March 24, 2007
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Surrounded by hundreds of guns of all sorts and a Taser or two, a presidential candidate and several citizens complained about security.
In fact, the only topic of the candidate or those he chatted with was immigration. You heard nary a word about Iraq at the Cedar Rapids Gun Show at Hawkeye Downs Fairgrounds. It was all immigration, or rather, illegal immigration.
The candidate for immigration reform, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, worked a receptive room this Saturday afternoon. He was preaching to the choir, a choir of voices who want either immigration laws changed or enforced more strictly to keep illegal aliens from taking U.S. jobs while not paying U.S. taxes.
"I like this place!" Tancredo exclaimed in the middle of an animated give-and-take with people who had an immigration complaint of their own for each the congressman cited to them. "This is a good crowd. You know the issues."
It was one issue, actually. Nothing was said between candidate and potential Iowa caucus-goers on Iraq, Iran, health care, the economy or the environment. Their political world seemed to begin and end at the border separating the United States from Mexico.
"You cannot ignore this," Tancredo said. "If you think you're gonna solve any of this (immigration) stuff by pretending it doesn't exist, you're crazy. Most folks who are either running for office or are my colleagues in Congress do not want to deal with this."
Those engaged in discussion with Tancredo amid all the Glocks and Smith & Wessons did want to deal with it.
"As a citizen, I'm supporting him,'' said Craig Halverson of Griswold, Iowa. "I agree with what he has to say. He's the one Christian conservative that's out there running. He's pro-life and I'm pro-life. He's for the Second Amendment, and I'm for the Second Amendment. And he's for the border being sealed."
Halverson, retired after 22 years in the U.S. Air Force, is the director of the non-profit Iowa Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
"I'm trying to grow chapters of the Minutemen in every county in the state," he said. "I want all my guys to get with the Legislature and let the Legislature know we want them to do the people's work. English is the official language of this state. We want to keep that. For over 230 years, English has been our language. I'm happy with that and the majority of Americans are happy with that. Why is there a push for us to change the language to Spanish? I am against that."
Halverson stressed that he supported Tancredo only as a citizen, not in his Minutemen capacity. He did, however, wear a T-shirt touting Tancredo. He also wore a black armband.
"I'm not mourning for the brave American soldiers that are dying in Iraq," he said, "who I support all the way. I'm mourning for the 47,000 innocent American citizens that have died by the hands of illegal aliens since 9/11."
Last week, the subject of immigration came up often for Sen. John McCain during his campaign swing through Iowa, catching him by surprise. “Immigration is probably a more powerful issue here than almost any place that I’ve been,” McCain said.
"Wherever he went," Halverson said, "the topic was illegal aliens. They're not illegal immigrants. The proper term is 'aliens.' They are aliens to our country. He was in shock because that's the only topic, basically, that people put to him. And he's from Arizona, where it's out of control. Why is he shocked? It's across the country now."
The Minutemen want to identify illegal aliens, who employs and houses them, and demand that the government and law-enforcement agencies enforce immigration laws. Minutemen, Halverson said, "are retired military, retired police officers. Just good, strong American citizens, patriotic. They're tired of seeing what's going on, and they're tired of the government not enforcing the laws.
"I am, too. I've got nine kids. I've got a lot of grandkids. I'm worried what their future brings. I'm scared to death because of what's going on in this country, and that's what got me involved."
But what about ... Iraq?
"President Bush says we're at war," Halverson said. "Why are we sending our National Guard over to Iraq when we're at war with terrorists? Our border should be secured first. Take care of the home base first, and then you go somewhere else and do your wars or whatever you need to do. You take care of home first, and that means sealing the borders.
"Two-thirds of the American people are with us. They're just not out there. But the number is growing."
March 14, 2007
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- They aren't talking about Tommy Thompson on the Sunday morning news shows, or on O'Reilly, Olbermann or Matthews. They aren't writing about him in Newsweek, Time, or In Touch. His comments don't instantly show up on Drudge or the Huffington Post.
When it comes to the Republican candidates for president, it's all Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney. But as many people in Iowa, and maybe more, are at least as vaguely aware of former Wisconsin governor Thompson as former Massachusetts governor Romney. Tommy's from a border state, after all. And that neighbor has logged a lot more time trying to woo support in next January's Iowa caucuses than Romney. Or Giuliani. Or McCain. Or the three of them combined.
