The Nation's Pulse/The Iowa Hustings Now
Mueller, William
THE NATION'S PULSE THE IOWA HUSTINGS NOW F or the record, I have never voted in an Iowa caucus. In that respect I am representative of 85 percent of eligible voters in my state—a remarkable...
...Gary McDowell, Associate Director, Office of Public Affairs, Department of Justice Pp...
...Not only did he beam a three-minute by William Mueller spot to 700 C-SPAN stations...
...Those who have tallied up the extra federal lucre the state could squeeze from a successful candidate have come up with figures ranging from a low of $20 million to an optimistic $65 million...
...And in this transformation both sides—Iowa on the one hand, and national politics on the other—have struggled to make best use of the caucuses...
...House of Representatives, had an old hay wagon pulled beneath a massive cottonwood at the edge of the lawn...
...Paul M. Bator John P. Wilson Professor of Law University of Chicago Law School "It is almost impossible nowadays for anyone to speak with any degree of confidence about any constitutional point if he has not consulted the works of Raoul Berger...
...If it is a large group, say over twenty people, participants are asked to stand in appropriate corners for delegates of their choice...
...What is disturbing this time around is that the original point of the Iowa caucus has been lost on the squads, platoons, and divisions of outsiders now using Iowa as their sound stage...
...My wife, who has participated in a caucus, found all this to be exciting, if a little unsettling...
...Vice President Bush, at this writing, is scrambling in Iowa...
...It's a point of pride...
...A very private process in which Iowans determine their delegates became a kind of election...
...But the point is that in such combat many things can happen, most of them ultimately for the good of the party...
...As this little reaffirmation of faith has grown in national significance, tens of thousands of nonresidents have examined the ritual with the disdain of Christian missionaries...
...and those who do know and so steer away for precisely that reason...
...Nearly every candidate has banished some family member to Iowa at one time or another...
...Names were never revealed, and a check of campaign contributions at the time showed George Bush giving the most to Iowa politicians at $42,000, with Joe Biden leading the way on the Democratic side at $39,700...
...TV also brought us the first ever gathering of First Ladies-to-be on the Democratic side, who aired their views before a largely media audience...
...His visits to Iowa in 1987, by contrast, have been retreats to idyllic resorts such as Lake Okoboji for meetings with power types and bigBOOKS ON TAPE I I I I I I I I I I I • Best Sellers on Cassette • Full-length Readings • Call for Free Brochure Box 7900-AS, Newport Beach, CA 92658 SARKES TARZIAN INC WRCB, CHANNEL 3, CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE KTVN, CHANNEL 2. RENO, NEVADA WITS, 92.3 FM, BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA WGTC, 1370 AM BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA WAJI, 951 FM, FORT WAYNE, INDIANA CORPORATE OFFICE, BOX 62 BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA 47402 TELEPHONE 812 332 7251 THE AMERICAN SPECTAPOR NOVEMBER 1987 29 money guys...
...and Al Gore, Sr...
...That done, people are free to go or sit and chat...
...As this superb collection amply demonstrates, Berger's commitment is neither to the right nor to the left, but only to the truth...
...he paused in the study of a Marshalltown couple's home to hold a live Q & A with network anchors...
...When Gephardt squared off with Michael Dukakis in a recent Iowa debate, for example, the event was broadcast live in New Hampshire but not here—it took place on Saturday morning, and local stations went with their cartoons...
...In exchange, the caucus system asks that candidates shake hands, answer questions of potential caucus-goers, and say just what the hell they stand for...
...Iowa's rise as a political phenomenon has been relatively recent, beginning in 1972 but not truly manifesting itself until Jimmy Carter exploited the opportunity here in 1976...
...Judges, lawyers and students of constitutional law can ignore them only at their peril...
...shot of the natives, who would then be allowed to execute their local customs quietly, I certainly wouldn't mind...
...Evidence surfaced following the 1984 caucuses that NES had failed to report the results of 25 percent of the precinct returns, apparently cutting off tabulations at a time convenient to the national news...
