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Pawlenty asks GOP: “Ready to fight back?”

November 7, 2009 By

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty rallied with about 500 Iowa Republicans tonight.

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Pawlenty served as keynote speaker for a $25-per person Iowa Republican Party fundraiser held in Des Moines. The governor’s 24-minute speech was peppered with references to Midwestern life and an explanation for his record on the opening day of deer hunting season in Minnesota.

AUDIO: Pawlenty Keynote Address

“It is great to be here.  I was earlier today celebrating that great upper Midwestern tradition of deer hunting near the Canadian border — got up at 3 a.m. Unfortunately, I was practicing the new conservation technique for deer called, ‘Shoot and Release,’” Pawlenty said, drawing laughter from the crowd,  “so I have some work to do on that front.”

Pawlenty aimed some of his rhetorical fire at President Obama, recasting an Obama campaign chant for Republicans.

“Instead of asking you: ‘Are you fired up and ready to go?’ I want to ask you: ‘Are you fired up and ready to fight back?’” Pawlenty said, to cheers.

Pawlenty told the crowd last Tuesday’s election results signaled a “comeback” for the Republican Party.  Pawlenty, though, stopped short of discussing his own plans for the future — and the possibility of a presidential campaign of his own in 2012.  Reporters pressed Pawlenty after his speech, but the governor again said his focus was on the 2010 elections.

Pawlenty’s visit got Iowans talking about his prospects as a presidential contender, though. Bill Schickel, a former state legislator, is also the former mayor of Mason City, Iowa.

“I think Governor Pawlenty is really someone to watch in the 2012 presidential election cycle,” Schickel said during an nterview with Raido Iowa.  “I think he’s got the kind of profile that is very attractive.”

Schickel believes many in the crowd this evening saw Pawlenty for the first time.

“You know he’s run a big state, but he’s also very likeable,” Schickel said.  “I think he’s a powerful combination.  I think he’s in the second tier of presidential candidates right now, but I really look for his star to rise.”

During his speech Pawlenty outlined some of the steps he’s taken as governor of Minnesota, like his veto record, and he joked about his “red-hot, smokin’ wife” and the two Northwest pilots taking the term “fly-over country” a bit too seriously.

Pawlenty dismissed the health care reform plan Democrats in the U.S. House passed this weekend as a “liberal monstrosity.”

“My goodness, unless you’re a Guantanamo detainee, they can’t even get us, in a reasonable time, the vaccine for the H1N1 virus. How are they going to manage our health care?” Pawlenty said, to applause from the crowd.

Pawlenty drew even more applause from the crowd with this punchline to his critique of the growth in the national debt: “The only thing growing faster than the federal debt is Chris Matthews’ man-crush on Barack Obama.” Matthews is host of the cable TV program, “Hardball” on MSNBC.

Plenty of national media as well as reporters from Pawlenty’s homestate of Minnesota made the trip to Iowa to watch Pawlenty’s speech.

Pawlenty isn’t the only potential 2012 G.O.P. candidate in Iowa this weekend, however.  Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, winner of the 2008 Iowa Caucuses, will be in Iowa Sunday, making stops in three cities to sign copies of his new book.

Filed Under: Campaign Countdown, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Iowa Tea Party State Convention

November 7, 2009 By

The “tea party” movement in Iowa held its state convention this afternoon, with a much smaller crowd than the 3000 who turned out for the “Taxed Enough Already” rally outside the statehouse on April 15, 2009. 

Michael Thompson of Council Bluffs, an organizer who’s part of the “9/12″ group, drove to Des Moines for this weekend’s “Iowa Tea Party” meeting.

“I saw that they were having the statewide convention up here and I thought it would be a great place to make some new bonds with people and organize, network, kind of get some ideas, talk to people, share experiences with people,” Thompson said. “And so far, it’s been a great experience.” 

Drew Ivers is part of the “Campaign for Liberty,” one of the organizations that had a booth at today’s event.

“We just want less government, not more and, of course, we’re getting more every day and we’re saying, ‘Whoa, whoa.  Let’s slam on the brakes. Don’t just veer off to the right in the fork of the road ahead. Let’s slam on the brakes, try to put it in reverse and go the other direction,’” Ivers says. “We need some minus growth in government.”

Ivers hopes the groups which are part of the “tea party” coalition move beyond holding three or four rallies a year.

“Let’s be connected and ready for action 365 days a year,” Ivers says. 

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann delivered a video message to the group, saluting their efforts — and noting that she is an Iowa native as she was born in Waterloo, Iowa.

Filed Under: Politics & Government, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Congressional delegation to split along party lines

November 7, 2009 By

Iowa’s congressional delegation will likely vote along party lines this weekend as the U.S. House is expected to vote on a health care reform plan, perhaps later today. 

Congressman Tom Latham, a Republican from Ames, plans to vote no. ”I want to have this vote.  I mean, I want to have people on record (about) the government take-over of health care, whether they support it or not,” Latham said this morning during an interview with Radio Iowa. “I’m obviously not in favor of having the bureaucracy running everything.” 

Iowa’s other Republican congressman, Steve King of Kiron, is a sure “no” vote as well.  King is among those who’ve organized a “House Call” rally against the bill on the lawn near the capitol building. 

The other three congressmen from Iowa are Democrats and each has signaled they are a “yes” on the bill. Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, voted for the health care reform plan which emerged from the House Energy and Commerce Committee this summer.  Braley spoke with Radio Iowa moments after he and other House Democrats met with President Obama. 

