Senators poke fun at colleague over picture

Democrats — and a few republicans in private — are poking fun at a republican senator who passed his picture around to his colleagues yesterday. Marshalltown Senator Larry McKibben’s picture was part of a newspaper article outlining his decision to put a temporary hold on the gambling bill. McKibben clipped the article and made 50 copies which he had the high schoolers paid to work as pages distribute to his Senate colleagues. Senate Democrat Leader Michael Gronstal of Council Bluffs joked that McKibben had used up all the paper in the Senate to distribute his likeness. Gronstal says he likes to see his picture in the paper as well, but doesn’t make a practice of passing photocopies around to everyone in the Senate. McKibben dismisses the barbs. McKibben says whatever folks choose to say on April Fools’ Day doesn’t bother him. McKibben says it was just a quick way to spread the word to his fellow senators.McKibben says he hadn’t had a chance to visit with his colleagues about what he was doing with the gambling bill, so he decided to pass the article around.