Iowa House GOP stops the bleeding

A sign that a healthy loyal opposition is always right around the corner emerged from the Iowa House GOP caucus Monday, six days after the party lost seats for the fourth consecutive biennial.

After roaring to power in 1992 on the strength of the Democrats' unbelievably stupid decision to raise the sales tax in an election year, the House GOP clung to a narrow margin in 02 and 04 and then got washed out in the last two elections. They are down to fewer than 45 seats with a couple of results still undecided (including one in Cedar Rapids, which as of this writing may be decided by fewer than 10 votes. Dont tell me every little thing doesnt matter in a campaign.)

Anyhoo, the 'pubs selected Rep. Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha as the new minority leader. This is something to pay attention to. Paulsen presents well on camera, is plain spoken, even soft-spoken, and can raise money. He's a likeable person, even for Democrats, and has a lot of local media experience sparring with, and sometimes holding his own against, one of the Iowa House's smartest-ever legislators in former Rep. Ro Foege (D-Mt. Vernon), who retired this year. Paulsen has come to the middle on some issues - he's anti-tobacco, for example. And he's reliably conservative on all the social issue litmus tests, with his wife promoting submission to husbands on the web on behalf of their church organization.

He also was a manager at Cryovac (now Evergreen) in Cedar Rapids. This is about as close to understanding Iowa's traditional manufacturing base that gave rise to labor unions in this state as you can be and still be a 'pub.

This guy gets it, has lived it, and is prepared to deliver. If he's smart enough to pick two or three victories he wants for his caucus in this next legislative session and stick to them over all the other crap his members and constituency groups will want him to do, he could have some success.

I am telling you, watch the rookie. You guys dont have Christopher Rants to kick around anymore.