“It was like a revival meeting in that people were ready and willing to listen to the president make the final call to action before a historic vote on health care today and I think it’s something that many of us have been waiting for ever since we were elected to congress,” Braley said.  “And for me this day is particularly significant because three years ago today is the day I was elected to congress.”

Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, described the meeting with the president as “very upbeat.”

“The president was very inspiring.  He called upon us, essentially, to do what we came here to do,” Loebsack said.  “and that is to make the kind of change that we can make today when we vote on this bill.”

Congressman Leonard Boswell of Des Moines is considered to be among the conservative Democrats in congress and Boswell has indicated he intends to vote for the health care reform bill.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Keep an eye out for health trouble with older family members during holidays

November 7, 2009 By

With the holiday season approaching, many Iowans will be spending time with distant relatives. Unfortunately, some older family members may be starting to exhibit signs of trouble. Jody Ricklefs, spokeswoman for the Fort Dodge branch office of the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Iowa, says there are many indicators.

“The first warning sign is memory loss and you often see friends and close family relations recognize the memory loss before the person will,” Ricklefs says. Other signs may include: difficulty peforming familiar tasks, problems with language, changes in mood or behavior, loss of initiative, misplacing things and disorientation to time, person or place. She says about 65,000 Iowans are currently living with Alzheimer’s. The numbers have been fairly steady, but that may be about to change.

“Those Baby Boomers are coming into that age range of about 65 so the prediction is that those numbers are going to skyrocket,” Ricklefs says. “It’s very frightening because predominantly with the Baby Boomers, it’s a female generation and predominantly with Alzheimer’s disease, it’s a female-related disease.” For more information, visit “www.alz.org” or call 800-272-3900.

Contributed by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Algona man returns to mayor’s post through write in campaign

November 7, 2009 By

This week’s elections in Iowa produced a number of interesting results, but what happened in Algona is especially unusual. Ray Morgan was the only registered candidate for mayor, but a majority of voters in the north-central Iowa town wrote-in the name Lynn Kueck. Kueck, who previously served as Algona’s mayor for more than a decade, collected 761 write-in votes out of over 1,200 ballots.

“I’m very humbled that many people in Algona would write me in and support me to come back to the mayor’s office,” Kueck told Radio Iowa. “It’s an overwhelming feeling of joy. It energizes me to want to get back in the office and get back to work again.” Kueck’s return to the office comes a year-and-a-half after he resigned with little explanation. Kueck says he felt like he was doing the right thing at the time.

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Filed Under: Politics & Government

Some adults shy away from flu mist

November 7, 2009 By

While there is a shortage of flu shots in some areas, there are reports of some people passing up the flu mist. University of Iowa infectious diseases specialist, Patricia Winokur, tests vaccines –including the H1N1– for the National Institutes of Health. She says there is reluctance by some people overall about the H1N1 vaccine.

Winokur says you add to that people have less experience with the nasal mist as she says it’s become much more accepted for use by kids than for adults. She says the overall concerns compounded with the nasal mist concerns have made people more reluctant about the H1N1 vaccine in general. Winokur says the nasal mist forms of flu vaccine are popular among parents.

She says a lot of parents actually like the nasal form of the vaccine because it exposes the kids to one less needle stick, and the kids like that. Winokaur says the adults reluctance to take the nasal flu mist has benefited kids. Winokur says there have been extra doses of the flu mist that adults aren’t interested in, and those are then given to children, so they don’t go to waste.

Winokur says even though the nasal flu mist vaccine is a live virus — it’s attenuated or incapacitated — so it lives only in the nose, but produces about the same immunity as the shot in the arm.

Winokur says a recent New England Journal of Medicine compared the two and found the mist was just “a bit little less effective” at preventing colds in people than the injectable form of the vaccine. She says this is just an early study and it has not been confirmed in other studies. Those who are eligible but passing up flu mist now may be gambling on avoiding the H1N1 virus until more injectable vaccine is available.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Hostage believes Iran’s president was one of her captors

November 7, 2009 By

An Iowan taken captive in Iran three decades ago believes one of her former captors is Iran’s current president.

Katheryn Koob was director of the Iran/America Society, based in Tehran, when she was taken hostage on November 4, 1979. Koob and 52 other Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

“President Ahmadinejad, I am convinced, was on the compound.  He may not have been there the first day, but it’s very interesting that five or six of us (hostages) individually when he was running and they started showing pictures of him in the run-off looked and said, ‘He was one of them,’” Koob says.  “I’m convinced he was on the compound.” 

Koob says prayer helped her withstand the kind of “torture” that she felt at losing contact with the outside world for more than a year.

“The worst day was January 1, 1981.  Why that day?  I guess it was the realization that we’d lost the whole calendar year of 1980,” Koob says.  “1980, basically, hadn’t happened. And on that day I woke up and was just really, really depressed.”

Koob, a native of Jesup, Iowa, was released on January 20, 1981 and greeted — along with her fellow hostages — by crowds in New York and Washington, D.C. along with a huge homecoming in Des Moines.

“It was like a bath of love because people were so welcoming,” Koob says. “People were so welcoming and that was wonderful to be received so warmly by so many people you didn’t know as well as you own family and friends,” Koob says.

Koob wrote a book about her experience in Iran.  “Guest of the Revolution” was published in 1984. She is currently a visiting instructor at Wartburg College in Waverly. Koob recently spoke about her captivity in Iran during an interview which aired on ”The Iowa Journal” on Iowa Public Television and is posted online.

Filed Under: Politics & Government