Rants: Some of us know Terry Branstad all too well

Former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad may claim to be a conservative, but Chris Rants, Sioux City, who also is seeking the 2010 nomination, says some Iowans know better.

“It was Terry Branstad on the other end of the phone when he called lobbying me to raise the cigarette tax when I was Speaker (of the House),” Rants said. “It was Terry Branstad wielding the veto pen when he gutted our education reform legislation because Republicans wouldn't go along with all the spending he wanted. It is Terry Branstad's signature on the largest tax increase in Iowa history.”

Rants was responding to Branstad's comment that people who don't think he is a conservative “don't know me.”

Opposing the Branstad tax and spend record doesn't make someone a member of the confrontational right -- it just makes them a fiscal conservative.