No Wiggins bus tour: Sioux City Journal joins Des Moines Register in excoriating Vander Plaats, Iowa Family Leader

Read the entire editorial in the Sioux City Journal here.

...Regardless of their views about gay marriage, Iowans should understand: The independent foundation on which a strong court system is based is at risk of being weakened in our state. The kinds of organized campaigns we have witnessed in 2010 and again this year to drive out judges as political retaliation for a ruling establishes an unsettling precedent for a future in which the infusion of political ideology routinely will force Iowa judges to raise money and wage political campaigns to stay on the bench. These questions arise: Will judges begin to consider the political ramifications of rulings? Will judges become beholden to special interests and their cash?
     Once you open the door to politics, it's hard to close it. Today, Vander Plaats is unhappy about an "activist" court decision; tomorrow, the leader of some left-leaning political organization may be upset about what he or she perceives as an "activist" ruling and seek payback - and the cycle will continue.
     We subscribe to the narrow view of retention votes. Judges should be removed from the bench only for reasons of malfeasance or gross incompetence, not for political retribution. Removing Ternus, Baker and Streit didn't overturn the controversial 2009 court decision and removing Wiggins won't either. Defeating them is meant to punish them and warn others.
     Those Iowans who wish to make gay marriage illegal would be better-advised to focus their energy on electing more state legislators who agree with them this fall in anticipation of pushing a constitutional amendment through the General Assembly.
     According to Vander Plaats, he's working to restore integrity to our court system. In our view, he's doing the opposite - sucking integrity out of it.
     By voting to retain Wiggins, Iowans will reject this political power play and send a message of opposition to the short-sighted, misguided injection of politics into our state's judicial system. We are hopeful of just such an outcome. (Via OneIowa.org)

Related: In his story about the dueling bus tours, Ron Marasco of WOI-DT chronicled what may well be the dumbest statement by an Iowan to find its way into print yesterday:

"Judge Wiggins legislated from the bench when he joined the Varnum decision," said Pella resident Lyle Horman.  "But the other reason is that according to the lawyers who participated in the Iowa Bar Association survey, more than 36% of them felt that Judge Wiggins should not be retained."

Hmmm, let's do the math here, Mr. Horman. If 36% of the Iowa Bar doesn't think Wiggins should be retained, then 64% do. May we remind you, Mr. Horman, that if your cheerleader, Bob Vander Plaats, had achieved an approval rating that high among the electorate, he would have been elected instead of losing when he ran for governor in 2002. And in 2006 when he quit to join his primary challenger on a lower rung on the ticket — and lost. And in 2010 when he ran for governor again — and lost.

In Pella, Iowa, fed-up Bar Association members ridicule judiciaries of home states of carpetbaggers Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum

Journal Express photo: Steve Woodhouse

This year, the 8000 members of the Iowa State Bar Association aren't taking Bob Vander Plaats' new  assault on the independence of the state's judiciary lying down. They're following the Sioux City demagogue around with their own bus. Here is what happened (with several photos and video) in Pella today, as reported by Steve Woodhouse of the Journal-Express.

The representatives of the bar also mocked Santorum and Gov. Bobby Jinadl of Louisiana, who will join the No Wiggins tour later this week. They said Iowa's judiciary is ranked in the top 10 by the US Chamber of Commerce while Pennsylvania (Santorum's home state) and Louisiana rank very low...
     (The Supreme Court) didn't impose same-sex marriage on anyone," Guy Cook, President-elect of the Iowa State Bar Association said. "The Iowa Supreme Court imposed the Constitution on some legislation that was unfair."

No on Wiggins campaign: Here's what happens when you go down the Bob Vander Plaats road...

