Color Me Stunned

The female brain (?) trust at the Ragister endorses Tom Fiegen over Roxanne Conlin.

Fiegen: Did his homework better on challenging national issues

OUCH!

That's got to hurt more than being called ROZANNE promoting a fundraiser, with Nancy Pelosi, in your own mansion!

Iowa Democrats have three choices for a candidate to challenge Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in November's election. All three deserve credit for the daunting task of trying to unseat a longtime incumbent. Yet none is an especially impressive choice for the job of U.S. senator.

And the scientific community is united in that fact!

Iowa Democrats have to choose one of these three. They should reward Fiegen, 51, for preparing best to thoughtfully tackle issues.

We have reservations about all three candidates, but fewer about Fiegen.

Nothing like a backhanded compliment...SMACK!

Rozanne,Taxanne, CONlin

I laughed at this headline from O. Kay Henderson regarding Rozanne Conlin's campaign.

Conlin raises more than Roehrick, Lloyd-Jones, Osterberg & Small

Hell, she did that when she contributed $250,000 of her own money to her campaign and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Erin Kiernan, wife of Michael, erroneously reported it as $25,000 during her 6.pm. story.

The Conlin campaign brags that none of the money came from “Washington lobbyists or PACs.”

One of her Dummycrat opponents, Tom Fiegen, has a different take on it --

“If somebody says, ‘I will take no money from lobbyists,’ but then says, ‘I will take no money from federal lobbyists,’ and then says, ‘I will not take money from federal lobbyists except my friends,’ are they trustworthy? And then, if somebody criticizes Goldman Sachs, and yet they have the blood of Goldman Sachs on their hands and they own Goldman Sachs stock, are they trustworthy?”

Debatable?

Not according to Fiegen -- “[I]f somebody says, ‘I will debate my opponents after we are all qualified for the ballot,’ and then refuses to debate, is that person trustworthy?”

Fiegen also hammered Taxanne for previously taking advantage of tax shelters that she had denounced.

Taxanne CONlin

Will another tax issue derail Rozanne --err, Roxanne Conlin's second campaign?

Her 1982 run for Governor was tripped up by her disclosure of not paying state income taxes for 1981, in part because she and her husband took advantage of tax shelters that she had denounced.

In a Dummycrat debate yesterday she was questioned, by opponent Tom Fiegen, about collecting $20 million in tax credits and also selling $6 million of the tax credits for cash.

Taxanne's response -- “I think it’s clear that Mr. Fiegen doesn’t understand about tax credits. You always sell tax credits.”

ALWAYS?

The Ragister points out...Developers typically sell the credits to businesses.

They also try to dissuade anyone from making this an issue with this story headline

Fiegen sets old tax hurdle in Conlin's path

Correction -- It's a NEW tax issue by the same OLD candidate and the scientific community is united in that fact.

The Ragister then digs out Dummycrat State Senator Jack ASS...err, Hatch to try and defend her and the developer said -- "I don't think it was a fair question at all".

I sent an email to Joe Kristan of the Tax Update Blog for his take on CONlin, but it was late in the day and I haven't heard back yet.

However, here's his take on tax credits.

Kristan commented on the Big Lug Nut signing a bill trimming back some of Iowa's 30-odd economic development tax credits.

One of the biggest abuses cited by the tax credit review panel was credit transferability, enabling people to sell tax credits at a discount to line their own pockets. The biggest remaining transferable credit is the historic rehabilitation credit. State Senator Jack Hatch and the husband of the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate are both big rehab credit developers. Not surprisingly, transferability isn't touched by the bill.

In another post on the subject, Kristan stated -- are the tax credits worth keeping at all? There's no evidence they do any good. Far better to scrap the credits, lower the rates, and let us keep our money without running it through the Department of Revenue first.

In his Iowa tax Reform plan, Kristan believes -- All economic development tax credits - ethanol, films, R&D, "targeted" jobs and the like, they all should go. Low rates are more important than any of these, all of which serve primarily to fund the well-connected.

Which should leave the CONlin campaign crying...Say it ain't so, Joe!