"Wisconsin was a debtor state. It was a state where people went to escape their debts. He turned that around," said Jurine Moore of Mount Vernon, who has seldom failed to attend the Iowa caucuses. She came to see Thompson at Konstantino's restaurant in Cedar Rapids Wednesday. That doesn't necessarily mean Thompson will be Moore's candidate. But it does mean, to her, that he is a serious candidate. The same goes for Loren Flater of Toddville.
"Am I totally committed to Governor Thompson?" Flater posed. "I won't say that. I still haven't heard from Giuliani. But I like Thompson's track record. I like his creative thoughts. I like his ideas and have liked his ideas for years, and that's the reason I've come here today. I think I maybe found my man."
Such comments have to offer a little hope to a candidate the national press probably writes off as hopeless. No such national press followed Thompson from Des Moines to Cedar Rapids to Clinton Wednesday. But Thompson keeps covering ground and shaking hands, wearing out car tires and speaking in front of a lot of places where Iowans go to eat.
This day, it was a new Greek restaurant on the bank of the Cedar River. In the last few weeks,Thompson has made campaign stops at Big Muddy's Restaurant in Burlington, Smoky Row Coffee Shop in Oskaloosa, Okoboji Grill in Newton. He's attended a Belgian waffle breakfast at the American Legion in Indianola. He returns to Iowa Saturday, with a stop at the Pizza Ranch in Manchester.
McCain, Giuliani, Romney - they're everywhere, working their national campaign strategies. Most of Thompson's time is focused on Iowa, not New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina. Iowa is his one shot at gaining any sort of traction nationally.
"I've got to win Iowa,'' Thompson said before his 25-minute speech to a group of about 65 Linn County Republicans in the back of Konstantino's. "No bones about it. It's like when Jimmy Carter came up here and put his future in Iowa. I am doing the same thing. I've got to carry Iowa. I believe I can, and I believe I will."
Thompson, 65, isn't glib. He's no surefire sound bite. The next invitation he gets to appear on Letterman or Leno will be his first. He's Elroy, Wis., not Hollywood, Calif. He is, however, relentless.
"Nobody's spending time here like I am,'' he said. "I've been here every single week since the first week of December. I'll be here last night and today and tomorrow. I'll be back Saturday. I want people to get to know me. I want their vote, and I think it's starting to pay off."
In getting elected in 1986 for the first of his four terms as governor, Thompson said "I surprised everybody because I outworked everybody. I outworked everybody in the primary, I outworked the Democratic governor in the general election, and the people responded."
While people lunched on bruschetta and spiced chicken wings and listened, Thompson stood with his back against a window that looks out on the Cedar and gave a 25-minute speech on topics ranging from welfare reform, medical diplomacy, and, of course, Iraq. He then fielded questions. Finally, he stood in a narrow hallway in the restaurant as Republicans paid their respects to him and he to them, one at a time. Even if they hadn't wanted to, they would have had little choice but to converse with the candidate on their way out.
"You're just what I wanted here," one man told Thompson.
"I knew you'd like me if you got the chance to know me,'' was the reply, without an apparent trace of humor.
"I came here just knowing him by his reputation," said Forrest Rosser of Cedar Rapids as he neared Thompson in the reception line. "I was very impressed by his presentation. He could be a good president."
One Iowan at a time, town to town, coffee shop to pizza joint, week after week after week.
That 65-year-old guy buying underwear and toiletries in Coralville's Wal-Mart after 2 a.m. a couple weeks ago? That was the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, a man running for president of the United States. He had flight snafus getting from San Diego to Chicago to the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids because of harsh winter weather, but made it in after 1 a.m. His luggage did not. Four hours later, he was awake to start another day of campaigning, which would be curtailed by an ice storm. He said the weekend before that he had been on a plane in Iowa that sat on a runway for six hours before it finally got the go-ahead to take off.
“I would have to be either running for president or crazy,” Thompson told the San Diego Union-Tribune, before adding “or both.”
"People know that I'm sincere. They know that I care about Iowa,'' he said here Wednesday. "I'm telling them I'm not going to be just a fly-by type of person. I'm going to be here."