Quick Takes -- Rants and Rail

The Register's Jason Clayworth had an interesting piece over the weekend chronicling how state Rep. Chris Rants, now a candidate for governor, left the House GOP campaign fund $200,000 in debt after the 2008 election. Rants, as minority leader at the time, led the House GOP effort.

The gist is that the same politician who overspent campaign dollars is now  ripping Gov. Culver for overspending tax dollars. Doesn't look good. It's a double barrelled attack that undermines Rants' message and underscores that he lost seats and was ousted from leadership.

Rants didn't offer up much of a defense.  But of I were him, I'd emphasize  what Republicans nearly got for that money.

There was a point during the wee hours after the polls closed last November when it looked like Republicans might pull even or actually take narrow control of the Iowa House. That possibility was astounding, given that Democrats from Obama on down were cleaning up across the state. Several Democratic House incumbents seemed headed for defeat.

In the end, the Democrats' superior absentee voting operation pulled their majority out of the fire and the GOP lost a couple of seats. Still, if Rants and his team had been able to pull off that kind of against-the-stream upset, no one would be complaining about the debt.

Sure, it would have been cheaper just to roll over and concede the Democrats' big night, but that 2008 effort may lay the groundwork for 2010.

Still, Rants' side lost. And now he's the goat. That's politics.

CULVER RIDES THE RAILS -- Gov. Chet Culver used a whistle stop tour in Eastern Iowa this past weekend to make a pitch for passenger rail service from Iowa City and Dubuque to Chicago. He says the Iowa City-Chicago route will happen in the next two years.

Generally, I'm supportive of the project. But I wonder whether people will see it as a novelty to try once or twice or as a real  and regular mode of transportation that they'll use often.

Part of my concern is that if this flops, that would pretty much knock the legs out from under the notion of a commuter line between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, an idea I think has some merit. Although I suppose a successful IC-Chicago route might enhance the chances of light rail. I tend to be a glass-half-empty guy. Maybe those trains will be jammed.

What do you think. Would you ride the rails to Chicago? Often?