Wes Clark promotes Culver, rips Nussle

By WES CLARK
Retired General
Former Democratic
presidential candidate

If there's one thing I learned while I was running for President, it's that Iowa matters.

That's why today, I'm asking for you to help my friend, Chet Culver, Democratic candidate for governor in Iowa. The Iowa governor's seat is ranked as Karl Rove's #1 target for a Republican gubernatorial pickup in 2006.

In fact, David Broder of the Washington Post said earlier this year: "The campaigns in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin will tell us more about the direction of the country and the shape of the 2008 presidential battleground than any of the battles for Capitol Hill."

Chet Culver has the experience, the commitment, and the leadership to not only win this race, but also to make Iowa better as governor. From his days as a public school teacher and successful football coach to his service as Secretary of State, Chet knows what it takes to help Iowans. That includes increasing teachers' pay, raising Iowa's minimum wage, and using alternative energy resources to fuel the world, create good jobs, and help break our nation's dependence on foreign oil. Chet will be a wonderful governor and his wife, Mari, who I met on my last trip to Iowa, will be a great first lady.

What can I say about Jim Nussle, Chet's opponent? Well for one thing, he took $15,000 from Tom Delay's political action committee, and then, not surprisingly, voted against investigating Tom DeLay's good friend and convicted felon, Jack Abramoff.

Jim Nussle has been nothing but a rubberstamp for President Bush in Congress. Since he became chair of the House Budget Committee, Jim Nussle and George W. Bush have turned a two-hundred-billion-dollar federal budget surplus into a four-hundred-billion-dollar deficit -- the largest in history. So it should come as no surprise that George W. Bush returned the favor by raising over $1 million for Nussle in one night at an April fundraiser.

This quid pro quo may work in Washington, but do we really want a guy who is mortgaging our children's future to run the state of Iowa?