Iowa caucus results: a slap at conventional wisdom

Iowa has always been a hotbed of surprises, but this year, it appears caucusgoers totally rejected all of the political pundits who said right from the beginning that Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney were going to be the winners.

As someone who has been writing for years about the pernicious effect of lobbyists and special interests on the process, I have to admit I was pleased to see the two candidates who accepted the most money from lobbyists, Sen. Clinton and Gov. Romney.

I wrote about Gov. Romney's laundry list of lobbyists' contributions in the April 28 Turner Report:

An examination of Federal Election Commission documents indicates most of Gov. Romney's big contributors were lobbyists or lobbyists' spouses. A quick check of contributions from the Washington, D. C. and Virginia areas alone, showed contributions from 28 lobbyists, who gave $71,500. He received more than $10,000 from Missouri lobbyists and their spouses, including Andrew Blunt, Tony Feather, and Harvey Tettlebaum. Feather, of course, has signed on with Gov. Romney's campaign.

Those contributing to the Romney campaign include:

-Elliott Stanton Berke, former general counsel for Tom DeLay, $2,300. Berke's wife also contributed $2,300.

-Gregg Hartley, former chief of staff to Roy Blunt, $2,300. Hartley's wife also chipped in with $2,300.

-Mark Isakowitz, Isakowitz of the lobbying firm of Fierce & Isakowitz, served as host for a Tom DeLay fundraiser on Nov. 17, 2005. His firm has major nationwide clients, but also represents the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, the Joplin Coalition, and Greene County. Isakowitz gave $2,300.

-Craig Fuller, former chief of staff to Vice President George H. W. Bush, now a powerful lobbyist with the Fuller Group, $2,100

-Andrew Maloney, former chief of staff for Tom DeLay, now a lobbyist, $2,300

-Roy Coffee, not the sheriff of the same name from "Bonanza," but a lobbyist with ties to disgraced former Congressman Bob Ney, $2,300

-Jim Murray of DCI Group LLC, a firm associated with Missouri lobbyist Tony Feather. DCI boasts of supplying third-party support for issues, which means creating basically fictitious grass roots group to support legislation wanted by powerful special interests. Murray gave $2,300.

-Lobbyists from the powerful Patton Boggs firm contributed $16,400.

Romney was following the same playbook used in Missouri by one of his top supporters, Gov. Matt Blunt, and, of course, the same playbook used by former Rep. Tom DeLay. Romney may still be the GOP nominee; Iowa is only one state, but hopefully, this is the beginning of a 2008 rejection of politics as usual.