Rudy Giuliani has a new campaign staffer and his name is Jim Nussle. According to the AP, Giuliani is the first client of Nussle’s new consulting business and hired Nussle to work on his Presidential campaign. The strange is that these two have what the AP article describes as “deep philosophical differences.” Giuliani is a relatively liberal Republican, pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-stem cell research while Jim Nussle is a standard and rather uninteresting conservative Republican who, in his 16 years in Congress, would have striven to avoid even the slightest taint of Rockefeller Republicanism. So, why is Nussle working for Giuliani? Once again, the answer is hinted at the article with the cryptic but all-telling phrase, “Giuliani and Nussle declined to discuss terms of Nussle’s employment.” In other words, Jim Nussle is getting paid a lot of money to support Giuliani. Not that there’s anything wrong that. After all, Nussle still has to pay his alimony somehow.
Election day was over a month ago, but we haven’t posted, because it’s hard to write a summary of something that speaks so well for itself. Across the country, people reacted well to the progressive agenda put forward by Democratic candidates on all levels. Here in Iowa, we won both legislative chambers and Terrace Hill. We held onto Boswell’s Congressional seat and picked up two more (one quite unexpectedly).
All of us here worked very hard, whether it looked that way on this web site or not. I had to stop blogging because of my job with the party, but I wouldn’t have had the time to write even if I had wanted to, and I think the rest of the Grinnell College Campus Democrats felt the same way.
Personally, I want to thank all of the volunteers I dealt with on our campus and in Poweshiek County. The amount of work people were willing to do was at once staggering and inspiring. Locally, we helped Eric Palmer defeat Danny Carroll for State Representative and helped elect an all-Democratic County Board of Supervisors. Even though it was stressful and trying and kind of sucky at times for all of us, winning the way we did makes everything worth it.
I remember in the weeks after election day, cable news heads and columnists talked about whether the election was more an acceptance of the Democratic agenda or a rejection of the Republican one. For some reason, conventional wisdom seems to claim that it was more the latter than the former, but I’m skeptical.
When I went door-to-door as a canvasser or dealt with folks in our office, I sensed a renewed interest in Democratic positions. Maybe we did a better job of communicating our agenda this election, but I think a lot of it was just that people were more interested in hearing what we had to say. People finally decided that they’d had enough, and they changed their minds.
And, I cannot emphasize this enough, WE WON. Look for more blogging from us here, as more of us finish recouperating and gloating and decide to start writing again.
The Iowa Democratic Party today announced a new web site, StopGOPSmear.com, that attempts to expose the Republicans’ smear tactics and respond to them with the facts.
One interesting feature of the site (which I’m sure will serve its purpose) is the link at the top left allowing visitors to report any attack ads or mail pieces that they receive to the Party so that our candidates can respond quickly. This is perhaps the most useful part of the site, because visitors to it will probably be good Democrats anyway. This is just a way for our campaigns to find out faster what the next big wave of attacks is.
Either way, it’s a worthwhile project, especially since there have been so many hit pieces put out by the Republicans already this election.
Well the Nussle hustle rhetoric is kind of silly, but apparently the powers at be have seen signs that it is sticking (or will stick), because they keep repeating it. In a somewhat surprising move, they have released an ad specifically for the web (not uncommon in other states, but …) on Nussle’s abortion hussle. Perhaps they made it thinking they might run it on TV and then decided against it? I don’t know.
Incidentally, Nussle’s ads are all up on YouTube, but I haven’t found any of Culver’s. It’d be cool if they started uploading them, because then more people would probably watch them (and bloggers could embed them in posts).
Update: The Culver camp informs me that there are, in fact, three Culver ads on YouTube. My bad for missing those.
Far out of the mainstream, Jim Nussle was against a woman’s right to choose – even when a woman’s life is in danger. Until now, anyway.
Carroll’s Daily Times-Heraldcalls him out on this sudden “flip-flop.” In an interview with the Herald, Nussle took this position:
“Those are very difficult challenges and my position has been that I believe life begins at conception and I don’t have any exceptions to my pro-life position.”
Problem is, now he’s running for governor. And those views are a little extreme. So when filling out an issues survey from Project Vote Smart, he adjusted his position. All of a sudden, he supports abortion rights in the first trimester and in cases of rape, incest, and when a woman’s life is in danger. That’s a relief.
As the Herald’s Douglas Burns puts it:
“Nussle either had an Everest-sized epiphany one night or he is captaining the good ship Mixed Message or he is a, cue the 2004 Republican National Convention audience chorus, ‘flip-flop, flip-flop.”