Florida's Republican Party declared on Friday that they will
work to unseat the state supreme court justices who
blocked Gov. Rick Scott's plan to suppress minority voting.
(Via JoeMyGod)

Bob Vander Plaats and Iowans For Freedom (IFF), the political hit squad of the Iowa Family Leader, are taking their roadshow of character assassination (see above video) targeting Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins, all over the state this week, literally being followed by the Iowa State Bar Association, which hired its own truck.
     The result of Vander Plaats' cynical campaign to abuse Iowa's judicial retention process with the help of well-funded, secretive out-of-state carpetbaggers like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal, is that the Iowa Supreme Court is being packed with middle-aged white male Republicans appointed by Terry Branstad to replace the judges IFF is methodically picking off.
     Predictions by critics about the danger posed to judicial independence by partisan demagogues like Vander Plaats is now coming true. Exhibit A: Florida.
     KMA reports that Cynthia Moser, president of the 8000 lawyers and judges of the Iowa State Bar Association — oldest in the country — expects local lawyers to speak in many of the cities where the dueling bus tours will stop.
     “I think obviously 2010 was a turning point for all of us who saw what happened to three exceptionally talented and dedicated Supreme Court justices,” Moser told KMA. “I think it was a galvanizing event.”
      Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum will tour with the bus troupe starting Monday and former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will join on Wednesday.

Editorial of the week: Rekha Basu in the Des Moines Register about sabotaging judicial independence

From Rekha Basu's piece on the Iowa Family Leader's statewide bus tour to get rid of an Iowa Supreme Court Justice:

...a couple of national Republican politicians are jumping on a bus — or is it a bandwagon? — to try to turn Iowans against an Iowa judge. This isn’t about you, gentlemen...
     This campaign is nothing more than blackmail. ...It’s a warning to future judges that if they vote a certain way, it could cost them their jobs.
     ...First, the Iowa Family Leader turned judicial retention elections vindictive. Then the Iowa Republican Party turned them partisan, when its chairman last month called on Republicans to oust Wiggins. Now politicians like Jindal and Santorum are turning them national, though they should have no dog in this.
     ...What do Jindal and Santorum even know about Wiggins or his nine years of Supreme Court rulings? Do they know how Iowa’s judicial selection system works...? Do they know that both the justice who wrote the marriage decision and the chief justice at the time of the ruling were selected by a governor of their own Republican Party?
     ...these outsiders are helping to destroy judicial independence in Iowa for a long time to come.
     ...None of that apparently matters to those who would help sink our state’s well-honed system of judicial independence to further their own political prospects in the nation’s first caucus state. Shame on them. And shame on us if we allow them to lead us down that path.

Iowa State Bar Association announces its own bus tour to shadow Iowa Family Leader Justice Wiggins character assassination roadshow

Related: Register columnist takes dim view of carpetbaggers Jindal and Santorum piling on to Vander Plaats' jihad.
     The ISBA’s Fair and Impartial Courts Committee’s action plan to defend all judges and justices who stand for retention in November was approved by the ISBA Board of Governors at its quarterly meeting Monday, and is being implemented immediately. To be successful, however, the plan needs help from all members.
      The approved action plan consists of a 'Yes Iowa Judges' tour to the same cities as those identified by the Family Leader organization led by Bob Vander Plaats, a postcard mailing campaign, a bumper/window sticker campaign and speaking engagements with civic and religious groups.
     Jeff Eckhoff of the Des Moines Register says the current version of the No Wiggins bus tour (listed below) will be the same for the lawyers’ tour. The Bar Association, which will also spend Friday in Ames (9 a.m.) and Iowa City (1 p.m.), has promised to tell the news media about its specific parking spaces a few hours before each stop.

Go here to verify times and locations of Iowa State Bar Association bus tour, listed below the NO ON WIGGINS TOUR.

NO ON WIGGINS TOUR:

Monday, Sept. 24
9:00 AM Des Moines, Iowa State Capitol, 400 Finkbine Dr.
11:00 AM Pella, Central Park, 720 Franklin Dr.
12:45 PM Ottumwa, Teal Drive off Wapello Street
3:00 PM Burlington, Port of Burlington Visitors Center, 400 N. Front St.
4:45 PM Muscatine, Riverside Park, Harbor Dr.

