Political Forecast

I’m really beginning to doubt the sanity of David Yepsen at the Register when he starts writing shit like this:

“The attacks from Democrats and left-of-center groups on Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle have started early.

It’s too bad. Iowa would be better off if political parties and interest groups spent less time savaging their opponents and more time outlining positive visions for what they want to do.

One reason Iowa lags behind in so many areas is that recent gubernatorial campaigns have been more negative than positive. As a result, governors have failed to build consensus or a mandate for changing anything in Iowa.

It started a few weeks ago, when the Iowa Democratic Party unveiled a “strategy memo to Iowa reporters” in which the party outlined the plans and rationale for its attacks. Environmentalists have also weighed in. And the radio barbs have started. As the federal budget debates unfold, we can expect other groups to pile on. Nussle will be criticized for not cutting the deficit - and then criticized when he does. Of course, none of it is coordinated.

On top of that, the whispering about Nussle’s divorce can also be heard, though it’s not clear who is doing it.”

What the fuck else is the IDP supposed to do in the primary? It is all about positioning and any so-called expert on politics, particularly in Iowa, knows that when there is a competitive primary race in your party, you go after the presumptive nominee, attacking his plans and who he is in order to draw the attention from the heated race in your party’s primary. That’s prime political strategy. And Yepsen knows this.

“Iowa lags behind in so many areas” is because of the negativity of the campaign process in politics? That’s utter bullshit. Negative campaigning isn’t an excuse for poor policy making or a divided government — Republican House, equal split Senate, and Democratic governor. And for many years prior to the recent Senate split, the Legislature was controlled by Republicans and Iowa had a Democratic governor. It is simply intellectually dishonest to argue that negative campaigning and attacks on a candidate is the cause and reason for mediocre or bad policy. The nature of divided government, even democracy in general, is to create compromise and to water-down policy so that it can be accepted by members of both parties. I guess it would be easier for Yepsen and for politicians in general if there is one-party rule so that the policies of one party can easily be pushed through, but like we’ve seen for most of President Bush’s two terms so far, it doesn’t exactly mean a lot and doesn’t bring about any type of positive political reform.

Finally, there are legitimate complaints to lodge against Jim Nussle, even if they are co-opted for political purposes. Nussle’s handling of budgetary issues — like standing up for traditional conservative values of reduced government spending — needs to be highlighted. With his leadership on the budget committee, he and his Republican colleagues have cut funding to needed government programs, as well as explode the national debt and deficit without serious forethought for the ramifications of their decisions. If he can’t even handle the budget of the United States, what makes him qualified to handle Iowa’s meager budget?

Yepsen knows this stuff, but he needed to pump out a column full of nonesense so that he could get back to listening to the whisper campaigns and watch Tom Beaumont outdo him as an ordinary political reporter. Maybe he should heed some advice from the folks over at the Iowa Underground Blog who also take note of the ridiculousness of Yepsen’s column and encourage him to do some real work.

And I think I’ve discovered that Yepsen isn’t an idiot — he’s just plan lazy. He can drone on and on about his desire for positive campaigns about the issues — and he will — but he knows it is the negativity of the campaigns that gives him a job and allows him to use this as his soapbox. Yepsen isn’t a bad guy, he just can’t write columns that are consistently engaging or thought-provoking. The idea that he’s the head of the Iowa political press corps has gotten to his head and made his ego so big it takes up most of the room wherever he goes. Thus the justification for spitting out stuff like this. Something about his style has got to go or change.

Or maybe I need to sleep more than five hours a night. Either way, I’d welcome both changes.