Political Football

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The fate of the Republican Party of Iowa now rests in the hands of Steve Scheffler, President of the Iowa Christian Alliance. I didn’t even know who he was until last month. There were many disappointments today at the Republican State Convention, but the most important was booting my laptop up after lunch to see that Tony Snow had died this AM. I was shocked to immediate tears during this trying day. He was a great reporter and will be missed. His wife and three young children are in my prayers.

I cannot begin to explain the details what happened today in Des Moines except to tell why I believe my party was high-jacked today by someone who only thinks of individual power, not Republican voters or candidates.

I will try to paint a broad picture then discuss further blog posts I see on the net over the next days.

The week began with rumors there could be an anti-McCain walkout but that never happened. What did happen was, as the linked article above notes, a power shift to those who firmly support (without questioning) the Iowa Christian Alliance, Iowans for Tax Relief and the Iowa Right to Life organizations. It’s simply not good enough to be pro life with a voting record to prove it. You must be a supporting $$$ member of ICA and Steve Scheffler must be your hero. If there is any good to this (but painful to those it affected) it is that the split not only widened the rift between moderates and some conservatives in the party but set conservatives against conservatives. This clearly opened the eyes to many conservatives who will continue to question this new leadership.

I knew the weekend was going to be messy when I arrived at the Hall where the Friday night delegate caucus was to be held and most people had Scheffler stickers on their shirts – I had only heard of his running against Roberts last week. I assumed Roberts would be unopposed.

When the first action of the night was to elect a permanent chair for the district meeting; the person who was nominated (an ICA board member) had deftly removed her SS sticker from her blouse before the caucus began.

There was a surprise 2nd person nominated from Johnson County (probably with knowledge and planning with Clinton and Linn) - the ICA board member won election by ONLY one vote. I’m sure having a contested vote was a surprise to her. After the election, a question to request that candidates reveal if they are ICA members was ruled out of order by the ICA board member.

The speeches by the national committee candidates on Saturday were the most telling. Roberts and Greiner talked about national experience, inclusion and the need for negotiation skills; Scheffler and Leman basically said that homosexuals, pro-choice and any others not fitting their narrow definition of Republican were no longer welcome in the Iowa party and they would PUSH the prolife agenda (I inferred at the exclusion of everything else, as that was all either talked about in their nominating speeches). Oh wait… as Lehman ended her speech she did say she would support McCain (throwing a bone to the masses).

Steve Roberts made it clear in his speech that the committeeman’s role was not to be a policy maker but to support all Republicans. I guess that’s why the word needs to be redefined by the new leadership.

There is no way either Steve Scheffler or Kim Lehman are more qualified to be national committee people – than the 20+ year veteran of national politics (Steven Roberts) or a 16 year veteran of the Iowa State House, Sandy Greiner; but Scheffler and Lehman both won handily 700 something to 400 something.

The painful end showed conservatives that do not bow to ICA, separated from their friends, and in the end some ICA supporters wondering out loud if they had not unwittingly contributed to a process spinning out of control.

ICA had planted seeds of a moderate push on the convention platform to rile the troops (when in truth moderates have long given up any such futile efforts). … part of an email from Scheffler:

The country club Republicans, which involves some of those in Republican Party leadership positions, are making a concentrated effort to dilute and rid the Republican Party of individuals like you who consider themselves social conservatives.

rid the party of individuals? hmmm… no. These organization now controlling the Iowa party are the groups of exclusion.

Once the ICA faithful were roused the stage was set, and insult to injury – these people (good conservatives all) were irrationally missing from the At Large Delegate list submitted for approval to go to the National Convention: The Chair and Co-Chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, The Presidents of the Iowa Federation of Republican Women and College Republicans, Senator Grassley and the McCain State Chair in the primary, Marlys Popma. Apparently you have to be a contributor to ICA for delegate consideration now.

The convention was all about getting an ICA supported slate of delegates to the national convention to attempt to force a very conservative VP candidate for McCain. I hope those supporting Huckabee disregard his rhetoric and review his record.

“Governor Huckabee says he is a fiscal conservative,” Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said, “but his ten-year economic-policy record as the governor of Arkansas is mixed, at best. His history includes numerous tax hikes, ballooning government spending, and increased regulation. To be sure, Governor Huckabee’s record displays an occasional deference to a pro-growth philosophy, but that is only a small slice of a much bigger picture. The Club for Growth feels citizens deserve a full picture of where Governor Huckabee stands on the critical economic issues of the day.” Link

When the convention ended (or I guess I left an hour early and spent the hour before that not paying much attention to the floor votes, etc. except for the shouting) there was a palpable sadness and recognition of what just happened. A few conservatives reached out to ICA supporters to explain in more detail what had happened in the days before – promises made and broken, unauthorized take over of committee meetings and more…

Many more details (I suspect) will be documented in the next days by these blogs:
Krustie who’s logic and point of view I trust
Sporer is on the ICA side

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