Tuesday, Sept. 25
9:30 AM Davenport, Living Water Family Church, 4706 NW Blvd.
11:45 AM Cedar Rapids
2:00 PM Dubuque, Washington Park, 351 W. 6th St.
4:30 PM Cedar Falls, PIPAC Centre, 1521 Technology Parkway

Wednesday, Sept. 26
9:30 AM Mason City, Central Park, 10 1st St. SW
12:15 PM Marshalltown, Susie Sower park, 60 N 2nd Avenue
2:45 PM Fort Dodge, City Square Park, 120 N. 5th street
4:45 PM Carroll, Southside Park, Bluff & Main St.

Thursday, Sept. 27th
9:30 AM Council Bluffs, Bayliss Park, 121 S. 6th St.
11:45 AM Sioux City, Sergeant Floyd Monument, 2701 S. Lewis Blvd.
2:30 PM Spencer, East Leach Park, Campground Entrance, 305 4th Street SE
4:30 PM Orange City, Windmill Square at 250 Central Ave NW

YES ON RETENTION TOUR:

(Exact locations and specific times to be added as they become available)

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

Des Moines (west side of the State Capitol)  -  9:00 a.m.

Pella (Central Park, 720 Franklin Drive)  -  11:00 a.m.

Ottumwa (Ottumwa Park, Teal Drive off of Wapello Street)   -  12:45 a.m.

Burlington (Port of Burlington Visitor Center, 400 N. Front Street)   -  3:00 p.m.

Muscatine (Riverside Park on Harbor Drive)  -  4:45 p.m.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

Davenport (Scott County Courthouse)  -  9:30 a.m.

Cedar Rapids (Greene Square Park, 400 4th Avenue SE)  -  11:45 a.m.

Dubuque (Washington Park, 351 W. 6th Street)  -  2:00 p.m.

Cedar Falls (Location TBA)  -  4:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

Mason City (Location TBA)  -  9:30 a.m.

Marshalltown (Location TBA)  -  12:15 p.m.

Fort Dodge (Location TBA)  -  2:45 p.m.

Carroll (Location TBA)  -  4:45 p.m.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27

Council Bluffs (Location TBA)  -  9:30 a.m.

Sioux City (Location TBA)  -  11:45 p.m.

Spencer (Location TBA)  -  2:30 p.m.

Orange City (Location TBA)  -  4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

Ames (Location TBA)  -  9:00 a.m.

Iowa City (Location TBA)  -  1:00 p.m.

Jeremy Hooper, at GoodAsYou, has published the genealogy of Iowans For Freedom's YouTube smear against Justice Wiggins, which AKSARBENT deconstructed in a video of our own.

It all started back in February of last year, when National Review Online's Gary Marx posted a chopped up clip of Wiggins' remarks that ended immediately after the quote in question. Groups like the National Organization For Marriage then picked up on it, running the same truncated clip. And so true to the far-right's typical game of telephone, the spin became the "truth." 

Commentary: Justice Wiggins a lousy, condescending speaker, but a good judge who shouldn't be removed

Des Moines Register commentary by Graham Gillette, a public affairs and communications consultant:

I plan to vote for David Wiggins even though he is a poor orator and does not understand how to win votes. The question for the electorate is whether David Wiggins has honestly and fairly discharged his duties as a Justice. He has. Justice Wiggins and the others on the Supreme Court did their job. They ruled on marriage without influence and in good conscience. By all accounts Wiggins is an impartial and thoughtful jurist. He should remain on the Court.

Iowa Family Leader backpedals slightly on its Judge Wiggins smear but announces bus tour to trash him

After Towleroad published a link to the above video in AKSARBENT's post deconstructing the Big Fat Out-of-context YouTube Lie produced by the Bob Vander Plaats / Tamara Scott organization, the group is now attenuating its fraudulent attack (slightly), but hasn't changed the video.

Here's what the Family Leader's new political hit squad, Iowans for Freedom, is now saying: about Wiggins' obvious joke (which elicited laughter that IFF deceptively cut from its video.)

You’ll get a kick out of watching the video ...when Judge Wiggins says, “So tell me, in your best way, how we can get around the Iowa constitution.” Fortunately Judge Wiggins wasn’t talking about an important issue like marriage, but instead was referring to a technicality with a nominee.

