Radio Iowa

County Conventions

The two Democratic candidates still fighting for their party's presidential nomination have sent email messages to supporters in Iowa.  The subject?  This coming Saturday's county conventions.  The dynamic here is that delegates are to be elected at these shindigs, and the Clinton camp would dearly like to be able to pick up a few delegates here and there around Iowa's 99 counties.  (Follow the link and find Newsweek article in which Clinton is quoted talking about how already "pledged" delegates may not be, well, pledged.)

Compare and contrast the two email messages from the campaigns after the jump.

UPDATED: Congressman King says terrorists would "dance" if Obama wins

UPDATED:  Congressman Steve King made some comments in an interview with the Spencer Daily Reporter on KICD Radio in Spencer which have been picked up and written about by the Associated Press.  (Click on the KICD Radio in Spencer link.  It'll send you to the Radio Iowa story, which has an mp3/audio of King's comments.)

According to the press reports, King said in the interview that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's middle name -- Hussein -- "matters" and has "meaning" for terrorists.  The key quote from King about how Obama's election as president would be celebrated by terrorists:  "The radical Islamists, the al-Qaida ... would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror."

Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama, has denounced King's comments and called upon Republican presidential candidate John McCain to issue the same kind of denunciation that McCain issued last month when a talk show host warming up the crowd at a McCain campaign rally referred to Barack Hussein Obama.

UPDATED:  Here is the text of what King said:  "I don't want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name, whatever the religion of their father might have been.  I'll just say this, that when you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected president of the United States, I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does this look like to the world of Islam?" King said Friday during an interview in KICD studios in Spencer.  "And I will tell you that if he is elected president, then the radical islamists, the al Qaida and the radical Islamists and their supporters Will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11th."

And here's more, specifically regarding Obama's middle name:  "It does matter. His middle name does matter.  It matters because they read meaning into that and the rest of the world, it has special meaning to them. They'll be dancing in the streets because of his middle name. They'll be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict. So there are implications that have to do with who he is and the positions that he has taken. If he were strong on national defense and said, 'I'm going to go over there and we're going to fight and we're going to win. We'll come home with a victory,' that's different, but that's not what he's said. There will be dancing in the streets if he's elected president and that has a chilling effect on how difficult it will be to ever win this global war on terror," King said.

Hillary Clinton's middle name is not Rodham.  That's her maiden name.  Her middle name is Diane.

Updated information on Caucus Night registration

A release this afternoon from the Iowa Secretary of State's office:

(Des Moines) Iowa Secretary of State Michael A. Mauro released the statistics from voter registration changes his offices attributes to the January 3rd Iowa Caucuses.

The current registration totals as of March 1st are: Democrats – 701,285; Republicans - 615,576; and 761,201 No Party.

The Iowa Democratic Party gained nearly 60,000 registrants and the Iowa Republican Party gained nearly 7,600 registered voters.

“It was apparent from the media reports and the crowded caucus locations that this was going to be a historic event for all Iowans.  These registration numbers prove that the reports we were all hearing weren’t just hype, but a reflection of a momentous event,” Mauro affirmed.

The voters registered as “no party” had the largest decrease in number, dropping by over 49,000. “It is clear from these statistics that more independents chose to align with the Democrats during the caucus,” Mauro stated.

Mauro is clear on this point, the overall winner is the state of Iowa.  Party politics aside, Iowa gained over 22,000 new registrations overall.  “I’m proud that Iowa voters chose to go out and participate in the caucus.  I hope and fully anticipate this trend will carry through the Primary season and on to the General Election.”

Big word/fancy verb

House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines is a lawyer.  He used a noteworthy word today during his comments to reporters after House Republican Leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City tried but failed to use a parliamentary maneuver to bring a resolution on gay marriage out of committee.

During a rant against the Republican's tactics, McCarthy said the following: "They'll try to conflate this procedural vote on the ultimate issue of gay marriage."

Recession? Not yet in Iowa.

The Legislative Services Agency issued a report on state tax collections this morning.  Click here to read the details.  The condensed version?  Through the first eight months of the state fiscal year (which began July 1, 2007), state tax and fee collections are running 11.1 percent ahead of the previous comparable period  Some may suggest the increase in tobacco taxes which took effect nearly a year ago account for a lot of that, but according to Leiglsative Services Agency director Dennis Prouty, tobacco tax increases account for just two percent of that 11.1 percent.  Read some of Prouty's general comments here.