Bush will be in eastern Iowa on Wednesday. This is how it read in the DM Register
yesterday:
President Bush will visit eastern Iowa on Wednesday to talk about his plans for Social Security.
MEETING: The president's "A Conversation on Strengthening Social Security" is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. at Kirkwood Community College, according to the White House press office.
TICKETS: Tickets will be available through members of Iowa's congressional delegation, a White House spokesman said.
Well, I did call Boswell's office (the sole Demcratic representative) and they heard nothing about any tickets.
I then called Latham's office (my representative, holy mother of f***) and they didn't have them either, but they told me to contact Sen. Grassley's office.
The Grassley people told me that they did have tickets at their Cedar Rapids office. The woman told me that I could just go and pick one up. She also told me that they distributed a bunch of them to Kiwanis and Rotary clubs throughout the state.
Here are Grassley's office's coordinates in Cedar Rapids (if you, or someone you know, is a rotarian or a Kiwani, ask them to get you tickets):
206 Federal Building
101 1st Street, S.E.
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
(319) 363-6832
Fax: (319) 363-7179
If you can go to the president talk (I can't), get yourself a ticket. Don't wear no donkeys on your shirt or other obvious signs of progressivism. If you get in, don't scream a question. Be respectful.
Be ready with two questions: a softball (so as to appease the handlers), and a real one. Try to make your story something the handlers might pick up.
Grassley came out yesterday voicing serious doubts about the privatization of SS. If the tickets are actually going to Rotarians and Kiwanis, Bush might not find such a receptive crowd in Iowa.
Grassley has found quite a bit of resistence at home trying to sell SS, so he might have an incentive to present W with a more realistic crowd than what Bush usually finds in his bubble.
It'll be great if we can generate some nasty footage for local and national news.
C'mon Iowans. Let's do this.
(PS: where the heck is the state Dem party on this?)