Tom Harkin Is Fundraising For Re-Election In 2008

GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

From the Des Moines Register:

Sen. Tom Harkin has said he is doing everything to indicate he is running for re-election, and his latest campaign finance report certainly makes it seem that way.

Harkin currently has $1.1 million in the bank, an almost required starting point for fundraising for an incumbent senator whether there is a challenger in sight or not. Through 2005 and 2006 he raised $2.1 million and spent $1.2 million, according to his most recent reports filed at the end of January.

This is going to sound crazy, but I think Tom Harkin is beatable.

And I don't think the answer is running a hardcore Republican right-winger like Steve King against him, although that would be a good show. I'd rather see Steve King save himself for a primary run against fauxscal conservative Chuck Grassley in 2010, although that would never happen.

Entrenched, out-of-touch, corruptable, and heavily-financed incumbents from either party are a bad thing. But after 2006, anything's possible. Look at Republican Jim Leach. Even though Leach was always a Bush critic and anti-war, he still got knocked off by also-anti-war professor and Democrat Dave Loebsack. The local voters just wanted somebody different.

I think the same thing is possible against Tom Harkin, especially in central Iowa where anger concerning the CIETC scandal will continue to stay high through 2007 and 2008.

I'm not even going to guess who's a good Republican to run against Harkin, because frankly I think there aren't any in Iowa. They're all a bunch of inbred losers in the Statehouse. And running Jim Ross Nussle or some religious type against Harkin would be an unmitigated disaster. Nussle would be creamed.

Harkin's fight would have to be on the Democratic side, in the primary.

And who do I think would be a good choice for that?

Nicholas Johnson.

He'd never do it, but he's the kind of guy who I think could beat Harkin. Especially in this current political climate.