Radio Iowa

Huckabee: believers don't have time to fight one another

If you're a long-time Iowa pol, you remember the closing days of the Harkin/Lightfoot race back in 1996 when the core question became:  who's the better Catholic? Both incumbent Senator Tom Harkin and challenger Jim Lightfoot, a congressman at the time, were Catholics. But Lightfoot, pushing the pro-life issue, aired a campaign ad that featured a Catholic priest lauding Lightfoot and questioning Harkin's commitment to the faith.

There's no priest involved in the latest flap involving supporters of Kansas Senator Sam Brownback and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, but Catholicism is at the core of the controversy. The pastor of an evangelical church in the Des Moines suburb of Windsor Heights who is backing Huckabee -- and who happens to be a former Catholic -- sent an email to the leaders of another church who are backing Brownback. Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic has the email. Note at the bottom of Ambinder's post there is an apology from Pastor Tim Rude, the author of the email.

Now, at 7:30 p.m. Iowa time, Eric Woolson -- Huckabee's Iowa campaign manager -- emails this:

Tuesday thoughts

I went to a friend's 40th birthday celebration on Saturday evening.  As I was sitting outdoors on the patio, I had a good chat with the woman sitting next to me.  She's a Republican and she told me about the phone call she got recently from Barack Obama's campaign. 

That's right.  From Barack Obama's campaign.  They invited her to one of Obama's speeches, focused on an issue on which she regularly works and has some expertise.  As she recounted the story, her reply was: "Do you know I'm a Republican?"  The reply of the caller was, "Yes."  The caller went on to tell her Obama was reaching out to Republicans because many in the GOP are dissatisfied with their own crop of candidates.  The Obama campaign caller promised to call back later.

That return call hasn't happened (yet?), but it highlights something I think I blogged about earlier this month. Getting Republicans to crossover and vote in a Democratic Caucus is not something that's easy.  It's something Bill Bradley tried to do in 2000, with success in just a few (mostly urban) areas, but not statewide.  Perhaps this phone call to my friend is evidence Obama is going after crossover voters in a coordinated way. 

But caucusing as a Republican and as a Democrat in Iowa are vastly different experiences.  On the Republican side, you get a slip of paper on which to write the name of your favorite candidate.  You toss it into a basket or box, and it gets counted.  On the Democratic side, you have to get out of your chair, walk over to the corner of the room designated for the candidate of your choice, and then engage in a bit of mathematics while the grown-ups running the precinct caucus decide if your candidate is "viable" (meaning the candidate has at least 15 percent support in that neighborhood meeting).  If not, you have to align with another candidate -- walk over to another grouping.  It's all in the open.  Everyone literally knows where you stand.  That may be hard for a life-long Republican to do in a setting with their Democratic neighbors staring them in the face.

UPDATE:  Just got an email from a person I would describe as a Republican Party activist who is undecided at this point in the campaign  and who read this post.  This person got a call from the Obama campaign,  too, and Obama's folks keep calling every once in a while -- asking for observations and local reaction to Obama.  This GOP activist intends to go to their local GOP precinct Caucus in January (or whenever the Iowa  Caucuses are held) and has told the Obama camp this, but Obama's folks are still soliciting intel.

Monday musings

On Friday afternoon in Adel, Iowa, Barack Obama brought up his week-long feud with rival Hillary Clinton over the proper approach when meeting with rogue leaders like Mahmoud or Kim or Fidel.  Obama aides had told reporters he would not mention the subject unless asked, but Obama used two minutes out of his 14-minute-long speech on farm policy to heighten the debate.

Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times captured day six of the controversy.  Obama's comments were not quite as direct Saturday morning as they'd been late Friday afternoon.  Nonetheless, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was summoned to hold a conference call with reporters to argue the Clinton side of the debate early Saturday afternoon. 

This morning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Obama revived the diplomacy debate.  Obama attacked "conventional wisdom" in Washington.  "That's how people end up voting for this war in Iraq," Obama said -- referring to Clinton's vote giving Bush authority to act in Iraq.  "...People were not willing to ask difficult questions because the conventional wisdom inside Washington was either this was going to be a cakewalk or it would be political suicde to vote against it."  BTW, that last bit could have been a shot at another rival -- John Edwards.

Obama accuses Clinton of "bad judgment"

Speaking this afternoon on a farm near Adel -- with a flat field of corn behind him -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama escalated his war of words with rival Hillary Clinton.