The tentative anti-Wiggins bus tour schedule
Monday, Sept. 24: Des Moines, Pella, Ottumwa, Burlington
Tuesday, Sept. 25: Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Cedar Falls
Wednesday, Sept. 26: Mason City, Marshalltown, Ft. Dodge, Carroll
Thursday, Sept. 27: Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Spencer, Orange City

NoWiggins.com will give specific times and locations.

Vander Plaats says Iowa Judges who defend them­selves against his new (and totally false) YouTube smear are 'doing a PR tour on taxpayers' expense'

Busted on video: Exposé of new smear of Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins by Bob Vanderplaats and Tamara Scott of Iowans for Freedom, a political goon squad "project" of the Iowa Family Leader.

Vander Plaats and Tamara Scott recently released an Iowans For Freedom YouTube video which smears Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins so outrageously, shamelessly and falsely that their political hucksterism has to be seen to be believed.
     In the video, Iowans For Freedom repeats four times a flagrantly deceptive out-of-context soundbite from Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins in a blatant attempt to trick voters into thinking that Wiggins confessed on camera to conspiring to circumvent Iowa's constitution regarding gay marriage.
     In fact, the soundbite wasn't about marriage at all, and the footage that Bob Vander Plaats and Tamara Scott & their organization connivingly discarded shows them to be political charlatans of the first magnitude.
     Via the good graces of some helpful Iowans, AKSARBENT has located the very video that Iowans for Freedom (the Family Leader political goon squad focused on judicial intimidation) ransacked for the soundbite that they subsequently distorted in a completely different context. Our video totally busts their chicanery and is at the top of this post. If what Vanderplaats and Tamara Scott have done to Justice Wiggins isn't defamation via libel then perhaps the words need to be redefined.
     Below is their press conference announcing Iowans For Freedom's new judicial Jihad, itself a work of art, in which Vander Plaats actually claims that justices defending themselves from his baseless accusations are 'doing a PR tour on taxpayers' expense.'



Bonus oldie — Vander Plaats' favorite lie about the Iowa Supreme Court:

"You don't make law from the bench. And if you do, we're going to hold you accountable for it."

Translation:

"At the fantasy law school I didn't attend, interpreting the constitutionality of laws is the job of the Supreme Court of Iowa unless evangelicals and their Pied Piper of the moment don't like the decision, in which case it is "Legislating From The Bench. By activist judges. All seven of them. But especially the ones appointed by Tom Vilsack."

Second best Vander Plaats quote:

According to David Barton, 80% of Americans think the courts have taken waaay too much power"

Bob Vander Plaats' source, David Barton, just wrote a book about Thomas Jefferson. It is so bad, the PUBLISHER recalled it for multiple factual inaccuracies, is pulping the book and eating the cost. Religious scholar Greg Forster said David Barton’s “inability to write reliable history stretches beyond ideological cheerleading into outright incompetence."  Oh, by the way, the History News Network just named Barton's Jefferson bio "the least credible history book in print." Nice to know from what author Bob Vander Plaats gets his facts, ain't it?

Third best quote, in which Vander Plaats proves he doesn't even know what the word "parameter" means, much less the law, the courts, Iowa's constitution or any other facts which deconstruct his relentless demagoguery:

"They [Iowa Supreme Court] just need to stay within the parameters of the constitution. If they do that, they're going to be OK."

From dictionarycentral.com:

The term 'parameter' is often misused by, for example, being confused with variable, or, even more vulgarly, with 'perimeter', as in the degraded English phrase 'within these parameters'.

Mormon-wired Iowa Family Leader not just about attacking gay families and Iowa Supreme Court;Video reveals hidden agenda

Iowa's Family Leader, headed by Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City, shares its name with an identically-named national group whose board is LDS top-heavy. The Iowa Independent's Andy Koposa reports that Iowa Family Policy Center President Chuck Hurley insists the new incarnation of his organization has no affiliation whatsoever to the Mormon-led national group, despite sharing a name, numerous connections and an anti-gay marriage agenda.

 

 Video: 'The Second-Hand Effects of [Aligning Candidacy with The Family Leader]