After Ethics Dust-Up, MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow Questions Iowa Caucuses' Role

The latest to jump on the “why Iowa?” bandwagon was MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow, who said the seriousness with which Iowa takes its role starts with the Iowa Straw Poll, “a fake, rigged, pay-for-votes open bribery, not a real contest pretending to be a contest.”

Ballots at the poll, Republicans’ first measure of presidential strength, cost $30. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, has said the Iowa Straw Poll has outlived its usefulness as a party fundraiser.

“There are a lot of other places in the country – like, you know, Camden, NJ, anybody? Appalachia? The North Dakota oil fields? – I don’t know, there’s a lot of other places that frankly could use the national attention in the political process,” Maddow said.

The posturing makes the endorsements of politicians in Iowa more important than in other states and they “get fought over” by national brand-name politicians of their party

“It must feel great,” Maddow quipped. “It must feel like a million bucks – or maybe 208,000 bucks,” the amount Sorenson is alleged to have charged the Paul campaign to switch his allegiance from Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s campaign.

The Iowa Caucuses are a 40-year tradition and “Iowa gets a lot of benefit out of this,” Maddow said. “Maybe it’s time for Iowa to start explaining why exactly they deserve to go first.

Those are fighting words in Iowa, Branstad said at his regular Monday morning Statehouse news conference that the investigation against Sorenson is appropriate and Iowa needs to do what it can “to protect the integrity of the Iowa Caucuses,” the Des Moines Register reports.

“I feel confident that the caucuses have a good reputation,” he said. “Iowans take this responsibility seriously, and I am confident the Senate will do its investigation.”

On the other side of the aisle, former Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky wrote in an op-ed piece in the Register that the allegations against Sorenson aren’t “a caucus thing,” but “a greed thing.”

An excerpt from her essay:

“The process isn’t perfect, but it never has been and never will be. Participatory democracy is a messy business. People get involved. They bring their big ideas to address big problems. They bring their voice and their passion. The rules and process are different on the Republican and Democratic sides. But the people themselves? They’re not so different. They are Iowans. They care about their communities, their state, their country.”

Sorenson, a Milo Republican, also faced ethics complaints after Barb Heki of Johnston alleged that he stole an email database while working for Bachmann and gave it to campaign staffers to contact Iowa families who homeschool their children. The reported theft occurred at the campaign headquarters in Urbandale.

Heki and Bachmann reached a settlement in June in a lawsuit over the email database, but the details of the settlement haven’t been made public.

DISCUSS: Does Iowa deserve to go first in the presidential nominating process? Please explain your answer in the comments.