Among the questions the Internal Revenue Service asked an pro-life conservative group in Iowa: What do you pray about? Chris Moody at Yahoo! Newshas the story:
On June 22, 2009, the Coalition for Life of Iowa received a letter from the IRS office in Cincinnati, Ohio that oversees tax exemptions requesting details about how often members pray and whether their prayers are "considered educational."
"Please explain how all of your activities, including the prayer meetings held outside of Planned Parenthood, are considered educational as defined under 501(c)(3)," reads the letter, made public by the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm that collected evidence about the IRS practices. "Organizations exempt under 501(c)(3) may present opinions with scientific or medical facts. Please explain in detail the activities at these prayer meetings. Also, please provide the percentage of time your organizations spends on prayer groups as compared with the other activities of the organization."
The IRS is currently under fire for allegedly targeting conservative groups that applied for non-profit status in recent years. In response, two IRS officials have stepped down, including Acting Commissioner Steven Miller.
Democratic representative Bruce Braley is running for the Iowa Senate seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Tom Harkin, but he might want to learn how the upper body functions first. In an interview on a local news station, Braley was asked about why the Senate has not passed a budget in nearly four years.
"How is that possible? One word," Braley replied. "The filibuster."
Iowa congressman Bruce Braley told supporters in an email that he was "ready to go" and is forming a committee to run for the U.S. Senate. Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, is hoping to succeed retiring Democrat Tom Harkin and is the first major candidate to announce his intention to run for the seat since Harkin said in January he would not seek reelection.
At an event in Washington, D.C. this evening, Paul Ryan asked Marco Rubio, "Know any good diners in Iowa or New Hampshire?" The reference, of course, is to the first state to hold a primary contest (the Iowa Caucus) and the first to in the nation to hold a primary election (New Hampshire).
The 2012 presidential election is over, but perhaps the 2016 contest has already begun. Florida senator Marco Rubio, a star in the Republican party, is headed to Iowa.
There, he will attend a fundraiser for Iowa governor Terry Branstad.
Alex Conant, a Rubio spokesman, tweets:
Just announced: @marcorubio will headline @terrybranstad's bday fundraiser on 11/17/12 in Altoona, IA
The four polls taken this week in Iowa that are listed by RealClearPolitics show widely different results. NBC/WSJ/Marist shows President Obama up by 6 percentage points — 50 to 44 percent. Gravis Marketing
Vice President Joe Biden was greeted with talk of a 2016 presidential run at a campaign stop for Barack Obama earlier today in Iowa. This happened multiple times during his visit to an Obama field office in Davenport, Iowa.
From the pool report:
One woman, who did not want to provide her name, shouted, “You’re our man in 2016.” Biden did not acknowledge that woman.
Mitt Romney has received the endorsement of the Des Moines Register, Iowa's largest paper. The Register last supported a Republican candidate for president 40 years ago, in 1972, when it endorsed Richard Nixon. Read an excerpt from the Romney endorsement below:
Seems like the press are being kept far away from Joe Biden--and Iowans--at the vice president's rally today. Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register reports on Twitter:
President Barack Obama praised his signature health care legislation in his own signature, the Des Moines Register reports. Obama autographed a University of Iowa medical student's lab coat with the phrase, "Go Obamacare!" after a rally in Iowa City Saturday. Here's more from the Register:
Worth watching: Jeffrey Bell on C-SPAN’s WashingtonJournal this morning, making the (contrarian) case for the importance of social issues in this year's campaign. For more on this, take a look at his fine book, along with his recent articles in THE WEEKLY STANDARD: here, here, and here.
In Iowa last night, a chant of "four more beers!" broke out for President Obama, and he offered to buy beers for 10 people, but not for a supporter of Mitt Romney. Via the pool report:
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