...After Hart pulled out, there was a sudden scramble to find local organizers, but perhaps an even more dramatic influx of national people who plan to park out in the wilderness until February...
...As speakers climbed aboard the hayrack to deliver their messages directly beneath a sagging satchel of tent worms in the cottonwood, a dozen cameras soaked up images and impressions for various audiences, few of them Iowan...
...And they threaten national political candidates with regularity, with crudeness and with seeming impunity in a quest for political money...
...This time around, the candidates are relying on their tech weenies to do that for them...
...at 6 p.m...
...Forrest McDonald Professor of History University of Alabama "Raoul Berger, more than anyone else, has changed the nature and extent of public discourse over the Constitution in American politics...
...Jackson delivers the sermon...
...Two women in black formal wear with tiny purses laying in tandem against their boney hips stared openly at the assemblage of Iowans—who were not all Iowans, as you found out by moving among them...
...has vowed to bring to the state several of his prize beef cattle with which he hopes to snatch a few state fair ribbons...
...a figure he later admitted was bluster...
...Before his untimely demise, Gary Hart enlisted many Iowans at all levels, which undoubtedly explains why 65 percent of Iowa Democrats supported him...
...This releases their representatives to go with another candidate...
...I don't know who I'm going to vote for," a man tells me in the beer line...
...After Hart withdrew, William Dixon, his campaign manager, appeared before the Association of Secretaries of State meeting in Boston and in a final show of gratitude blasted Iowans and their state: "Today Iowa is . . . the home of many sophisticated, greedy political leaders who know how important it is to get money...
...What they do at caucus, which is enough to catch media attention, is conduct an initial straw poll of those attending on their presidential choice...
...Nonetheless the Democrats have agreed to provide NES with an initial count--!`something that happens at all caucuses anyway," according to party spokesman Phil Roeder...
...Christian conservatives have in the past been politically quiet in Iowa...
...There were ranks of folding chairs borrowed from local churches, including the one where his wife preaches...
...In that respect I am representative of 85 percent of eligible voters in my state—a remarkable percentage, considering that the Iowa caucus, held a week before New Hampshire's primary and several weeks before Super Tuesday, has arguably become the most important event in our presidential campaigns...
...Candidates here "develop charisma," as former state party chairman Anita Terpstra puts it...
...This is especially true in light of these essays...
...The Republican caucus has been most convenient for national campaigns...
...Specifically, NES pointed to the Republicans, who conduct a straw poll at the opening of business and pass along that raw body count to NES...
...Lost in such reasoning, of course, is the main cause of Iowa's political legitimacy: Democrats elect delegates on caucus night...
...The setting was the 130-year-old Tabor farm...
...on the other, Iowans accuse some of the candidates of bypassing people for a thirty-second spot on the national news...
...Raoul Berger is such a man, and reading him can be an education...
...Walter Berns John M. Olin University Professor Georgetown University "Raoul Berger's essays on the Constitution are_ formidable: stimulating iconoclastic and learned...
...Caucus regulars gleefully point out the obstacles placed in the way of attending...
...Selected Writings is fearless constitutional scholarship—at its best...
...And nearly every local activist seemed to have come from somewhere: Oklahoma, Kentucky, California, and upstate New York...
...No ( Cumberland Virginia 23040 (804) 492-4949 30 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1987...
...This year NES asked the Democrats to make it easier to report on caucus results...
...28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1987 (He would be wise to finish back in the pack and let Iowa farmers take home the top prizes...
...That's the sort of attention the caucuses can promote...
...He said it was not coincidental that the big advances made by Democrats in Iowa have come since 1972, when the latest procedure was put into effect...
...You may debate with these people vigorously, violently in fact, but you will also remember them when bond issues need passage or someone has to make calls or you need a candidate for an entry level office...
...VA residents please add $1.30 sales tax for each book...
...Paul Simon gave daughter Sheila and future son-in-law Perry Knop the wedding present of a trip to Iowa where he will be talking up Dad while she organizes...
