On The Iowa Trail With Dean's Texas Rangers--part Three

On The Iowa Trail with Dean's Texas Rangers-- Part Three

http://www.earthwire.net/dean/iowa/Part_3.asp

ON THE IOWA TRAIL WITH DEAN’S TEXAS RANGERS by M. Martin

Introduction Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Afterword

(copyright 2004, all rights reserved)

Country Kitc hen was aglow with orange c aps. T rue to his word, Glen had let us sleep in. It was about 8:00 when I woke up without prompting. Using my c ell phone as a flashlight (a lot of us did that, and it was about all they were good for in the c amp), I got my toiletries and left for the bathhouse as quietly as possible, wanting to let Ms. T and our c abin mates doze as long as possible. Around 9:30, Ms. T and I and our c abin mate Patric k formed up with three other people for the drive into Des Moines. Ms. T didn’t c are muc h who we rode with, as long as she got into a van as soon as possible. On the way from the bathhouse, she’d had the remarkable experienc e of freezing her freshly-washed hair, and wanted to thaw it before it broke off. Our new teammates inc luded two girls from Austin, Valerie and Rac hel, and an oddly c onservative-looking man from San Antonio named David. Rac hel and Valerie were petite women in their 20’s—brunette and blonde, respec tively. David was forty-something, with slic ked-bac k brown hair and a tailored topc oat reminisc ent of Mic hael Douglas’s arc hetypal Gordon Gec ko c harac ter from Wall Street. When David, who had volunteered to drive, suggested we stop at Country Kitc hen Buffet, I had no idea that virtually every one of Dean’s T exas Rangers were going to make the same dec ision. T he c hain restaurant lampooned in South Park as a feeding trough for the elderly was overflowing with people—some old, but mostly 20-somethings—equipped with bright orange hats, c ash, and appetites. T he manager had an expression on his fac e that seemed part elation and part dread—it was, after all, a buffet…and most of these c ollege-aged Dean supporters had metabolisms ramped far beyond the demands of his normal c lientele. Eventually, having depleted Country Kitc hen’s c offee reserves, we moved on to Des Moines. At HQ, Ms. T and I separated from the others, after making sure that we had transportation bac k to c amp. After two days in a row dealing with the Iowa winter c hill, we thought it might be interesting to see what it was like working the phone banks. We wound up in the same warehouse spac e we’d been proc essed in upon our arrival, now c onverted to a c all c enter. We signed in and were given c ell phones, c all sheets, and sc ripts. T he sc ript was pretty simple: the ostensible reason for the c all was to c onfirm that the voter knew their c auc us loc ation, and in the proc ess c asually asked them if they still intended to c auc us on behalf of Gov. Dean. Ms. T and I went thru our c all sheets, then went thru them again a c ouple of times to try again on numbers that had been answered by a mac hine. When we asked for new sheets, we were told it would be awhile, the database was being updated. It was lunc htime by then. Sinc e we hadn’t really had a c hanc e to see muc h of downtown Des Moines, we c hec ked our phones bac k in and went for a walk.

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09/05/2009 07:37 AM

On The Iowa Trail with Dean's Texas Rangers-- Part Three

http://www.earthwire.net/dean/iowa/Part_3.asp

Des Moines’s c entral business distric t is small, pretty, and c lean. All the major c andidate c ampaign headquarters were within bloc ks of eac h other, on the south side of downtown. At one point, as we drew c loser to c ity hall, I notic ed a preponderanc e of elevated, enc losed walkways. It was strikingly reminisc ent of Houston, the main distinc tion being that these walkways were intended to protec t people from blistering c old, not withering heat. At the far end of the business distric t from Dean HQ, near the Des Moines River, we disc overed a c ozy little strip of bars—inc luding yet another brewpub, Court Avenue Brewing Company, whic h Ms. T c onc eived an immediate desire to c hec k out. “We really should get bac k,” I said. “T hink of it as anti-freeze,” she said. I shrugged. “Good point, and it works for me. OK, let’s grab a round.” T he seating hostess, who turned out to be a Dean Prec inc t Captain, was delighted to see us. “Cool!” she said. “More stormers!” (by this time, I had managed to snag another beanie to replac e the one I’d lost). T he beer offerings definitely deserved a more in-depth exploration than one round, or even two. We dec ided to do our best to persuade whoever we drove bac k to c amp with to stop there for dinner. T hat wound up happening fairly soon afterward. When we returned to HQ, there were still issues with the database. Ms. T managed to plac e a few more c alls, but soon wound up onc e again repeatedly c alling answering mac hines in hopes of getting a human being. When Patric k c alled me to announc e that he and the others were bac k from c anvassing, Ms. T and I were all too happy to turn in our c all c enter phones and rejoin them. T he motion to adjourn to Court Avenue Brewing Co. for dinner passed with virtually no disc ussion whatever. Over dinner, we found out more about our new c ompanions, and they about us. T he revelation of Ms. T ’s impending professional c redentials as a dietic ian led to a lively debate over the virtues of the Atkins Diet. T he disc overy of my bac kground as a former Enron employee led to even livelier disc ussions of that infamous den of c orporate iniquity. I went thru my usual round of Enron stories, then proc eeded to find out more about the others. Among the more interesting revelations: that Rac hel was a working journalist who had lived in Iran, and that David was an evangelic al Christian who until rec ently had been every bit as Republic an as he looked. T he story of his c onversion was fairly interesting, as was his take on a variety of signific ant soc ial issues. Having lived most of my adult life in a predominantly gay neighborhood, I was fairly amused by his assertion that “all homosexuals are sexual predators.” I was also fairly astonished at his indifferenc e to the abortion issue (“Godly people don’t kill c hildren. If the godless wish to kill their own, it’s nothing to me”). On other issues, I found that he and I had an unc anny degree of c onsensus. For one thing, we spoke with virtually one voic e when it c ame to the Bush Administration’s near-c omplete disregard for c ivil liberties and privac y, one of the princ iple reasons for his c onversion to a Dean Democ rat. Again, I found myself impressed with the diversity of Howard Dean’s c onstituenc y, as well as with the depth and sinc erity of their c onvic tions. Patric k entertained us on the drive bac k to c amp with a shaggy dog

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09/05/2009 07:37 AM

On The Iowa Trail with Dean's Texas Rangers-- Part Three

http://www.earthwire.net/dean/iowa/Part_3.asp story about an ever-diminishing family with a pet bear, and persuaded us on our return to play an elaborately-struc tured game of c harades. Shortly after midnight, Glen Maxey made the rounds of the c abins to give us eac h the instruc tions for the next day, when Iowa would finally hold it’s c auc uses and we—regardless the result—would be bound bac k for T exas. Continued >>

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09/05/2009 07:37 AM