Essential Estrogen

It seems Sen. Mary Lundby (R-Marion) has forgotten the Golden Rule, Kharma or whatever you wish to call it when your own actions boomerang round to hit you in the buttocks.

In a recent newsletter, Lundby laments the introduction of an amendment to the teacher pay bill:

"...important elements in the legislative process revolving around issues of fairness, cooperation and bi-partisanship have been lost... During the full Education Committee meeting, the Senate Democrats introduced a 16 page amendment into an 18 page bill (Senate Study Bill 1118); the amendment essentially rewrote the bill... Not only did the amendment and bill provide all of this new language but it was dropped like a bomb on the committee room table with no opportunity for input from the Republican members of the committee.

This should almost be added to the "cry me a river" category based on the absurdity of it. How many times in the previous 40 years had the Republican majority 'dropped a bomb' in committee? Gee, Mary, I'd like to feel for you on this one, but it's also rather nice seeing you get a taste of your own medicine.

In other news... Did you hear that Vilsack dropped? Quite frankly we don't have too much to say about it other than, "Who among us did not expect this to happen?" and "I wonder who won the date on the office pool?"

We here at EE have always considered Christie to be the shining star in the Vilsack show. We hope to see her run for something in the future... and we hope to see Tom stay at home.

There are one or two good things to come out of this:

1. We no longer have to listen to Vilsack supporters say, "I'm supporting Vilsack... until he drops."
2. We will hopefully see a more unified Democratic Party in Iowa now. Maybe we'll actually get one with enough teeth to hang onto our First in the Nation status for another Presidential year.

Anyway... here's hoping.