A Prop for T-Paw

Today's print column

Iowa's caucus campaign is at its best during those unplanned, non-packaged interactions that teach us a lot about candidates and voters. Sadly, they're becoming rarer.

And it's at its worst when Iowa gets used merely as a set piece. That's getting more and more common.

That's what Tim Pawlenty did this week. We were a prop, a nice setting for his telling of “hard truths.”

The former Minnesota governor launched his candidacy for president in Des Moines on Monday, the golden dome of our Capitol over his shoulder. Among other things, Pawlenty said that he would end federal ethanol subsidies.

But he wasn't really talking to Iowans. He just needed some to sit nearby while he spoke to another crowd far away.

And that crowd loved it. Rush Limbaugh called Pawlenty “gutsy.” The Wall Street Journal editorial board gushed that it was “downright amazing.” Other coastal/national political scribes called him the “bravest” for uttering the “unthinkable” in corn country. He slew the “sacred cow,” and laughed in the face of a political “death wish.”

Pawlenty, as a Midwesterner, knows better than to believe that ethanol is the monolithic political litmus test that our journalistic tourists make it out to be. Our views on renewable fuels and federal support propping up the industry are more complicated and nuanced.

Many of us believe that the federal subsidy, actually a tax break, is now bad policy. We'd like to see our farmers succeed, but it's time to see if this thing can roll without a pricey set of training wheels. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a staunch ethanol backer, proposed legislation weeks ago bringing about the same gradual subsidy phaseout Pawlenty proposes.

Our Legislature has turned back repeated attempts to mandate the use of ethanol-blended fuel in Iowa. It is mandated in Minnesota, and Pawlenty signed a bill to double that mandate. See, it's complicated.

So Pawlenty knew he was not really telling a hard truth to Iowans. Instead, he was perpetuating a stereotype cherished by national politicos whom he was very eager to impress. All he needed was a backdrop.

This is what passes for brave, urging the end of a subsidy for a product that also commands a federally mandated share of the fuel market and benefits from protective tariffs. Pawlenty got to look bold while actually being fairly timid.

Ending subsidies is not an energy policy. Would he use the money saved to develop the next generation of renewable fuels, or to help deliver a fat tax cut to top executives at ADM? Tell us the hard truth. We can take it.

Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@sourcemedia.net