Onawa, Iowa is a tiny spot on the map of Iowa's huge western Fifth District, a community of 3,000 or so, with a lovely old courthouse, and home of the widest main street in the U.S. On Saturday it was a busy place. Congressman Steve King emerged from his bunker to meet with a friendly group of Republicans, some of whom were clutching pre-screened written questions distributed by his campaign staff for his "Ask Steve" event. Across the street, the Monona County Democrats were holding a barbecue and rally. And the local chamber of commerce was hosting a candidate forum an hour after King's event, to which the two congressional candidates were not invited by the partisan GOP chamber manager. Some say that was because he knew King was too chicken to show up at a debate, and he didn't want to give Rob Hubler a platform.
Enter: Rob Hubler, King's Democratic opponent, who has been trying to get King to man up and debate.
And enter: The Chickens. Photos below.
Western Iowa poultry are in favor of democracy, and do not want to be represented by a candidate who is too chicken to show up and answer real questions. The chickens have been pursuing King since he first refused to debate. What is it with Republicans, anyway? Why won't they debate their opponents?
Steve King prefers to fire at the opposition from the safe embrace of a tiny group of Republican diehards, asking questions that his staff has approved, and likely written for them, since they were all on the same kind of paper. That may be because an unscreened questioner in Storm Lake inquired: "do you hate all children or just poor kids?" Can't have that.
Here he is, just in time for Halloween, pontificating to empty chairs and a few supporters.
King assured them that our current financial problems result from Democrats forcing bankers to make bad loans to poor people. They did this with the GOP in charge of both houses of Congress and the White House for most of the last eight years. I'm always amazed at the power of the Dems to "force" the Republicans do what the Republicans want to do anyway, which is eliminate all regulation on business and let 'er rip, then blame the Democrats.
Rob was in the room trying to get called on, but he did not have a pre-screened question, so snake eyes for him. No way is King going to say anything to Rob Hubler with cameras running. This farce was duly filmed by a couple of Sioux City stations. Rob went back outside, followed by the TV crews, and talked to the voters through their cameras. Then he visited with the Monona County Dems, who were energized by the whole thing.
Change is in the air, even in the Fifth District of Iowa.
You can contribute to Rob Hubler's campaign to bring real representation to western Iowa here. You can help the other Democrat trying to unseat an Iowa Republican congressman at Becky Greenwald's site.