The Boswell/Latham Snore-Fest, um, Match-up

If you are excited about, intensely interested in or have spent more than a few minutes considering the race for Iowa’s Third Congressional District, I am betting you work for or are related to one of the congressmen running. I get a sense few others care who wins this one.

The difference between Leonard Boswell and Tom Latham can be boiled down to a single vote, the first each will take if they are elected. Boswell will cast his ballot to put Nancy Pelosi back in the Speaker’s chair and Latham’s will go to keep John Boehner in that position. Boswell supports the partisan demagogue with a D after her name. Latham supports the one with an R after his. That’s it.

Their eerily similar and shockingly short lists of records and accomplishments as members of the House are fairly good indicators the people of the Third should expect little over the next two years from whomever is the victor come November. Latham and Boswell have proven they are adept at getting along and disinterested in doing little else. I may be oversimplifying the snore-fest that is this campaign, but not much.

At a time when our nation needs leaders, thinkers and innovators, the people of this district must choose between a candidate with excellent Congressional hair and another who once wore a uniform. They are both honest, like guns and know what it takes to raise money for a political campaign. But, neither is inspiring on the stump and neither presents a very convincing case to those who must cast a ballot.

As an aside, I did like when Boswell pistol-whipped the guy who broke into his house a few months ago. Boswell might wake up an audience or two if he set aside his normal ramblings into the microphone and told this story instead. I am sure Latham has had a few moments of spunk like that, too, but such things do not qualify a person for Congressional service.

Latham and Boswell demonstrate a near complete lack of enthusiasm for advancing any agenda beyond that which will keep them unbruised and in shape for the next campaign. If you have used either of the old standby tests, which candidate will do the least harm or which candidate will do the most good, you will need to devise a new test in 2012 for you are likely to have a tie of mediocre proportions on your hands.

I may be tilting at windmills, but I long for a time when candidates place doing what’s best for the people they serve over doing what’s best for a political party. I look forward to hearing from candidates more interested in doing the job than having the job. And, I am hopeful the day will arrive when there are more public servants committed to advancing the people who elect them than elected officials who shamelessly represent the special interests who fund them

Sadly, Campaign 2012 does not offer much of a choice for Third District voters and nothing for this Pollyanna to get excited about. But, I should look on the bight side – I could live in the Fourth District. That race brings things full circle. The candidates in the Fourth are vastly different from one another philosophically, but neither is doing much to build the coalition required to rebuild a nation in crisis. At least we don’t have to suffer through seven snipe-filled debates here in the sleepy Third.

Vote on, Iowans.

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Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com 
This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register online essay.