With all the commotion I almost forgot about the SKINNY!!

http://www.dmcityview.com/skinny.shtml


Is Rants in trouble? Northey running for governor?

The news gets better and better for Iowa Democrats looking for strong coattails. The fall ticket will be headed by Sen. Barack Obama who — according to new polls — has a four-to-nine-point lead over Sen. John McCain. Second on the ballot will be Tom Harkin, who, according to the latest Survey USA poll, has a comfortable (for him) 54 percent approval rating and an opponent nobody — including a lot of Republicans — has ever heard of. All of this has further energized statehouse Democrats, who now look for ever-more-solid gains in both houses. Among the surprises: they now think they have a chance of unseating the entrenched House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, of District 54 in Sioux City. One guy told Skinny that private polling shows Carlos Venable-Ridley with an early lead. This guy describes Venable-Ridley as “the Iowa version of Obama.” Venable-Ridley, who works for the Sioux City school system, is a 40-ish political newcomer but is pretty well known in the district.

Democrats will get even more ammunition when the state Republican Party finalizes its platform. Former Cityview reporter Jason Hancock got a look at draft copies of the platforms of the state parties. Here’s what he wrote on the Iowa Independent blog about the GOP draft: It “favors teacher- or student-led prayer in public schools, as well as the use of the Bible as a textbook.” “It also calls for an end to affirmative action in all forms.” The draft “also calls for closing government agencies like the Internal Revenue Service and the departments of Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security and Energy, as well ending minimum wage laws, dismantling Social Security and privatizing Medicare.” The state convention will be July 11-12, and the platform is likely to be adopted with little change, GOPers tell Skinny.

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Then of course Skinny takes shots at the Dems (go to the link if you're in the mood - otherwise enjoy what you've read).

Does anyone else get the feeling that this skinny person is a person from the Vilsack days who didn't get an interview from Chet and Patty? What a bitter, no-nothing hater. Enough already, we know you (skinny) don't like Chet. Move on and improve your stupid "independent" paper.

I think that sly Auditor Vaught is a contender since he is always finding some awful financial thing Dems are responsible for and MAKING A BIG IMPORTANT STATEMENT in the DM Register.

I talked to him at a Huckabee event and we talked about Culver and about Nussle. He is planning on running. It might change if Steve King runs, then Vander Plaats might run for Congress.