iowa

The push is on to dilute the climate change bills moving through Congress, and it’s not coming only from conservatives. Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard reports today that 14 Senate Democrats are urging their leadership to amend the proposal to grant more free polluting permits to the coal-burning utilities that emit the most greenhouse gases. In [...]

Here’s Sen. Charles Grasssley (R-Iowa) in June, telling Fox News that requiring people to buy health insurance is a good idea, analogous to states requiring drivers to purchase car insurance:
There isn’t anything wrong with it, except some people look at it as an infringement upon individual freedom. But when it comes to states requiring it [...]

The Iowa Independent reports that Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) today echoed Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s comments that yesterday’s election results should not be viewed as a referendum on the Obama presidency. From The Iowa Independent:
“I don’t think it’s a referendum on Obama,” the Republican lawmaker said in a conference call with reporters. “I [...]

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider legislation designed to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system by creating a commission to examine that system and make reform recommendations to Congress. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), is designed to confront the problem of the nation’s incarceration rates, which [...]

The Iowa Independent caught this quote from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), talking about Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) recent threat to join a GOP filibuster of a health care bill that includes a public health insurance plan.
“[Lieberman] still wants to be a part of the Democratic Party although he is a registered independent. He wants to [...]

Here’s an interesting confrontation from a hearing on the Hill today between Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. King said he’d “scoured” Rush Limbaugh’s infamous comment that the media was giving Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb too much credit because he was black and found no racism in it whatsoever — Limbaugh, [...]

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) doubled down on his anti-ACORN activism at today’s Big Government press conference. Video below the jump.

Nice catch by The Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey. During an interview with the Sioux City [Iowa] Journal published Tuesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she was not weighing a run for president — despite recent suggestions that she may hold ambitions for higher office — but she did offer an endorsement of her own: Rep. [...]

The Iowa Independent has the story.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told reporters on Friday that a public option will be included in the health reform bill ultimately signed by President Obama.
Harkin said that a “vast majority” — as many as 55 of the Senate’s 60 Democrats — support a robust public [...]