Not That I Am Happy, But I Was Right About What Happenned in the Iowa Senate Last Week

I am refering to my post on the vote last week in the Iowa Senate to offer a replacement for HF 657 that would have banned late term abortions. As I said in the title of the post, You Can be Sure This Is All A Ploy by Gronstal to Make It Look Like He Is Trying to Stop Carhart. Well I was right, it was a ploy. An e-mail by Iowa Senator Kent Sorenson pretty much confirms how I saw it going down. I said " Gronstal assigned the responsibilty for dealing with it (HF 657) to Sen. Joe Bolkcom. Making Bolkcom the floor manager of House File 657 was done, not to bring it up, but to ensure it got gutted. & what replaced it would only look like it would ban Carhart from Council Bluffs so he wouldn't face the wrath of his constituants next year.

Bolkcom was the perfect person to give this assignment to because of his ties to the abortion industry. His wife, Karen Kubby, is the former director of the Emma Goldman abortion clinic in Iowa City. & of course Planned Parenthood has been a contributor to Balkcom's campaigns. FYI, PP has gone on record as opposing HF 657. (Note: I was note aware that Bolkcom & his wife were divorced, not that, as you will see it mattered. She still was a part of why he got the job.)

The new bill, (SF 534) which passed the Iowa Senate on a straight party vote (26 Dems aye, 23 Republicans, Nay) would do nothing to ban late term abortions. Yes, it would technically ban Carhart from openning a clinic in Council Bluffs, but it would still allow him or anyone else to open a place in 4 other cities in Iowa, including Iowa City/Johnson County where Bolkcom is from.". . . .

"Gronstal knows that this bill has absolutely no chance of being passed in the Iowa House or being signed by Governor Branstad. & therein lies the real reason for his switch tactics. Gronstal knew he was in a no-win situation with HF 657. If he voted for it, he would have gotten PP & the rest of the Iowa abortion industry POed at him for taking away a lucrative part of their operations. But if he voted against it, he would have faced certain defeat next year when he came up for reelection. Now Gronstal can go back to Council Bluffs & claim he tried to stop Carhart, but the Republicans are the ones who didn't let him suceed. Sadly, there will probably be enough people convinced unless the right candidate runs against him who keeps hammering him on it & the rest of his failed promises on HF 657.

& regardless of the outcome, Gronstal & Bolkcom have kept their buddies in the Iowa abortion industry happy by ensuring that, either way, late term abortions will continue to be legal in Iowa & they are free to keep killing as many unborn babies as they want."

Here is what Sorenson said about what went down in the Iowa Senate (emphasis mine): "You see, Gronstal orchestrates everything to come together to give himself and the weak and vulnerable members of his caucus the cover they need to go back home and avoid paying the political price they should be required to pay.
Ridiculous as it may seem, they actually have the gall to blame the fact that they use rules and procedure to kill legislation ON THE RULES AND PROCEDURE! “It didn’t make it through committee,” or “it didn’t have enough support,” is just a false way of saying “we used our numerical advantage in committee to kill the bill and retain political cover,” or “we pretend we are concerned about this issue, but we’ll use the rules that we wrote to keep the bill from coming to a vote, thus giving us political cover.”
In this instance, they want political cover for allowing baby butchering slaughterhouse operator Leroy Carhart to set up shop in Iowa.
Gronstal says that he “reels at the thought of abortion.” But does he tell the rest of the story to the public and that it’s his SOLE prerogative to either call up HF 657 (fetal pain bill) for debate or kill it?
NO! Instead, he shoves it in our face and lays out a new plan to let Carhart set up a death factory at his leisure and from multiple locations across the state!
So here’s what happens. Gronstal puts Senator Joe Bolkcom on point (Bolkcom’s ex-wife is the former director of the Emma Goldman baby slaughterhouse in Iowa City). He anoints Bolkcom as floor manager of the fetal pain bill, HF 657. This way he can say that he’s doing his part and going through the motions following “procedure.” Bolkcom, in return, doesn’t pressure Gronstal to bring it up for debate.
So now “process” is to blame, Bolkcom takes the heat (Bolkcom is safe in his district), and Gronstal issues his sound-bites to the media back home saying how he tried to protect the health of women and children, but Republicans voted it down.
The bill dies.
Bolkcom, in turn, introduces the bill intended to give them political cover, SF 534, which allows Carhartt to set up his infanticide center as long as it’s near a hospital that’s able to handle late-term-abortions-gone-wrong.
This bill was scheduled for debate last Thursday, but as was my right as a Senator, I refused unanimous consent to call it up. That forced them to come back on Monday to debate their “political cover” pro-abortion bill.
On Monday before Gronstal could be recognized to call up the bill, I invoked Rule 19. Rule 19 of the Senate Rules allows any senator to make a motion that the Senate go to “committee of the whole” to consider a bill (in this case HF 657), take a roll-call vote on what action the “committee of the whole” recommends the Senate pursue regarding a bill and have that vote recorded in the Senate Journal. This is a procedural vote designed solely to identify who stands for life and who stands for murdering the innocent.
At first, the majority leadership ignored my “point of order.” I actually had to raise my voice to an elevated level to force the thugs in charge to recognize me for my perfectly legitimate request!
In the end, we got a vote on the fetal pain bill and it failed, 26-23 (one Republican was excused for the day). But I was able to accomplish my mission of separating the wheat from the chaff."

As you can see, he didn't get all the cover he had hoped for thanks to Sen Sorenson. In fact Sorenson has given whoever runs against him some more ammo so that the person can, as I said, keep "hammering him (Gronstal) on it & the rest of his failed promises on HF 657." I agree with Sorenson when he says "when the election season comes around, show them no mercy, and give them no quarter. They don’t. I can personally say that in the political arena, they sure don’t. And the babies who pay with their precious lives are an eternal testament to that fact.
Go to their forums and call them to the carpet for their lies.
Tell them you know they hide behind the cover of procedure to prey on the lives of innocent babies.
Talk about what they’ve done at your local coffee shop.
Donate to the principled fighters who decide to run for office against them.
Get your friends to do the same.
Pound the pavement for them.
Knock on doors. Go to town hall meetings.
Go to civic events and talk about it with your family and friends.
Work a few hours extra at and donate that income to your local incumbent-removal campaign.
Folks, I can’t tell you how much we need everyone to stand up right now and start fighting. If now isn’t the time, when will it be?"

Hopefully a candidate will spring up to hammer Gronstal so we can get rid of him. Or at the least take away Democratic control from the Senate while keeping the House in control of pro-life friendly Republicans.

I have to add that the tactics Gronstal used have been Standard Operating Proceedure in the Iowa Legislature for years. Until he lost power when the Republicans gained control, & nearly lost his own re-election (unfortunately he did barely win), then Speaker Pat Murphy ran things pretty much the same way in the House, dirty tricks, manipulating the rules, lying, etc.

Sadly, Murphy's near loss hasn't taught him a thing. He is still as arrogant as ever. I say that in an e-mail from him about voting to support the amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would define marriage as only between a man & a woman. Like Gronstal in this instance, back when he was speaker, he made all kinds of promises to bring it up if the Iowa Supreme Court allowed gay marriage. But when they did, he refused. & it nearly cost him the election.

Hopefully next year will see Gronstal & Murphy not only out of power, but out of a job & Iowa can begin passing laws to protect the unborn.