Tea Parties are HUGE Success

Yesterday was Tax Day, but it was also Tea Party Day. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of people attended a Tea Party to protest higher taxes and higher government spending. 

Several parties were held in Iowa. Iowa City had several hundred, and The Des Moines Register is reporting 3,000 people in Des Moines. 

What does this mean? Some reporters, and Obama Spokesman Robert Gibbs, didn't think much of it. But they don't get it. It means that people are sick of government spending. They are sick of the government acting as an impediment to their abillity to make money to support their family or small business. In general, it means that people are sick of government not listening to them and going on their merry way doing what they want to do. A phrase on many of the flags flown throughout the country yesterday featured a phrase used during the American Revolution--"Don't Tread on Me." 

Will the Democrats in the legislature listen? Maybe. Maybe not. While I lean towards the second option, you can take a page from Obama and always hope. Word on the street yesterday is that the Federal Deductibility bill is dead. House Speaker Pat Murpy is saying he is only one vote short, so don't believe it until every legislator is safely back in their district for the year. But Culver is still pushing his bonding proposals...you know, use the credit card because we can...even though 71% of Iowans, according to a recent DMR poll, don't support that option. It isn't over yet. 

There is a reason my postings are done under the name wideawake. Because people need to stay awake to what is happening in their local, state, and national government. There are several examples of bad legislation at all levels that have been stopped, or at least brought to light, because people were paying attention. This is your government, this is you state and your country. Get involved.

Closing Time is Near

The Legislature is hoping to adjurn this week. The Des Moines Register has a story here about what bills are done and which ones are still alive. 

Republicans have had some impressive victories this session-changes in the Electoral College, labor bills (so far), Federal Deductibility (so far), etc. It isn't over yet, folks. Culver-Gronstall-et.al claim to have a deal on Federal Deductibility, Culver is still pushing on his bonding proposal, and some of those labor bills, particularly doctor shopping and changes in bargaining, are still lurking. 

If you're not on Twitter, join today. It is a great way to keep up-to-date on what is happening, especially if you are at a computer all day. The best ones, but no means the only ones, to follow are: @ReneeSchulte, @NickAWagner, @KentSorenson, @IowaGOPer, @IowaSRC, @IowaGOP, @C_Rants, @charlotte_eby. You don't realize how much information you can get through Twitter until you try it out. 

Keep our Republican legislators in your thougts and prayers as they keep up the good fight for the citizens of Iowa. 

Couple Odds-n-Ends From the Past Few Days

WATCH YOUR WALLETS!

I'm sure a lot of you have heard the story of the "Capital Purse Snatcher". Marshall Clemons, a custodian from Cedar Rapids, was at the capitol with the SEIU lobbying for the passage of union legislation, when he was busted snatching wallets from two purses. Oops, that can't make you look good in front of all those legislators. I believe that is only one notch up from stealing candy from a baby.

Turns out that then Presidential candidate, now Vice President, Joe Biden, followed Mr. Clemons as part of a "spend a day in my shoes" program during the primaries. Iowa Republican has video for us, as well as links to other stories about written at the time. Clemons was also Vice President Biden's "special guest" at the inauguration and gave him a tour of the White House. The more days go by, the more people associated with this administration get hammered on money issues.



CULVER'S "PAY-TO-SIT" PROGRAM GETS SMACKED DOWN BY THE W.H.

Gov. Culver and the White House are going to host a health care forum in Des Moines to "hear from everyone" as they go about implementing Universal Health Care. While the forum is open to the public, attendees need a ticket to enter, which they can only get through entering a lottery. Culver's office sent out an email seeking sponsors to help pay for the event, offering them guarenteed tickets as part of the package. Well, this got out, and people rightly were concerned. The White House finally put out a press release saying that there will be no sponsorhips or fundraising. Dave Price has the info and the emails. I would think it kind of embarassing if the White House did that to me, but maybe that's just me.


2012 NEWS

Per Iowa Republican, Bob Kraus, the chair of the IDP Veteran's Caucus, is launching an exploratory committee to take on Grassley in 2012. Will anyone else step up? Guess will find out in the coming months.

Iowan Gentry Collins Named RNC Political Director

Bean Walker has the story here.

Congrats to Gentry, and congrats to Iowa.