"We can't keep on doing the same stuff all the time.  You know, some of you noticed that this week I got into a debate with one of my colleagues who's also running for the presidency and the debate was about whether or not we talk to world leaders even when we don't like 'em and my theory was you do and you do it without preconditions," Obama said, to applause from the crowd.  "And, you know, some of the pundits in Washington, they said, 'Oh, that shows inexperience, that he'd be willing to tlak to folks' and my attitude was what do we have to fear as Americans?  Why is it that we should be afraid when we've got, if we know who we are, if we know what we stand for, then we shouldn't be afraid to meet anybody because we'll tell 'em what we believe and what makes this country great.  They may not like what we have to say," Obama said, as the crowd interrupted him with applause.  "But we're going to go ahead and speak to 'em about those issues."

The crowd applauded.

"And what's interesting is when I said that people kind of scratched their head because it wasn't what they were accustomed to hearing.  So often in Washington, experience means doing what we've been doing over and over and over again.  Well, to me that's not experience if what you're doing isn't working.  It's bad judgment and if you want to show good judgment, then you've got to be open to changing the way we do things in order to get different outcomes and that means driving the agenda from here in the heartland, not having it driven by special interests.  It means being willing to try new approaches to our foreign policy so that we strengthen our diplomacy."

Edwards rails against "corrupt capitalism"

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards delivered what his campaign called a "major policy address" this morning in Des Moines.  The event was held in the auditorium inside the student center at Grandview College.  The last time I was in the room was for a Howard Dean event where Dean stressed his credentials as a doctor and his health care reform plans.

About 300 people were in the room to listen to the speech -- and they had to wait for a while because Edwards was 45 minutes late.  According to his staff:  "He's talking to Elizabeth." 

Once show time arrived, an announcer said "Senator John Edwards" and Edwards walked onto the raised stage wearing a dark suit, white shirt and North-Carolina-blue tie (upon later inspection by reporters gathered around Edwards for the Q&A afterwards, the tie's pattern featured tiny octopi and clams...the plural of octopus can be ocotopuses, octopi or octopodes, by the way).  Thanks to a FOB (friend of the blog) -- Dan -- for the photo.

"They were saying back stage they're very excited to hear your tax speech," Edwards began, as the crowd applauded his entrance.  "I said: 'No, they're just tired of waiting."  The crowd laughed.

"I'm very pleased to be here with all of you.  My, uh, my, uh -- I'm trying to think of the right word to use -- my bottom is sore from riding in RAGBRAI yesterday but we had a great time," Edwards continued, referencing his pedal time on the bike ride next to Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong.  "Elizabeth was with me and Jack and Emma Claire and I rode for a short time with Lance Armstrong and we had a great discussion after the ride because Jack was saying to me, he said: 'Dad, did Lance ride faster than you?' and I said: 'No," and Elizabeth, as usual, chimed in and said: 'It's because he chose not to, Jack." 

The crowd, and Edwards, laughed.

"Mom! Come quick! Kay's on TV!"

Guest post by Radio Iowa's web guy, Steve Mays.

O. Kay Henderson did a segment on MSNBC's Hardball last night. While this falls into the "please don't talk about this" category for Kay, we -- her fans and friends -- get a kick out of seeing her on TV. I told her she had to at least provide a link here or I'd post the full eight minutes on YouTube and release into the blogosphere. She relented. We now return you to your regular programming.

"Little Grassley" has grown into a "Mighty Nussle"

Former Iowa Congressman/2006 Iowa GOP gubernatorial nominee Jim Nussle appeared before a U.S. Senate committee today as part of his confirmation process as President Bush's nominee to head the OMB.  Both of Iowa's senators were there to give glowing introductions.  You can listen to Grassley, followed by Harkin, followed by Nussle by clicking on the audio link at the bottom of the Radio Iowa story.  The mp3 is about 20 minutes long.

In it, you'll hear Grassley joking about Nussle being a "Little Grassley" and then Senator Joe Lieberman adding that "this 'Little Grassley' has grown into a 'Mighty Nussle.'" 

McCain declares he'll win Iowa in '08

Arizona Senator John McCain is in Iowa.  His campaign sent an advisory, telling reporters to show up at 4:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon at McCain's Iowa campaign headquarters to set up for a 4:30 p.m. news conference.

I arrived at 4:10 p.m.  The McCain campaign HQ is in a suite of offices used by Jim Nussle's 2006 campaign for governor.  The office building sits in a neighborhood that's largely residential, but there's commercial development along a major four-lane east/west road in Des Moines.  There's a vestibule to the office decorated with an American flag tacked to one wall.  On the opposite wall there's a piece of "artwork" that's in the shape of Iowa; painted red, white and blue; and decorated with McCain pictures and bumper stickers.

