Davenport NEW Misses Benchmark

July 29 - Editorial - Davenport NEW Meets Old Davenport. Success signs - getting front-line city staff involved.

As the largest department of the city, there is no greater front-line than Public Works. In an election year, it is difficult to evaluate and judge the performance of our mayor and aldermen on their hand-picked choice for Public Works director, when he fails to show up for a First Ward meeting and conveys his loathing to speak to the public, through the elected official. As one who is also old Davenport (old school), I'd like to hear from the man in charge: Do we have enough salt for Winter? Is he thinking about spring flooding, potholes, sewer collapses, road resurfacing? If Davenport NEW is about open and transparent access to government, then meeting the new Public Works director would be a good public-relations start.

Arthur Anderson
Davenport

U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) heard an earful in four town-hall meetings held this week across the central part of the state, with a majority of the large crowds telling him to put the brakes on Democratic plans for health-care reform.

At congressional town-hall gatherings across the country, opponents of the Democrats' health-care-reform proposals have been loud, angry, and in some cases involved in physical altercations with those who are supportive of President Barack Obama and Democrats. U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) experienced some of that shouting and booing during his meetings in Des Moines and eastern Iowa.

The largely conservative and Republican audience that attended Grassley's town-hall meetings in Adel, Afton, Panora, and Winterset were forceful in their condemnation of Obama and in some cases said they would vote against Grassley in 2010 if he does not stop his efforts to fashion a bipartisan health-care compromise. They occasionally mocked the few dissenting Democratic and liberal attendees who implored Grassley to embrace a government-run insurance option as a part of health-care reform.

But for the most part, the events were civil and respectful - and full. The meetings in Adel and Winterset were moved out of the public library and into a park after it became clear the large crowds would overwhelm those venues. (About 300 showed up for a morning event in Winterset; nearly 1,000 braved the heat in Adel.) The meetings in Afton and Panora were indoors and featured standing-room-only crowds of around 300 and almost 500, respectively.

"I don't want a government-run plan," Grassley said in Afton to enthusiastic applause, using a line he repeated throughout the day, each time to loud cheers.

Iowa car dealers have in less than two weeks sold at least 2,300 vehicles under the popular "Cash for Clunkers" program, but more than half of those dealers were making sales conditional as they waited to get reimbursed about $9.7 million from the federal government and to see whether the Congress would authorize $2 billion more for the program.

The Senate voted 60-37 on Thursday night to approve the additional money, and President Barack Obama signed the legislation on Friday. The bill cleared the U.S. House last week.

"I'm not complaining," said John McEleney, a Clinton, Iowa, auto dealer who's chair of the National Automobile Dealers Association. "I'm very pleased; dealers in general are very pleased we have this program. It gives us some confidence that business is turning around. There's pent-up demand, and people are willing to buy cars. We would have preferred much less bureaucracy, but we understand it's a government program."

While fellow Democrats Governor Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes were hurling insults at each other several days ago about the state budget, I picked up the phone and called Illinois Senate Majority Leader James Clayborne.

"Are the rumors true?" I asked. Was Clayborne really thinking about running for governor in the Democratic primary?

Over the previous several days, quite a few people had said they'd spoken with Clayborne, and all claimed that he sounded like a candidate to them.

But Clayborne would only say that he was still just talking to people, mulling it over, and considering his options. No decision yet.