Gentry brings a lot of experience to the RNC, with his serving in the past as ED of the state party, Political Director for the Republican Governor's Association, leading the Iowa effort for Mitt Romney's campaign and most recently as the Midwest Regional Campaign Manager for the McCain campaign. With someone like Gentry at the RNC, Iowa should feel more comfortable about retaining our First in the Nation status.

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We're Back!

After a long hiatus (much longer than I thought), this blog is back! Keep checking back, we'll have more stuff up here soon.

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Fred Thompson Coming to Town

It is kind of neat that the 100th post on this blog belongs to this announcement:

FRED THOMPSON
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2ND, DOORS OPEN AT 10:50AM
WEBSTER COUNTY GOP HEADQUARTERS
900 CENTRAL AVENUE, FORT DODGE, IOWA

Contact Kristen Fuzer at kfuzer@fred08.com to RSPV (make sure to denote the Fort Dodge event).

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Last Nights Debate

There has been some mixed reviews of the debate last night. Some thought it was good, some thought it wasn't so good.

Some general thoughts:

1). For all of the talk from the Democrats about how Fox News is an extension of the RNC, last night proved otherwise. I haven't seen the Democrats asked as tough of questions as the Republicans were last night. Brit Hume, Chris Wallace, and Wendall Goler didn't let the candidates off lightly. There is a consensus that Romney was hammered by the tough questions, which is probably true (I didn't keep count), and Giuliani was hit hard on his family and his immigration policies while mayor of New York. McCain faced some tough ones on immigration and on the no-tax pledge. I realize that some people may complain about this, and politically softball questions make candidates look better, but I think tough questions are good things. If a candidate can't face the serious questions, and confront any concerns about his or her candidacy, then they shouldn't be running in the first place.

2) McCain had his best debate performance yet, and I agree with the consensus that McCain won. He was running on all eight cylinders, his jokes were good and didn't sound like they were forced, he provided clear answers to the questions, and took advantage of the openings he found. He was the most solid on the war and the surge, as well as on spending. He hit the question about him not signing the no-tax pledge a lot harder than many were anticipating. You could tell Romney was caught off guard when McCain hit him back on the surge that it's not apparently working, it is working. It was interesting to see how many of the candidates were complementing McCain or referring to his previous statements. If McCain can keep this up, he's going to be back in the hunt in no time.

3) Romney didn't look as good as he had in previous debates. For starters, his hair and make-up wasn't very good (but then, a lot of them had that problem). Some of his answers were a little weak, particularly on Iraq, and many of his jokes fell flat.

4) Who kept laughing at Ron Paul? Every time he was asked a question or gave an answer, there was an audible laugh from someone near a microphone. Paul provided one of the memorable moments in the debate when he and Mike Huckabee (in a position that every other candidate wanted to be in) went back and forth about the war. And the moderators didn't hold anything back when questioning Paul. Chris Wallace (or was it Brit Hume?) took a huge swipe at him by asking him about his stances on abolishing the IRS, the CIA, the FBI, etc. Wallace also had a good jab at Paul when he asked "So we should take our marching orders from Al-Qaeda?"

5) Tancredo's speaking style when he talked about immigration was much much better than it has been in the past. I was always uncomfortable because he started rushing his answer trying to get as much in as he could within the time limit, which led to a choppy speech pattern as he had to fight for breaths and to stop and think for brief moments. I found it distracting from his answer. He didn't have that problem on his immigration answer last night, but then the choppiness returned later on.

6) Fred Thompson received a lot of flak about skipping the debate in favor of appearing on Jay Leno. Even though I have noticed a little anti-Thompson feeling from Fox News (particularly from Carl Cameron) and that he did skip their debate, I was a little surprised that the moderators allowed the bash fest for the first question of the night. While I can understand why he wanted to go and announce on Leno (I'm still not sure if that is the right place to announce that you're running for President of the United States, but that's another post), I also think it was important that he be in New Hampshire for the debate. We'll find what, if anything, this will do for Thompson in his campaign.

Overall I thought it was a good debate. As I pointed out earlier, the Republican candidates faced the tough questions from what Democrats say is a friendly network. I think it says a lot about Fox News as a news organization, as well as the candidates that they stood up to the questions and, overall, did a good job in responding to them. And I think it says a lot about the Democrats who haven't faced those kinds of tough questions, even from "their network"--CNN.
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