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.