*Cross Posted from
No Nussle Blog
Jim Nussle is replicating the executive branch strategy of Bush in more ways than one. In particular, Nussle has been quickly drafting almost the exact political team in Iowa that Bush used to carry the state in the 2004 election. Iowan's need to realize how closely tied Nussle is to the Bush administration's political apparatus...
- according to
The Hill:
Leading Republicans working for Nussle include Andrew Dorr, who worked for Bush last year and is now the congressman's political director; Marlys Popma, the acting political director of the state GOP and a prominent voice on the Christian right; and Vicky Vermaat, a well-known GOP activist who campaigned for Bush in 2000 and formerly worked for Rep. Tom Latham (R)
Marlys Popma is being paid $54,000 by the Nussle campaign for her work as a "grassroots organizer". She is a born-again Christian fundamentalist who has worked for George W. Bush and on the campaign of Gary Bauer. Popma's resume is diverse:
Today, Marlys is the President of IHS (In His Service) Consulting. IHS consults non-profit and political organizations according to Biblical principals. She has also served as the Executive Director of the Republican Party of Iowa, Deputy National Political Director for Bauer for President 2000, National Deputy Political Director of the Campaign for Working Families and the Executive Director of the Iowa Family Policy Council. In addition to serving as President of Iowa's Right to Life Committee, she was the official Spokesperson for the McCaughey Family immediately following the birth of their septuplets!
Personally, I'm shit-scared of the Iowa Family Policy Council (and their "research center"). They are uber-conservative, right-wing, fundamentalists that are tied directly to James Dobson's Focus on the Family. For example, they are currently organizing against an initiative in Waterloo, IA to add sexual orientation to it's non-discrimination code. The Iowa Family Policy Center has said:
The Waterloo City Council plans to consider adding "sexual orientation" to their civil rights code within 2-3 weeks. This addition would give homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered individuals special rights under the law. Pro-family citizens say the key to preventing their city from changing the civil rights code may be your action.
Now, I don't consider these "special rights" under the law. The people behind Nussle's "grassroots" campaign believe that anti-discrimination codes are flawed because they encourage "reverse discrimination". This is ridiculous. I guess that those that are culturally privileged are scared to death that they will be beaten, harassed, defamed, and otherwise discriminated against in a way that is so incredibly terrible. I guess they ignore the fact that Iowa Hate Crimes law (uh, statewide) prohibits hate speech and discrimination against persons on the basis of sexual orientation in the status quo. Additionally, this very law would prohibit discrimination against persons based on religious view or practice. Yet, this is all besides the point to a large extent. I don't want Focus on the Family Running my state. James Dobson, director and founder, is a crack-pot. For example, when discussing divorce (Jim, you should listen up here...) he has said:
King Solomon had at least one malcontent in his harem, for he wrote, "It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman" (Prov. 21:19, KJV). He later referred to her dissatisfaction as resembling "a continual dropping in a very rainy day" (Prov. 27:15, KJV). He is right! An agitated woman rants and raves and cries and complains. Her depression is perpetual, destroying vacations, holidays and the months in between. She may, in retaliation, refuse to cook or clean or take care of the kids.
He goes on...
Divorce is not the answer to the problem of busy husbands and lonely wives. Just because the secular world has liberalized its attitudes toward the impermanence of marriage, no such revision has occurred in the Biblical standard. Would you like to know precisely what God thinks of divorce? He has made His view abundantly clear in Malachi 2:13-17, especially with reference to husbands who seek a new sexual plaything:
Yet you cover the altar with your tears because the Lord doesn't pay attention to your offerings anymore, and you receive no blessing from him. "Why has God abandoned us?" you cry. I'll tell you why; it is because the Lord has seen your treachery in divorcing your wives who have been faithful to you through the years, the companions you promised to care for and keep. You were united to your wife by the Lord. In God's wise plan, when you married, the two of you became one person in his sight. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. Therefore guard your passions! Keep faith with the wife of your youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, says he hates divorce and cruel men. Therefore control your passions -- let there be no divorcing of your wives. You have wearied the Lord with your words. "Wearied him?" you ask in fake surprise. "How have we wearied him?" By saying that evil is good, that it pleases the Lord! Or by saying that God won't punish us -- he doesn't care. (TLB)
So, I'm guessing that Jim's first wife must have been an "agitated woman" who "rants and raves and cries and complains". Seems to be a good way to justify a divorce.