There's no need to fear! Dept.

Roxanne Conlin announced her intention a few days ago to run as the Democratic candidate against Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley in 2010, after the primary of course. What makes this interesting is that she also ran for Governor of Iowa in 1982, against Republican Terry E. Branstad, who won and then served four terms as Iowa's Governor.

I was a Conlin supporter in the 1982 campaign. The experience was tremendously dispiriting. The Des Moines Register's ace political reporter, David Yepsen, got his teeth into Conlin's refusal to release her tax records, a reluctance which seemed reasonable to us Conlinistas since they weren't just her taxes — the Conlins filed joint returns. By the time Branstad was done with Yepsen's tough but straightforward reporting on the issue, Conlin looked like a fat cat tax cheat who owned a city block of downtown Des Moines.

Long story short, the Iowa governorship was a glass ceiling Conlin just couldn't break, and Branstad was sworn in that January, 1983. As I recall, Branstad's remark the morning after the election was, "We beat her brains out."

I mention this now, because Chuck Grassley may be getting senile, but the vast right-wingnut conspiracy is not. Memories are long in Iowa, and Roxanne Conlin is a name to conjure with. Storm flags are flying.

Harkin Gets HELP

U. S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) will chair the late Ted Kennedy's Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Harkin is giving up his Ag committee chores, shedding no tears; he's always considered Ag one of those "take a deep breath" duties to Iowa since 1975 — a task he's performed honorably and well. Simple seniority has put him in the right place at the right time to carry health reform forward, and that is a role he'll regard as the capstone of his career, if he pulls it off. Harkin regards health issues with a deep, personal and abiding passion.

On the other side of the aisle, I'm hearing the first rumblings from the hustings that maybe Chuck Grassley has lost it and begun to dodder a bit in his old age.

Grassley can't have it both ways. Either he's a country lawyer on the Hill, or he's Elmer Fudd pulling fantastic twaddle out of his ass for the folks back home. For years, he couldn't afford to let on that he actually had brains — us bumpkins would nod knowingly to each other and say, "You know, he's smarter than he looks!" — but then Republicans won a Senate majority a few years ago and gave him R-e-s-p-o-n-s-i-b-i-l-i-t-y.

Now that Grassley's got brains (and, brother, nothing succeeds like letting the cat out of a bag it was never in), he can't afford to let on that they're about as scrambled as a country breakfast at the old tractor pull — where anyone with a camera in their phone is a YouTube journalist to document it. If he wants it both ways, his days on that lunch stool at the A&K diner are just about up.

(Just remembered. The A&K, a nice Mom and Pop Greek restaurant about four blocks from the Capital back in the day, is no more.)

Chuck Grassley is vulnerable in 2010

Here in Iowa, Chuck Grassley's senatorial career owes its life to Independents and Democratics who cross party lines to vote for him.

He was popular for crusading against waste in areas of the federal budget sacrosanct to Eisenhower's Military-Industrial-Congressional complex. He was not so popular for his bankruptcy law hatchet-wielding.

And now, as he sheds his health reform sheepskin and exposes the two-timing mange hiding beneath, he's lost all support from Iowa Democrats and ticked off most of Iowa's Independents.

That makes Chuck Grassley a seeming martyr to his causes, whatever they are, because he shouldn't be re-electable in 2010. In fact, Grassley has millions stashed away for the 2010 campaign. He'll probably weather the storm fairly easily, while welcoming a fullscale DSCC onslaught as a way to bleed Democratic warchests dry.

Which isn't to say a stealth Democrat from Iowa can't bump him off, especially one with Blue Dog credentials. Tom Harkin did it to U.S. Rep. Bill Scherle in 1974. It can happen again. Meanwhile, check out jdeeth.blogspot.com for relatively up-to-date Iowa Democratic news, especially rumors and rumbles about Grassley's likely (or not-so-likely) opponents.

AMERICA NEEDS SINGLE PAYER PUBLIC OPTION HEALTH CARE REFORM, AND IOWA'S CHUCK GRASSLEY IS STANDING IN THE WAY!

Here's a letter I got from Tom Fiegen, who seems to be emerging from the fog as Iowa's Democratic candidate against Grassley next Fall. There's a primary, of course, but barring the unexpected, I'll probably vote for Fiegen:

David:

My view is that the 2005 bankruptcy bill did nothing good. It was a Christmas tree for the credit card and lease companies. And yes, it did throw consumers and small businesses to the wolves.

On the campaign trail, I talk about the people who walk into my office with financial problems and their stories. It is like a doctor talking about the patients he sees and why he supports universal health care because of those experiences. A lot of my friends in the credit industry tell me that they love me like a brother, but when they see a piece of mail from my firm, they take a deep breath. Financial problems are never fun. But, having counseled people with financial problems for 21 years, I have a unique insight into how budgets, small businesses, farms and the economy work. To paraphrase Bill Clinton, "I feel their pain."

Obviously, I think I'm the guy to be Iowa's next U.S. Senator. Ultimately, three million Iowans, or the million plus who vote, will decide.

Tom Fiegen