Plague

The TMR will not become a full-time Iowa political blog, despite the recent emphases. Can I help it if we are the center of world attention lately?

However I will report, as a matter of public service, so you can cancel your plans to visit, that It Has Begun.

We will be subjected this week to visits from both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. It's the price we pay for being first to hype presidential candidates through our intellectually impenetrable early caucus system, the scheme that gave you Obama.

Romney says the trip isn't political. He just wants to howdy us while signing his new book in Des Moines. (Believe it. Mormons are like Georgia peanut farmers. They would nevah lie to us.) Santorum is still attempting to construct a sentence containing a verb.

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THE SHALL-ISSUE BILL: It's still awaitinig House action after 44-4 Senate approval. It is supposed to pass easily, but it is now having to compete with last-minute maneuvering to grab what little tax money is available for lawmakers' pet causes. It's possible it could get lost in the shuffle. The rep critters could establish enough political cover by assigning it to a committee where it could be left to bleed out. We'll see.

Controversially speaking

My newspaper, companion of my childhood, once upon a time an outlet for my words, always a source of bemusement, reports this morning:

"The Senate passed a controversial bill that would allow sheriffs less discretion in granting permits to carry concealed weapons."

I wonder if the meaning of the word "controversial" even cracked the consciousness of the writer and editor.

The shall-issue bill cleared the upper house 44-4, raising a certain objection to the sentence quoted above. To wit: "Holy pschitt you freeken moron, how the freek controversial can the damned thing be if it pleases pleases almost everyone in a fractured Senate -- Democrats, Republicans, drunks, sleepers, and the confused statist dudes who got elected last cycle only because their counties were pissed off at George W. Bush?"

(That was unforgivably vulgar, but it made me feel better.)

Actually, I doubt "controversial" was the product of any cognitive/analytical process at all. It was just a series of reflexive keystrokes hardwired into the brain of journalists who are required to mention firearms.

Iowa Senate Approves Shall-Issue

The vote in favor was 44-4.

The bill has been sent to the House. The lopsided Senate vote suggests Democratic leaders have decided to kick it up to the governor.

The chief remaining legislative question is: Does leadership control its representatives well enough to get a clean House passage without amendments?

UPDATE: The legislature changed its mind and decided to quit early yesterday and take Palm Sunday off. It returns Monday. No word yet on exactly when the House will take up the shall-issue bill.

Shall-Issue Update -- CCW politics in Iowa

(Dramatic music UP , FADE , and OUT to intonation Welcome to today's episode of ... The Eleventh Hour.)

Lawmakers in Des Moines are saying they will debate and perhaps vote today on SF2379 which would make Iowa a a shall-issue state and add CCW reciprocity. The current plan is to begin in the Senate, then, if it passes, to flip the bill to the House. Any assignment to a committee is a bill killer.

You always look for a little humor when dealing with these critters, but the only funny thing I've seen so far is the Des Moines Register headline; "Gun Bill Doesn't Please All." ( Really? No shit Sam Spade?)

But the headline does highlight a possibly ugly little scenario. While the NRA backs this bill, rival Iowa gun organizations differ. One favors the measure while another believes it is too weak. I am sure some of the reported disagreement is manufactured as political cover for some politicians to vote against it on grounds that it didn't go far enough. Allowing for the usual ignorance among the electorate, the lawmaker can tell his leftie constituents that he voted against CCW expansion. He can tell his 2A backers he did so because he was waiting for a better bill to come along. Politics as usual.

The other routine killer ploy is passage in the Senate and amendment in the House, complicating things just enough so that all 150 solons can throw up their hands. They're trying to make this their final day, and the action down there has already begun looking like a bunch of community college freshmen on spring break in Matamoros.

Again, Iowa readers, please pick up the phone and ask your critter nicely to support Senate File 2379.

Some of the details are here, especially in the sidebar.

EDIT at 10 a.m. -- A longer-than-expected House Judiciary Committee meeting was still underway a little bit ago. The length leads my mole to think Democrat leaders are likely to permit a vote, He opines that if the vote occurs, the bill will pass. In any case, no one on the liberal side is paying much attention to the merits of the bill. They're slicing and dicing all the ingredients of having a plausible story to tell their people between now and Nov. 2.

If the bill passes, Democratic Gov. Chet "Ya Big Lug" Culver will play the same vote-counting game. He is up for election this year and quite vulnerable. He'll sign if his pollsters tell him to, veto otherwise.