Rants has started a new feature on his campaign Web site that pulls old newspaper articles that “pre-date the Google” and publishes them for all to see. It’s basically a way to make pieces of opposition research public.

The first article is a 1998 column by former Des Moines Register political writer David Yepsen headlined “Branstad, the liberal governor.”

Just imagine a governor who raises the sales tax twice. Just imagine a governor who increased spending every year he was in office. Just imagine a governor who increased the state payroll and expanded gambling. Just imagine a governor who built a state-owned telephone company. Iowa was a pro-choice, no-death-penalty state 16 years ago and it still is. Just imagine a governor who wants to spend more on schools, including programs that will get the government more involved in children’s education.

You’ve got him. Terry E. Branstad of Lake Mills.

“Mr. Yepsen provides a historical perspective on how a ‘conservative’ governor racked up such a liberal record over sixteen years,” Rants said.

The site also proves that Branstad, who more or less entered the race last week, is in for a fight if he truly wants his party’s nomination. As predicted by several observers, the GOP primary could turn nasty as Election Day approaches, as this isn’t the first time Branstad has been the focus of Rants’ attacks.

Grassley’s problem, said Yepsen, is that he’s caught “between different forces crushing in on him,” with Senate GOP leaders and conservatives back home adamantly opposed to a deal, and large numbers of Obama voters in Iowa supporting health care action.

“I think as Democrats talk about, ‘Let’s do it ourselves,’ that makes it easier for Grassley to say, ‘Okay, I’m out of here,’ ” said Yepsen, now the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

In the same news report Grassley, a Republican from New Hampton who is the ranking member of the health care pivotal Senate Finance Committee, said that he wasn’t sure talks could produce a deal this month.

Kaiser has published the full transcript of its interview with Grassley.

Obradovich, 44, has been the Register’s political editor since 2003, and she was a state government reporter and statehouse bureau chief before that.

Notably, though Obradovich’s CV certainly qualifies her for the new title, this announcement should also help her employer save some cash. The Register, which has been forced to trim its budget by struggling parent company Gannett Co., has likely avoided the need to hire any additional (high-profile) staff.

Obradovich replaces longtime columnist David Yepsen, who was a fixture of Iowa’s political landscape for decades before he left earlier this year to take a job at Southern Illinois University.

In another possible sign of cutbacks, a press release notes that the new Obradovich column will be found in the paper “every week,” which sounds to me like “once per week.” When Yepsen was political columnist, his work was published several times per week.

The paper’s press release appears below:

The Des Moines Register today announces Kathie Obradovich as the new political columnist.

Generations of Iowans have trusted the Register’s political commentary to help set the agenda, define issues and hold public officials accountable. For decades, presidential candidates have courted the Register’s attention and national reporters have sought its tips and insight into candidates’ characters and qualifications. Obradovich will not only carry on this tradition but add her own unique voice. “My passion is helping Iowans to engage with their government to make a difference,” said Obradovich, political columnist for The Des Moines Register.

Obradovich has served since 2003 as the Register’s political editor, directing coverage of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, the Iowa Statehouse and Congress. She has been the lead editor of the award-winning Iowa Poll, developing questionnaires and coordinating reporting of the results.

Obradovich has covered Iowa government and politics for over 20 years, including a decade as a reporter and bureau chief at the Iowa Statehouse. She’s an Iowa native and Iowa State University graduate, with strong family roots in the state.

“Kathie earned this role by covering politics and government in Iowa for 20 years. She has shaped the coverage of elections, Iowa Caucuses and legislative sessions, sometimes under her own byline and sometimes behind the scenes. Born and raised in Iowa and with those years of perspective, she is uniquely suited to carry on the responsibility of the four Des Moines Register political columnists who preceded her.” said Carolyn Washburn, Vice President and Editor of The Des Moines Register.

Obradovich’s first column will appear on Sunday, June 28. You can find her columns every week in The Des Moines Register[...]

In case you were wondering, it sounds like his new office is quite nice:

A row of trees and the bright blue sky are visible through the glass windows, and the room itself offers a spacious environment complete with shelving, and quite pleasing for Yepsen, the table itself. The office — his office, as of April 1 — offers a much different environment than the newsroom of the Des Moines Register, where Yepsen worked for more than 34 years.

Who should the GOP nominate? Yepsen suggests state Rep. Jodi Tymeson of Winterset.

She’s a retired brigadier general in the Iowa Army National Guard, is from a county-seat town and is a licensed teacher.

Do I need to mention she’s a woman? Women form the majority of the Iowa electorate, and she just might attract a few of their votes. Lots of people would like to see Iowa elect its first woman to the governorship, yet Democrats are never going to do it fielding rich, urban liberals. Maybe a small-town conservative legislator with executive experience in the military could do it.

