Kerry to zip across Iowa today in a helicopter
By KEN FUSON and BILL REITER
Des Moines Register
And now for something completely different . . . the "Kerry-copter."
John Kerry will barnstorm the state by helicopter today, in what may be an Iowa caucus campaign first.
Borrowing a page from Lyndon Johnson, who zipped across Texas by helicopter in his 1948 U.S. Senate race, Kerry will attend a pancake breakfast for Pottawattamie County Democrats in Council Bluffs and then take the chopper to Carroll, Sioux City, Adel and Fort Dodge.
Former Gov. Harold Hughes campaigned in a helicopter in Iowa in the 1960s, but longtime political observers in the state can't remember a chopper being used by a candidate in the Iowa presidential caucuses.
Laura Capps, Kerry's spokeswoman, said the helicopter seats six and may be used again during the campaign. She did not know the cost of using the helicopter or where the campaign obtained it.
An employee at Helicopters Inc. in Marion estimated the rental cost of a helicopter that size at between $500 and $700 an hour.
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If Iowa's Democratic caucuses don't turn out the way Howard Dean hopes, the pundits undoubtedly will point to two Sunday appearances as turning points.
One occurred during the Brown and Black Presidential Forum in Des Moines, when Al Sharpton forced Dean to acknowledge the absence of blacks or Hispanics in Dean's Cabinet while he was Vermont's governor.
The other occurred earlier, when Dean snapped at Dale Ungerer, 66, a retiree from Hawkeye, who attended a campaign rally at the Oelwein community center.
In what some witnesses described as a three-minute lecture, Ungerer bluntly told Dean, among other things, "Please tone down the garbage, the mean-mouthing, the tearing down of your neighbor, and being so pompous. You should help your neighbor and not tear him down."
When Ungerer began to interrupt Dean's response, the candidate cut him off, flashing some of the temper reporters had been watching for: "You sit down. You've had your say, and now I'm going to have my say."
Although he's a registered Republican and supports President Bush's re-election, Ungerer insists he was not a GOP plant sent to derail the putative Democratic front-runner.
Actually, he says, he was going ice fishing when he decided, on a whim, to attend the Dean rally. Ungerer says he was tired of candidates picking on the president.
Since the confrontation, Ungerer says he has heard praise from voters across the country. He also has become Sean Hannity's favorite Iowan, appearing on Hannity's radio program and Fox News television show.
Ungerer says he didn't mind getting under Dean's skin - "I could tell he was getting a little agitated" - and understood why the crowd cheered Dean for telling him to sit down.
"When you're a fox in a chicken house, what do you expect?" he says. "You're going to ruffle some feathers."
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To be fair, we asked Rachel Noerdlinger, Sharpton's spokeswoman, if the candidate has any whites or Hispanics in the upper reaches of his campaign staff.
Yes, she said, his campaign manager is white and another top official is Hispanic.
"We are certainly very diverse," she said.
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This must be what happens after you whip Minnesota in basketball: CNN's Judy Woodruff wore a University of Iowa stocking cap on the air Wednesday afternoon.
See, it's not just the candidates who are pandering to Iowans.
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The new epicenter of political life in Des Moines is the Temple for Performing Arts, which didn't exist during the 2000 caucuses.
Reporters and campaign workers have flocked to Starbucks, Centro restaurant and the South Union Bread Cafe.
The Centro diners on Wednesday night, for example, included New York Times staffers, including columnist Maureen Dowd and reporter R.W. "Johnny" Apple. If there was a Hall of Fame for political reporters, Apple would be a first-ballot selection.
"This is making the holiday season look like the summer doldrums," said a happy George Formaro, a co-owner of the two restaurants.
Centro hosted a big party for Kerry's campaign Monday night and has another bash scheduled next Monday for Dick Gephardt's supporters.
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Among those who joined the Kerry party at Centro's was singer-songwriter Carole King, who has been campaigning for the Massachusetts senator.
Which makes us wonder: Does she sing "I Feel the Earth Move" at Kerry's campaign events? And will she get a ride on his helicopter?
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Rob Corddry, a correspondent for "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" on the Comedy Central channel, said Dean's problem is that he has spent too much time in Iowa.
"The man traveled to all 99 counties," he said. "That just comes off as needy. Frankly, I've been to four, and I've had my fill."
Corddry ended his report with this:
"Come Monday, the Iowa caucuses end. This outdated, Byzantine, empty ritual of the democratic process will be over, and I'll be able to leave this frozen, rural hellscape and move on . . . (big sigh, long pause, pained grimace) . . . to New Hampshire." |
