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Guest Commentary

Two Guest commentary by Kent Carlson and Douglas Burns

Tom and Ruth Harkin’s pulp reality

By Kent Carlson

There’s an old saying in Washington: “Politics makes for strange bedfellows.” Perhaps, but Sen. Tom Harkin’s bedfellow is no stranger to politics. For 41 years Tom and Ruth Harkin’s partnership has brought political and financial riches to the Washington power couple. According to Roll Call, Tom Harkin is ranked as the 30th richest member of congress, out of the 237 millionaires who inhabit the Capitol. Though Harkin’s net worth is estimated at $8.4 million (down a couple million from last year), the majority of his assets are in the name of Ruth Harkin. The Harkin’s split their time between a home in Virginia and another on Elbow Cay in the Bahamas. Oh, and an occasional steak fry in Iowa.

Ruth has had an interesting career. She worked for Clinton confidant Vernon Jordan (also know for helping Monica Lewinski realize her “vocational aspirations”) at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLC before Clinton appointed her as Chairman and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). While running OPIC, Harkin was involved with Clinton’s seizure of Utah’s low-sulfur coal lands. That gave the Lippo Group (a company owned jointly by the Chinese government and Clinton’s infamous contributor, the Riady family) market control over the world’s only other low-sulfur coal deposits located in Indonesia. Under Harkin’s control, the OPIC also funneled nearly $750 million to Enron, a company that eventually lost $60 billion. Harkin also provided $65 million to United Technologies, who then hired her in April of 1997 as “senior vice president for international affairs and government relations.”

United Technologies is a $58 billion company. Among other things, UTC Power is the world’s leader in fuel cell development and production. In 2005, Tom Harkin cosponsored Senate bill S665 that appropriated nearly $8 billion for hydrogen development programs, of which $1.7 billion went directly to fuel cell research and development programs.

Ruth Harkin became a director at Conoco in 1998 (later ConocoPhillips), a job that has paid her more than a $1 million in the last three years alone. In 2001, Senator Harkin claimed that he “inadvertently omitted” $215,000 worth of Conoco stock owned by his wife and daughter from his Senate financial statement. Harkin is the top congressional investor in ConocoPhillips.

But Ruth Harkin has another gig. In 2005 she joined the board of Bowater Inc. (now Abitibi Bowater), North America’s largest producer of newsprint. She sits on the Nominating and Governance, Human Resources and Compensation Board committees. Not so coincidently, Senator Harkin was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry until September, 2009. As chairman, the Senator was in charge of the 2008 farm bill.

A recent Register story headlined “Unintended companies obtain subsidies designed for biomass” details how the Biomass Crop Assistance Program created in the 2008 farm bill has turned into a “cash cow” for paper mills. To believe this was “unintended” one would have to ignore the relationship Sen. Harkin’s bedfellow has with the largest newsprint maker in North America.

The process of turning wood pulp into paper produces a byproduct called “black liquor.” Since the 1930s, the paper industry has been using black liquor as a fuel source for electric generators. By mixing black liquor with diesel, they qualify for the cellulosic biofuel credit amounting to $1.01 per gallon. It isn’t much cleaner, but a whopping tax credit sure makes it cheaper. Thanks to the paper industry’s claim to tax credits, federal handouts may balloon to $25 billion.

Ruth Harkin’s Abitibi Bowater took in $118 million worth of tax credits in the first half of 2009 thanks to provisions in her husband’s 2008 farm bill. And in October, the Canadian government handed Abitibi Bowater another $33,213,351 in black liquor credits.

Ironically, Abitibi Bowater filed Chapter 11 in April, 2009. The company owes $6 billion, of which $1.1 billion is secured. Meanwhile, competitor International Paper enjoyed $1.06 billion in tax credits. Thanks to Senator Harkin’s farm bill, they are making more money from tax credits than paper production.

In September, Senator Tom Harkin quietly slipped away from his chairmanship of the Senate Ag Committee. But he made sure his buddy, Tom Vilsack, was firmly in place as Secretary of Agriculture. That same month, Vilsack said, “We also want to provide landowners with economic incentives to maintain and restore their forest land, which is why the U.S. Forest Service will play a leading role in building a restoration economy through the development of new markets for carbon storage and biomass energy.” Sounds like they’re on the same page.

