Political Football

Go Cubs Go… Go Cubs Go, Hey Chicago what do you say, the Cubs are going to WIN TODAY! (and other happenings of the weekend)

Although my primary activity this weekend (lazy me) was to watch the Cubbies win two games and extend their divisional lead to 5 games with about 50 to go… I also had the opportunity to be reminded why I was a Republican.

There was a District Republican meeting held in Muscatine on Saturday, and it was a very nice event; and my contribution was just to show up. The event was put on with the typical precision expected by the Muscatine Republican Women with Marilyn Wedel as its leader.

By the time the District President called the meeting to order to my immense pleasure, I found myself sitting beside Phyllis Kelly our retiring Iowa National Committeewoman. She was a joy to talk to and many of us made sure she knew her 12 years representing Iowa Republicans to the RNC was appreciated, as was the time she took to drive here on Saturday. The Muscatine Journal as well as KWPC representatives were in attendance, so I hope the day got some press.

Mariannette also attended, and begged the group’s indulgence as she was the first speaker then quickly made her exit. A colleague at the University of Iowa when she taught there had lost his 20 year old son; she needed to attend the funeral. Mariannette, still, gave a rousing speech starting by talking about the rewards and tramas of raising children – and also about what qualities she possesses that will allow her to be an outstanding representative of the 2nd District of Iowa.

Charles Larsen, Sr. was the invited guest speaker. Other dignitaries besides Ms. Kelly were Shirley Jean Drake, Senator Hahn, Representative Kaufmann, Caleb Hunter (RPI) as well as Steve Rathje (speaking in behalf of McCain) and Leon Mosley.   Catching a bit of the report on the local radio station this AM, I think they confused Rathje with Reed, who for some reason was a no show.  I hope he had something much more important to do as this was a great crowd to rally the troops.

Mr. Larsen is a long time Republican activist in Iowa who was asked by President Bush to become a Justice Attaché to the U.S. Ambassador in Iraq in 2004. His role was to aid the Iraqi judicial system (mostly training) as their court system was being restructured. During his slide presentation, I continued to be impressed by the quality of those who are serving in support roles or our military in general. Time after time he brought up a slide that showed (example) “… here I am with two other U of Iowa Law School graduates who enlisted to help” … or comments about how many who served their tour and ended up volunteering to go back because they wanted to see the mission of rebuilding a free and united Iraq completed.

One of the comments that stood out to me that I thought I would bring to this blogspace is that he said that very few of the combatants killed or held were from Iraq. They were almost all from Somalia, Syria, Saudi Arabia… and many who execute suicide missions are duped into doing it – bombs are blown up by remote control.

He also spoke with great pride that his son was serving in Iraq at the same time he was there, and that they had managed to meet about once a month. Charles “Chuck” Larsen, Jr. is a Major in the US Army Reserves, as well has having served in both houses of the Iowa Legislature and in 2002 was the Chairman of the Iowa Republican Party.

I’ll write more later (hmmm I promised that on the BKO/JFK comparison piece and have yet to do that – so be patient).

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