Lots of questions for GOP candidates; Kim needs a GPS; Danny is eloquent
Some questions:
For Terry Branstad: Do you agree with a plank in the newly approved Iowa Republican platform that says no public official should serve more than 12 years in any office?
For Chuck Grassley: Same question as above. Plus: Do you approve of the plank that says “we oppose agricultural subsidies?” And the one that says, “We call for the abolition of the Federal Department of Agriculture?”
For Kim Reynolds: Do you support the plank that says “a person convicted of driving while intoxicated should never have his record expunged?”
For Tom Latham and Steve King and Chuck Grassley: Do you concur with the plank that says: “We support abolishing the congressional retirement fund?”
For the 14,572 Iowans who were divorced last year: Do you agree that “no-fault divorce laws should be repealed?”
Just asking.
Just asking because the party’s new platform says, “We require each duly nominated candidate that won their primary to sign the State platform once passed, and agree with 80 percent of the planks in order to receive state party funding.”
In case all the duly nominated candidates haven’t yet read the platform, Skinny — following up on Herb Strentz’ Cityview column of last week — is happy to provide some of the planks that they need to agree with:
Eliminate all minimum wage laws. Eliminate the Department of Energy as well as the Department of Agriculture. Eliminate the Internal Revenue Service. Eliminate OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Eliminate social security, Medicare and Medicaid. Eliminate the state and federal departments of education. Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts.
Also: Eliminate all state and federal corporate income taxes. Eliminate all state and federal estate, inheritance and gift taxes. Change Iowa’s personal income-tax system to a flat-rate tax. The new platform also proclaims that health care “is a privilege and not a right,” a plank that used to be in the platform but was taken out a couple of years ago. Now, it’s back.
The platform calls for the teaching of creationism in the schools, and, apparently for the first time, it endorses the right of anyone to carry a gun into any public schoolroom so long as the person is licensed to carry a concealed weapon. Not allowing weapons in schoolrooms “endangers our children,” the platform explains. (The platform, while singing the praises of the First Amendment, believes “that the term ‘assault weapon’ should not be used as a term applicable to a semiautomatic weapon.”)
The document also calls for a repeal of bans on smoking, elimination of gambling, reinstatement of the death penalty (“with proper safeguards”), elimination of punitive damages in lawsuits, elimination of earmarking, elimination of the Iowa Values Fund, elimination of mainstreaming special-needs students (which is “detrimental to general student education”), and elimination of mandatory sex-education classes.
It opposes not only gay marriage but also civil unions. And adoption by gays. And “the teaching of homosexual behavior as a normal or acceptable lifestyle in our public schools.” And the formation, “at any level of our public school system,” of clubs based on sexual orientation, “such as the Gay Straight Alliance.” It also has lots of planks about immigrants, none of them favorable to the immigrants.
Finally, the state platform says the U.S. Constitution is not a “living, breathing document,” and it calls for “the repeal of all laws and programs not authorized” by the Constitution.
Actually, that wasn’t the “finally.” This is:
“We support the definition of manure as a natural fertilizer.”
Another question: What percentage of the platform do you think Bob Ray agrees with? Or Art Neu? Or Joy Corning? Or Greg Ganske? Or Steve Roberts? Or Scott Raecker? Or David Oman? Or Jim Leach? Another question: Is Marvin Pomerantz rolling over in his grave? How about Mary Louise Smith? ...
Speaking of Kim Reynolds, as we were a few paragraphs ago, a fellow slipped Skinny the court papers of her arrest for second-offense drunk driving on the early evening of Aug. 23, 2000, when she was Clarke County treasurer. What’s most puzzling is that while she said she was on her way from Burlington to her home in Osceola — a straight, 140-mile shot across Highway 34 — she also said she stopped for gas in Ames, which is far north of 34, and when she was arrested she was on Interstate 35 in Warren County — driving north. She was 50 miles south of Ames — but heading back in that direction and away from Osceola. When she was stopped, she told the highway patrolman that she had had a glass of wine, but she failed the “walk and turn maneuver,” took nine steps but thought it was 11, and “hopped, swayed and raised her arms for balance” when the officer administered the “one-leg stand maneuver.” Also, there was an open container of Black Velvet — three-quarters empty — under a bag in the back seat.
Instead of calling home, she tried to call a friend — district judge Gary Kimes — but “he wouldn’t accept collect calls,” the police report noted. She then got hold of a sister-in-law who got hold of Kimes who recommended three attorneys. Initially, she pleaded not guilty but amended the plea to guilty of first offense drunken driving, even though it was her second offense. She was fined $1,950 plus costs and sentenced to 60 days in jail, with 58 days being suspended.
A guy who saw the arrest papers said they have bad news and good news. The bad news: the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor doesn’t seem to know north from south. The good news: If elected, she’ll have a state trooper to drive her. ...
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees endorsed Chet Culver at a meeting on Saturday even though the union and the governor haven’t been exactly cozy the past four years. Still, Danny Homan, the hard-working and passionate and usually blunt union president, was all but eloquent in asking members for the endorsement, praising the governor and recalling the union’s difficult times under Terry Branstad.
And that might be the first time ever that the words “eloquent” and “Danny Homan” appeared in the same sentence. As he said when he opened his remarks: five years ago, when giving his first talk to the membership as the newly elected president, he was so nervous he blurted out, “Oh, shit.”
Which the Republicans now recognize as a natural fertilizer. CV