...It is warm, but the Iowa drought has been stopped by a rain the night before and the many farmers in the audience are more expansive, more able to concentrate on what they are hearing...
...They are trying to operate two campaigns, and not doing well with either...
...The Iowans, used to Sunday service, rise to leave—but no, Gephardt has to come on yet...
...Iowa political activists know what the state can do for a candidate...
...Today the Democrats control both houses of the state legislature, and are strong in the major cities...
...At caucus, following the initial body count (with people gathering in corners for the candidate of their choice), candidates with less than 15 percent are deemed out of the running...
...MasterCard ^ VISA Check or Money Order (Please, no Currency) ^ Choice AMOUNT ENCLOSED $ Card Account Number Month Year Expiration Date Required Please ship to: JAMES RIVER PRESS Customer Signature Name Address Daytime Tel...
...From the Foreword by Philip B. Kurland William R. Kenan Distinguished Service Professor University of Chicago Law School "This collection of essays reveals the treasures that can be unearthed by someone who takes the Constitution seriously...
...vi, 308 Please send me copies of Selected Writings on the Constitution at $28.95 each plus $3.00 shipping & handling...
...He has achieved this by unfaltering dedication to principle, and a willingness to follow principle wherever it may lead...
...But the afternoon wears on, and the hostess keeps promising that we will soon be able to chow down after only a few more speeches...
...T he seven Democratic candidates .1 running today have yet to show anything like Robertson's savvy...
...Eric Tabor, who is running 4 4for the U.S...
...A pair from Connecticut were here because back home they would never see a national politician...
...Republicans do nothing of the sort...
...It was an Iowa political leader, Cliff Larson, who made sure in the '72 campaign that Iowa would keep the first-in-the-nation caucus status, but some credit must go to the media for soliciting caucus results...
...Perhaps most startling has been the emergence of television evangelist Pat Robertson as front-runner of sorts...
...What astonishes, though, is that Iowans do not use the candidates more...
...After all, these are only politicians, and everyone knows that when sweet corn is ready, it's ready...
...After all, the people staring at her from across the room were her parents, and over in another corner were neighbors she had known for thirty years...
...There was a surreal, laboratory quality to the afternoon, a blending of Iowa culture and national hype...
...Jackson and Senator Tom Harkin pose beside a farm fence plastered with the names of candidates...
...It makes sense that Iowans should expect something in return for what they offer...
...With Robertson's entry, these people have been filling the grass roots positions that are crucial to an Iowa organization...
...Loreen Gephardt, mother of Dick, now has an apartment in west Des Moines...
...Campaigns are cheap here, so that candidates can stick within the $750,000 federal allotment...
...I'm a Republican myself, but I'm wearing this Biden button just in case...
...Many feel that the Democratic caucus, as awkward as it is, has been extremely valuable to the state party...
...And we are all so much the better for it...
...Amore serious case of outside interference involves the News Election Service, a cooperative of network and print journalists who report caucus results to the rest of civilization on caucus night...
...Iowans can make a candidate out of a hopeful if he is willing to subject to the caucus rites: answer questions, act honest, endure the heat and the events...
...Meanwhile, Robert Dole has played to Iowa's sympathy for farmers, touting his Midwestern background with good results...
...But at the Democratic caucus, if you want to be counted, you will still have to take part in the caucus...
...The 1988 election may carry some ofthe same significance for Republicans that it has had for Democrats in recent years...
...Its size and small population make it easier to cover than New York or California...
...In subzero weather, they will be gathering with family, friends, or neighbors...
...The others, the Seven Dwarfs, have not really made the local contacts necessary for winning delegates across the state...
...and a surly group relocate their seats or stand cross-armed at the margins, eager to get in line for some food...
...Paul Simon zigs and zags through the crowd with camera and aides staggering behind...
...Kitty Dukakis explains yet again about her diet pill problem...
