Cedar Rapids Arm-Twisting
For those of us stuck in “other places than Cedar Rapids” today, we've
been watching the various news sites and listening to the radio to hear
of any news coming from the latest stop on the Phase Out Tour.
From the Des Moines Register comes this little tidbit:
Shortly after landing around 10
a.m., Bush also joined Des Moines radio host Jan Mickelson of WHO-AM
(1040) for an interview at a Cedar Rapids diner before the event at
Kirkwood.
The interview included Sen.
Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican and chairman of the influential
Finance Committee. Bush's visit was seen as an attempt to bolster
Grassley's commitment to changing the decades-old financial safety net
for seniors.
Grassley, who generally
supports [Bush]'s call for changing the program, has expressed
doubt that Congress possesses the political will to approach the
popular financial safety net for seniors.
“I appreciate the chairman,”
Bush told Mickelson. “He's got some political courage which is
necessary to take care of tough problems. Sen. Grassley and I have
dedicated ourselves to tackling the tough problems.”
Two things jump out at me immediately:
1) The inclusion of Chuck Grassley.
2) The seeming exclusion of Jim Leach. (Later reports can verify.)
As noted yesterday,
Jim Leach's own sales pitch on SS Phase Out fell flat in Iowa City –
and it probably wouldn't be that much of a stretch to say that he'll
feel pressure to vote against any such proposal from his constituents.
Grassley, however, is an interesting case. I have not seen
anything strongly worded from Grassley, who seems to have his finger
firmly planted in the wind. He's “generally supportive,” yet is
placing enough distance between himself and the Bush position that he
could (he hopes) cleanly run away from the pending disaster.
This is another case in point why sometimes you have to look beyond
“the candidate” when voting – sometimes you have to look at the
leadership of his party.
The other item that's interesting: this tour isn't aimed at pressuring Democrats – it's aimed at pressuring Congressional Republicans, who will be eager to run away from an issue that will bear no fruit in 2006.
It's up to us to keep the pressure on.
UPDATE: I wonder who this comment was aimed at?
“Now is the time to fix it, and I think there is a political price for not getting involved in the process.”
Bush added: “I think there is a political price for saying, `It's not a problem, I'm going to stay away from the table.'”
Blog For Iowa 
Where is King on this? Haven't been able to find anything from him on SS.
Also, Linda, it'll be great to make this site more open. I think this is about the only place for Iowa Dems to network (the state Dem blog is pityful). The more the merrier, and I don't see trolls being an issue here.
Anyway, Josh Marshall is trying to get names of representatives that claim to be pro-SS in public, but only by using codephrases of dubious meaning. King might be such a guy. If anybody knows more about his position, that'd be great.
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Hmm… I've searched a bit for anything having to do with Steve King's position on SS reform, and he's been pretty silent about the whole issue, it seems.
(I only found this: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ia05_king/op_040310.html ) which had nothing to do with SS itself, but merely using SS to somehow justify his “FairTax” stuff that he publishes constantly.
If I were to venture a guess, he's been pretty well aligned with the “Club For Growth” – a group that promotes the wholesale elimination of Social Security, so his leanings might be that way.
He earlier was on Josh Marshall's list for the DeLay ethics vote as being a “letter writer” – I don't imagine he'd be much different on this issue.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_11_14.php#004023
Are there any 5th District readers that want to write a letter and report on the answer?
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Hey, Alejandro! I just created a more visible open thread so that we can have running conversations. That may be just the ticket!
Linda
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All right. I went ahead and wrote to my Congressman since I live in the greatly neglected 5th district. If King responds, I'll post it here.
Linda
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