For 35 years Tommy and his Bahama Mama have amassed a fortune, while spending a fortune in taxpayer dollars. Pillow talk has made these political bedfellows rich. CV

Kent Carlson is a native Iowa artist interested in the preserving Iowa’s architectural heritage and the common sense of its leaders. And he writes a few columns for Cityview, too.

Political Mercury

By Douglas Burns

No Joy for Branstad, a Denison fiesta and 2012 odds

Was that Bob Vander Plaats dropping quarters in the phone for former Lt. Gov. Joy Corning?

The Pure Right in Iowa politics has been seeking to advance the narrative of former Gov. Terry Branstad as a heretic, or at least a doubter, among true believers.

Pure Righters (we’ll shelve the term “Christian Right” because, unlike G.W. Bush, I can’t read their hearts by seeing the whites of their eyes) are challenging Gov. Branstad with the memory of one Joy Corning, the now 77-year-old woman who served as his lieutenant.

She’s pro-choice on abortion and supports gay marriage, meaning her GOP passport circa 1975 is no good in many parts of Iowa.

Corning should have been a political version of “Melrose Place” — something you watched in 1994 but don’t remember.

I’ve covered politics in Iowa since the early 1990s, and I’ve interviewed Corning, but I will admit, I couldn’t even recall what she looked like when the Pure Right started with this line of attack.

But there she was the other night, on the phones for One Iowa, making calls to Republicans, urging them to support same-sex marriages.

“No, seriously, you don’t have to watch them kiss at the weddings. You can just turn away.”

Political Mercury has no evidence that Corning said this, but she should have.

Huckabee hero Vander Plaats, a Sioux City businessman with western Iowa street cred, is all over this Corning call. His campaign could have been sued for political malpractice if it weren’t.

As a Branstad supporter, Corning’s next mission will be to travel to Le Mars where she will speak to a home economics class (in Spanish) and attempt to persuade the Bulldogs cheerleading squad there to start dating black guys. ...

As others were reading the election tea leaves last week in New Jersey, Virginia and upstate New York (OK, I was, too), there was a transcendent evening in western Iowa.

Voters in Denison elected the city’s first Hispanic member of the City Council.

Pedro Rodriguez, 53, an employee of Iowa Western Security and a part-time cashier at Casey’s, ran unopposed on the ballot for the city’s 1st Ward. Rodriguez, who lives with his wife, Gloria, just blocks from Denison High School, pulled 139 votes, which was enough to stave off 38 write-in votes.

Denison is one of the more heavily Hispanic cities in Iowa. Crawford County’s population is 20 percent Hispanic, according to 2008 U.S. Census estimates.

Rodriquez said he campaigned as an advocate for working-class Denison resident of all races. He thinks some in the city have reached too far with spending for projects.

That said, the barrier-breaking element of his election is not lost on Rodriguez. He says the election is a morale boost for the Hispanic community.

“Many of them have second-class citizen mentalities where they feel no one could approach any government position,” Rodriguez said.

This is why the Denison election matters to all Iowans. As Hispanics feel more empowered and turn out to vote, it will change the dynamics of state and national races in western Iowa, Not overnight, mind you. But slowly, and surely. ...

Since Terry Branstad was not in office long enough to expand state-sponsored games of chance to include sports wagering, we are left to longingly look to London, where it is legal.

Betting isn’t limited to horses and soccer, either.

Ladbrokes takes wagers and runs regular odds on the U.S. presidential elections. And they have lines posted already for 2012.

President Barack Obama is running at even odds. The top Republican on the sheet is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Iowa silver medalist, who comes in at 10 to 1.

The wager is for the next president, not the winner of Iowa or the nomination, although lines are posted for those events later.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a budding author, is at 25 to 1.

As a frequent patron of horse-racing venues (they overlook cigarette smoking), I look for what one calls a “good price,” which is when a horse has some longer odds but a reasoned shot a winning the race.

My “good price” pick for the presidency in 2012, using the Ladbrokes odds, is Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels at 50 to 1.