Kiernan Promises Mystery Candidate

Some random thoughts before I head out to the 10pm news tonight...

Did you see Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan on Iowa Public Television this weekend? I missed the original broadcast Friday night and had to watch the tape of it this morning. Two things that stuck out... Kiernan said his party will not work to "primary" the so-called "Six Pack"...the group of more conservative Democrats who helped derail some of the Big Labor initiatives during the past legislative session. AFSCME, the state union hired State Rep. Elesha Gayman for a project that some critics say would help find more labor-friendly candidates to run against the Six Pack. She denies that, by the way.

Kiernan also said there WILL be a mystery candidate unveiled from the Democrats to take on long-time Republican Senator Charles Grassley. Although, he said the person will "come out" after former Governor Terry Branstad announces he will run again. Kiernan predicts that will happen.

ETC...
Congrats to the St. Louis Cardinals. They finally wrapped up the National League Central with a 6-3 win over the Rockies. I must say I would have never expected this. I really thought they did way too little to better their team in the off-season. But a stronger-than-expected start and the moves to get Matt Holliday, Julio Lugo and John Smoltz worked out better than almost anyone could have hoped. Now, if I could just get some playoff tickets!

We went to the Dave Matthews' concert at Principal Park in Des Moines Friday night. I'm not a huge fan, but my wife likes him. I found the show rather disappointing. An outdoor concert is great. And I admit I didn't know a lot of the songs. But it seemed like the band lost the crowd a few times, took way too long between songs and played a pretty lackluster encore set of songs. Maybe it's just that we weren't getting sky high in a cloud of pot like so many others there.