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Even with several veteran Democratic senators announcing their retirements, Republicans still are unlikely to retake the a Senate majority, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley told The Des Moines Register Wednesday.
Grassley sat down for an interview with columnist Kathie Obradovich, and when the topic turned to the retirements of Sens. Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan, the Iowa [...]

The beginning of the end for U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was when he left his home state and took up residence in the Hawkeye State, at least according to Hartford Courant columnist Jim Shea.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is set to take over the chairmanship of the Senate’s powerful Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the Washington Post reports. The position was held by former Sen. Ted Kennedy until his death last month.

 
While insiders spent time recently thinking about what has made Obama’s campaign successful, most talk of the McCain campaign more was about its missteps than its successes.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin says he’s an unabashed supporter of U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., as Barack Obama’s running mate. Meanwhile, Harkin, who ran for the presidency himself in 1992, says “realism” holds that Hillary Clinton has little chance of making the cut for vice presidential candidate as “latent” sexism and racism would give such a ticket perhaps too steep a cultural hill to climb.

“I’m too old to be vice president,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley told Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill.

Grassley is 74; Republican presidential candidate John McCain is 71.

“But I am young enough to be reelected to the Senate,” said Grassley, hinting at a run for a sixth Senate term in 2010.

(Commentary) The conventional thinking in Democratic vice presidential speculation is that the red carpet is down, spread with few wrinkles, for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former commander in chief aspirant himself. But should Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination, Richardson, while surely on the Illinois senator’s short list, is by no means a [...]

(Commentary) Three days have elapsed since the Iowa caucuses, and while most of the presidential candidates have moved on to New Hampshire, some Iowa Democrats cannot shake the sense that Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status may be in jeopardy. Others are left wondering whether the caucus system itself will be resurrected four years from now.

While the Iowa [...]

[Exclusive] — Contrary to news reports from state and national media, three of Iowa’s Democratic campaigns want their supporters to know that no blanket campaign directive has been issued, instructing supporters to throw support behind a different candidate during tonight’s caucus.
“If Iowans are independent enough to have chosen me from the field of candidates, I’m [...]

Iowa women, just like many women throughout the nation, entered this election season with high hopes. For the first time in history, there would be a front-running woman vying for the nation’s highest office. More importantly, after surviving the sound bite days of “soccer moms” and “security moms,” women were ready to stand politically independent [...]