Reporters were held in this outer area of the office as McCain chatted inside the warren of offices with a bunch of his supporters.  The guestimate of crowd size was "several dozen."  A few bursts of applause could be heard from the interior room where McCain was speaking 

Obama at AFSCME in DSM

Illinoise Senator Barack Obama arrived at the venue early.  "I'm realy to go," he told Matt Paul, a consultant to AFSCME who's handling logistics for the event (yes, THAT Matt Paul, the former aide to former Governor Tom Vilsack). The two stood outside the banquet room at the Des Moines Airport Holiday Inn, shaking hands.  That was abiout 15 minutes ago.  The banquet room was empty at that time.

AFSCME members re slowly filing in, seating themselves at round tables.  Former Iowa House Democratic Leader Dick Myers of Iowa City -- owner of a Harley Davidson dealership -- came by to chat.  He's an Obama backer.  "This guy's got some courage and conviction," Myers says.

The show is going to go on early.  Obama was introduced by the president of AFSCME's Iowa chapter.  Last night, Hillary Clinton was introduced by Gerald McAtee, the head of AFSCME international.  What does that portend for an AFSCME endorsement in the future?  On the other hand, ask Howard Dean what the AFSCME endorsement's worth...

They're playing Aretha -- "You've gotta think....Oh, Freedom," Franklin's singing.

"How's everybody doing?" Obama says.  "Thank you. I am fired up.  Danny is this your gavel?....(Obama picks up the gavel and pounds it) I am going to call this meeting to order."

"I have been friends with AFSCME for a long, long time....(He's thanking the local AFSCME leaders and a Polk County Supervisor who is backing Obama)....I want to make a special note that AFSCME member Ray Zirkelbach is on his way home. (Iowa National Guardsman Zirkelbach's been in Iraq for 16 months and arrived back on US soil last week, due in Iowa next week)..We're glad to get Ray back home safely."

There's feedback from his mic -- "Holy Cow!" Obama says."....I'm glad to be among so many good friends....I think everybody here knows we meet at a challenging time for labor because all across the country Americans are anxious about their future....They wonder how they're ever going to keep up...Will my job even be there tomorrow?  Who is going to stand up for me?"

Obama then recounts the story of AFSCME members in Memphis.  Dr. Martin Luther King deklivered his "I've been to the mountain top" speech on April 3rd to the Memphis workes/freedom marchers, then the next day he was shot.

Clinton at AFSCME in DSM

It's 10 'til seven on a Friday night.  I'm standing in the courtyard of the Holiday Inn across from the Des Moines International Airport at a bar -- but the bar is not in use.  I'm looking down on an area covered by green (yes, it's fake grass turf). dotted by tables covered in red-checkered tablecloths.  AFSCME members are seated around those tables, chowing down on dinner.  In a few moments, we're told, New York Senator Hillary Clinton will speak to this 15th biennial state convention of AFSCME Council 61.  John Edwards was here yesterday; Bill Richardson was here earlier today; Barack Obama and Chris Dodd are due here tomorrow.

"You shook me all night long," is the phrase blaring out of the mouths of the two band members singing into microphones on the far end of the room.  They've encouraged the crowd to sing along with other standards, but according to Dave Price of WHO-TV it's not been a successful effort because one rarely sings and eats at the same time.  At least not in polite company. 

It looks like pork chops, potatoes, salad, rolls and cake were on tonight's buffet-style menu.  As "Honky Tonk Girl" blares out of the speakers, I count about 250 people seated.  There's also a passel of people milling about.  I don't recall "Honky Tonk Girl" being one of the Clinton campaign's potential theme songs.  I don't believe this is a band which includes Celine Dion standards in its repertoire. 

AFSCME International president Gerry McEntee is introducing Clinton. (An AFSCME person from Washington, D.C. called on Monday to say it wasn't him, it was AFSCME's Iowa president who was introducing Clinton. You can't tell it from the recording because the sound guy was playing "Eye of the Tiger" -- with reverb -- over and under whomever was introducing Clinton.  The entire broadcast corps at the event was pleading with the audio guy to get the audio straightened out so we'd have clean audio of Clinton, but it took all of that introduction to get it done.  Go listen to the recording here to understand how bad it was.)  "She has a 98 percent AFSCME voting record," he says.  The crowd applauds.  "What's Cheney's voting record?  Or, never mind," he continues. The intro is short.  Now, Celine Dion IS singing Clinton's campaign theme song (it's a recording; Celine is not here).

"I am delighted to be here with all of you tonight and I want to thank Danny and his entire team.  I know how hard Danny and Marcia work to make an event like this happen," Clinton began, addressing the Iowa leadership of AFSCME.