...Richard Gephardt made Iowa political history in April when he hired a satellite uplink truck to follow him throughout a day of campaigning...
...Here's the nitty gritty of a caucus: each group debates the relative merits of joining with it, and unattached delegates learn how to exert their own power...
...So much for the accurate reports of who Iowa will be sending off to national conventions...
...It's also true that presidential candidates come in handy at myriad state events, from balloon races to local fairs to park picnics...
...When it comes to exploiting candidates, alas, Iowans are bush league...
...If it is a small group, you may rearrange yourself on the couch...
...If all their discussion took place out of earWilliam Mueller is a writer living in Ely, Iowa...
...They are a glimmering ornament to his earlier works, and some are truly brilliant...
...Out back neighbors were shucking and boiling corn...
...His campaign reminds some of past campaigns which created new constituencies and new power bases...
...And of course Iowans and Iowa scenes make good copy—real heartland stuff...
...The Republicans do not produce actual delegates on caucus night, but do so discreetly at some fairly obscure future date...
...Some rustics...
...He has ignored his own strategy of 1980, when he launched a door-to-door campaign and won an early victory that made him the man Ronald Reagan had to beat...
...The caucus draws attention to the people who attend it, and while nearly every Iowan clearly loves to debate politics in some forum that allows for quick egress, such as a cafe or barber shop, the thought of taking a formal position in a public place is terrifying...
...On the dusty drive organizers rushed here and there, shepherding candidates and arranging sessions for press photographers who glanced about for appropriately symbolic backdrops that matched available depth of field: Biden mugs with a terribly crippled young man in a wheelchair...
...The typical Iowa attitude of holding politics in its place bumps against this reliance on media technology...
...Political writers gnash their teeth, half of them wondering if the rustics are up to the responsibility at hand, the others pointing out that the caucuses do not draw typical Iowans and so are some sort of fraud...
...The result has been a body of scholarly research that has alternately outraged conservatives and liberals...
...E seems to be aiding the L i outsiders this year to an unprecedented degree...
...That was the argument made by James Flansburg of the Des Moines Register in a recent column defending the Democrats and their caucus...
...Unfortunately, Iowa House Speaker Don Avenson told a Washington Post reporter that he intended to net $50,000 for each of his House candidates...
...Harkin takes the offering...
...The great majority of Iowans divide into those who know little about the caucus or how they could join with it...
...Dixon claimed that Iowa's Democratic leadership tried to extort $50,000 from the Hart coffers, saying they would otherwise destroy him...
...After all, this farm state has been in recession since Reagan became President...
...They domeet with small groups, but they are also using the rallies and public events almost exclusively to communicate with the national audience...
...Back among the peonies was a slightly out of place swimming pool where more than the usual number of kids splashed...
...For Democrats the caucus has been the place to form an underground, to create a network...
...But what do the pundits want...
...Tents were set down among the fruit trees and long tables were spread with a mixture of catered and covered dishes—local custom meeting standard P.R...
...Selected Writings on the CONSTITUTION by Raoul Berger "Raoul Berger is the dean of scholars of the American Constitution . . . Like his other works, this one too reflects a deep scholarship with a masterful command of language and an ardent plea for intellectual honesty, a rare commodity both in the groves of academe and in the halls of justice...
...Here is where part of the criticism on both sides has entered into it: on the one hand the campaigners claim that Iowans ask too much and are spoiled...
...Not exactly Iranian terrorists, these Iowans...
...Over at the Democrats', however, a long night of wrangling is ahead before they will even say how many delegates have declared for which candidates...
...I attended one such event, a fundraiser for a local politician on whose farm the rally was being staged...
...For the caucus to work, as the Democrats see it, serious candidates have to cover every precinct to make sure some of their own will show up in the 2500 living rooms, church basements, school gyms, and civic centers on caucus night...
...All of this gets planned with less reliance on Iowa people, be they the audience, or local organizers, or loyal rank and file accustomed to grilling candidates...
Vol. 20 • November 1987 • No. 11