Nussle released his education “plan” yesterday, which includes a call for more available AP credit, skills training, increased teacher pay, and guarantees that tuition won’t increase more than the Higher Education Price Index.
Sounds really fabulous, right?
Problem number 1: Nussle doesn’t know where this money is going to come from, as usual. Here’s what he told the Register:
Nussle said he had not priced the entire package completely, but it would be funded by “shifting stuff around” in the state budget.
Problem number 2: Nussle ”guarantees” to hold tuition to less than or equal to the HEPI. First of all, the HEPI rises faster than inflation. Here’s an explanation of why by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. Secondly, Iowa tuition is already indexed to the HEPI, and it’s not stopping exhorbitant tuition increases. Here’s a NYPIRG factsheet showing that indexing has not held down tuition.
In fact, just today the Regents increased fees at public Iowa universities by $200 because the legislature didn’t appropriate enough back in April.
So without knowing where the money will come from, or really having a new solution, I’m not sure I would take Nussle’s “guarantee.”
(It’s also skeezy to hold your education plan press conference at the high school at which your opponent taught.)
There’s been a fairly heated debate raging today over at Political Forecast about whether Culver has placed undo stress on choice during the campaign, and it seems people in the Iowa blogosphere aren’t the only ones to have noted how the navigation of this sticky issue has changed in state races.
The New York Times highlights our very own gubernatorial race as an example of how South Dakota has changed choice in state races. Instead of questions about how to regulate abortions, candidates are now faced with a binary choice: ban or no? This places candidates like Blouin, who are personally pro-life but oppose a ban, in an awkward position. How does one articulate a nuanced position on a hot-button issue without committing an “I supported abortion before I was against it” misstep? (That was meant to be rhetorical, but I reckon picking a pro-choice female doctor as a running mate and letting her answer the question is one method of assuaging people’s fears!)
The article also points out that no one really knows how this issue will play out. Some pro-lifers are against ban proposals because they don’t see them as a pragmatic approach to eliminating abortion, and worry that they will call pro-choicers to action (well duh!). Perhaps the Nussle folks are worried about this too, as Nussle declined an interview with the Times, and his spokesperson noted that he has not publicly stated whether he would support a ban. On the other hand, he may just be standing aside to let the Dems pick each other apart—a strategy that has obviously been working.
Sorry again for the collective hiatus from here, but we’re working hard to keep our coverage up during this recovery week after the end of school. In particular, we hope to have some coverage of Governor Vilsack’s (generally unpopular) commencement address at Grinnell earlier this week, in which he reportedly spent most of his time on US Foreign Policy.
But before we hop back on the train, it’s worth noting that Jim Nussle has redesigned his web site and general online presence — probably with the help of some very expensive (out-of-state) consultants. I’m comfortable admitting that his site is, with a few flaws, the best-looking of the gubernatorial candidates (and he’s using his email list more than the other candidates are), but that doesn’t mean he actually knows anything about the internet himself.
In addition, the top story on his site repeats what seems to be his new talking point, about “Iowa’s Energy Stool.” It’s actually a Cedar Rapids Gazette article, but Nussle is really using the stool “metaphor.” Further reinforcing the idea that Nussle talks talks out of his ass?
And, in light of this news story, here’s a photo the Nussle campaign might wish wasn’t on the Nussle family web site.
Sure, it’s obvious from his record deficit that he’s a Bush crony, but now that Nussle is getting free publicity from Fox News this morning, it’s certifiable. This is from a campaign email a few days ago:
Watch Jim Nussle talk with E.D, Brian and Steve of FOX and Friends this Tuesday about his vision to make Iowa the Renewable Energy Capital of the World. Jim will discuss his bipartisan “Independence from Oil With Agriculture (IOWA) Act,” which helps ease prices at the pump for hard-working Iowans.
That’s at 7:30AM Central in case you want to watch him talk for a few minutes without being interrupted by difficult questions or by pesky Democrats who also happen to be running for Governor (and, in at least one case, who happen to be leading Nussle in the polls).
And although I’m sure this doesn’t come as a surprise to you, it might come as a disappointment. If you want to tell them what you think, email friends@foxnews.com or call 888 369 4762. And please, if you get a good response post it as a comment. I emailed about 36 hours ago and never got a response.
(Also feel free to email Jim Nussle and tell him how hokey you think naming a bill “the IOWA Act” is — especially just months ahead of the gubernatorial election.)
