we published Monday, fiscal-issues-first Des Moines Republican David Oman, former state chairman of that party, described Rod as having "a winning personality." This is right on the money for Rod is that rarest of political creatures with whom one can disagree but still hold in esteem, for while he's a sharp tactician and not afraid to mix it up, Rod isn't guided by guile.

In 2010 the Iowa GOP has a barn-door opening provided by an at times stumbling Chet Culver and overreaching Democratic Party, which appeared more interested in political paybacks than governing. But Republicans face political Siberia if they can't nominate a competitive candidate for Terrace Hill and shape an agenda that reaches out from the ideological single-issue madness of fringe players to life in the middle of Iowa, where most of us live.

There's every reason to believe Rod Roberts can erect the political bridges Republicans so desperately need.

Rod has what GOP insider and influential blogger Tim Albrecht calls a "gentle mannerism." Because Rod is so comfortable with himself, with his beliefs, and the necessary reconciliation on soul-searching matters like abortion and the death penalty, he doesn't have to spit-scream like a broker on a New York trading floor to prove who he is. There's no worry of a magically morphing Mitt Romney with Roberts.

Practically speaking, Roberts should enter the GOP gubernatorial primary because he has everything to gain and nothing to lose if he runs a clean campaign full of ideas and scrubbed of insults - which if history is a guide, there's ample reason to believe he will.

There are three possible results should he enter. Roberts could connect the Robert Ray moderates and Steve King conservatives in his party to capture the nomination. Or he could find himself positioned nicely for the lieutenant governor slot should a central Iowa moderate emerge as the GOP's top candidate. The worst-case scenario is that Roberts, who could drop out of the June 2010 primary in time to keep his House seat, would boost his name recognition, setting up future runs, perhaps for Congress or another statewide office or a prestigious leadership role in the Iowa House as its speaker or ranking member.

In the end, Rod should run because if he doesn't, he'll always wonder what could have been. Rod's earned this shot and should take it with the support of the Carroll area he's admirably represented.

This column first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.