Midday musings

House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, lost in his bid this morning to force a debate on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. His effort to use a little-used House rule to free the amendment from committee purgatory failed 46-50.

Radio Iowa,  The Gazette and The Register each have accounts.

But he got what he really wanted -- more media attention for the GOP's curious "Fight Against the Future" campaign strategy and a procedural vote that can be twisted just enough to be used as a weapon against some vulnerable Democrats this fall. Mission Accomplished.

Remember when the GOP used to have a tolerant, responsible and reasonable side and wasn't constantly bending over backwards to make itself look cranky, spiteful and backward? Those were the days.

Elsewhere, reporters are hunting the elusive "Iowa

Freedom

 Future Fund," which has been airing radio ads around here for weeks attacking Gov. Chet Culver and his Big Lug brand of budgeting. Now the group is preparing to run some TV ads along the same lines.

According to the IFF's page on YouTube, the group "is a network of concerned citizens that are interested in the democratic process. This organization provides them a vehicle to support their hopes and dreams for what Iowa can and should become. The Iowa Future Fund is a way for people who unite around a common purpose of smaller government, lower taxes and greater freedom to educate the public and elected leaders about issues they are concerned about.

The Iowa Future Fund has been established primarily to further the common good and general welfare of the citizens of the United States by educating the citizens of Iowa about public policy issues affecting the State of Iowa."

Well who can be against that? But greater freedom and greater disclosure don't always go hand-in-hand.

Over at Radio Iowa, O.K. Henderson reports that the group "has not filed financial documents with either state or national groups which oversee spending on political ads and while the group sent an email to news organizations Monday morning touting its ad, there was no contact person listed."

Mysterious.

It's obviously a GOP interest group taking shots at Culver for overspending and for offering fat tax incentives to woo Microsoft, which doesn't need them. Weren't we just suing them a few years ago?

The ads do conveniently omit the fact that every Republican in the Iowa House voted for the Microsoft package. Chasing smokestacks, or in this case Web servers, is hardly a partisan pursuit. Everybody's doing it.

WHO-TV in Des Moines notes that The Iowa Future Fund

"is the same name Senator Tom Harkin used for his political action committee. But now that group has dissolved, and the question is who brought the Iowa Future Fund back to life."