For the second time in a week, the Iowa Democratic Party is using audio from a meeting between former Gov. Terry Branstad and leaders of the social conservative movement to attack the veteran Republican.

The four-term governor held a pair of meetings with a group of pastors, social conservative activists and leaders Christian organizations last week. Two of those in attendance initially balked at the encounter, criticizing Branstad and comparing him to Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.

Tuesday, IDP Chairman Michael Kiernan’s lammed Branstad for telling the group he didn’t have a plan to reform state government but would appoint a commission to look into the matter.

By Wednesday, Kiernan had moved on to another comment Branstad made, this time about the Iowa Commission for the Blind. Branstad said the organization didn’t get cut during his administration “because the Legislature just couldn’t take the heat from the tap-tap-tap of the white canes.”

“Comments like Branstad’s have no place in Iowa, no matter what party you’re affiliated with,” Kiernan said. “I condemn both the content and the language he used in the strongest possible terms.”

Recently hired Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht told The Des Moines Register that the criticism was unjustified because the former governor was “merely alluding to [the group's] successful lobbying techniques.” Democrats are desperate to find fault in “the governor’s 16 years of success,” Albrecht said.

The IDP posted the audio of the meeting on their Web site.

By Thursday, even Register columnist Kathie Obradovich was calling for Branstad to apologize, saying he probably would have already “if someone at the meeting had called him on it. But as long as the only ones complaining are Democratic Party officials, it’s easy for the Branstad campaign to circle the wagons.”