There is one problem, though. Tymeson is already involved in the 2010 campaign to unseat Culver – as state chair for the only official GOP candidate at the moment, Bob Vander Plaats.

Maybe Yepsen’s correct in his assumption that Tymeson would make a great candidate, but the likelihood that she would jump ship and challenge her own candidate seems remote at best. Or maybe this is his subtle attempt at telling Vander Plaats that his third attempt at the governorship is ill-advised.

But subtley is not usually something Yepsen bothers with, so most likley he simply was not aware that his candidate of choice is already spoken for.

According to the Southern Illinoisan, Yepsen will start his new job April 1.  Here’s what he had to say about his goals:

“Paul Simon’s legacy prompted me to apply,” Yepsen said.  ” I am really interested in spending the rest of my life in public service, teaching and working with students and working in the public policy arena.”

Yepsen said he plans to focus the institute on two major issues – the needs of students in higher education and ethics in government, something he said is no longer a laughing matter in Illinois.

Register political columnist David Yepsen

A press conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Southern Illinois University.

The Southern Illinoisan newspaper reported that Yepsen’s answering machine said he would be out of the office for the remainder of the week. That is because Yepsen is in the middle of his mandated week-long furlough.

Yepsen started writing for the Register and Tribune in 1974. In 1977 Yepsen became a statehouse reporter for the Register, and in 1983 he became the paper’s chief political reporter. In 1994 he was named political editor and in 2000 became the Register’s full-time political columnist. His column appears on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Register Editor Carolyn Washburn told her paper she was not surprised that Yepsen was looking elsewhere.

“He just finished probably the biggest one Iowa’s ever seen and the biggest one Iowa will ever see for the rest of David’s career,” Washburn said. “So it doesn’t feel unnatural to me that at this moment in his career and in his personal life, that someone would want to tap that incredible mind.

“It’s also understandable to me that after completing what he just has, that he would be interested in another fascinating opportunity,” she said.

Atlantic Monthly political reporter Marc Ambinder laments the loss of the “Dean of the Iowa Press Corps,” then makes a prediction of who will fill Yepsen’s shoes.

Who is Yepsen’s heir? My money is on O. Kay Henderson of [Radio Iowa].

Des Moines Register Political columnist David Yepsen staked his credibility on the claim that “The fix is in” — that the state’s sale of the lottery was “a done deal” — last Thursday.  That’s because “Powerful people such as Gov. Chet Culver, Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy and Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal are saying nice things about the idea.”  (Or maybe it’s because Civic Skinny said so.)

Never mind the fact that, at least as of last Thursday, there were too many unanswered questions in the capitol to assess whether the idea has legs at all.  Never mind the fact that “saying nice things” entailed speaking noncommittally, in generalities, after being pressed by Des Moines Register reporters on the subject.  Never mind that Jason Clayworth, the paper’s own captiol reporter, said “I don’t believe it has serious consideration this session” in a web video debate with Yepsen on Friday (below).

Even the announcement from the governor’s office Saturday that its proposed budget would not include selling the lottery failed to convince Yepsen to change the subject.  He wrote not one, but two columns about selling the lottery over the weekend.  The Register newsroom also pushed out two breaking news text message alerts to its list of mobile phone subscribers regarding Culver’s announcement that he was not going to sell the lottery, as if it was shocking, front page news.  (And then, in the Sunday Register, it was.)

The Register may see this as a victory for themselves.  They lambasted a proposal to sell the lottery that no elected official was willing to put his or her name behind, and Culver ultimately rejected it.  But not before GOP legislators were able to use Yepsen’s work as a springboard to launch their own media offensive.

This was a manufactured controversy from beginning to end.

(Of course, if the proposal becomes more serious even after Culver’s decision to exclude it from his budget, we’ll be watching it as closely as anyone.  We just prefer to wait for more hard information than our ink-stained colleagues before we unleash a series of critical articles and columns about a particular subject.)

Yepsen is the first of three candidates interviewing for the position.

David Yepsen, a political columnist for the Des Moines Register, said the institute could be used as a means to explore national issues, like combating racial prejudice, studying women in politics, government spending and debt, health care in rural America and campaign finance reform.

Many of these topics have entered the public limelight lately because of President-elect Barack Obama’s victory and the prominence of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

It was announced last month that Yepsen could leave the paper where he’s covered politics for three decades.

Register political columnist David Yepsen

Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen is one of three finalists to run the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, Ill., Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI reports.

Yepsen started writing for the Register and Tribune in 1974. In 1977 Yepsen became a statehouse reporter for the Register, and in 1983 he became the paper’s chief political reporter. In 1994 he was named political editor and in 2000 became the Register’s full-time political columnist. His column appears on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

As of Wednesday night, there was no news of the possibility of Yepsen leaving on The Register’s Web site. Interviews for the position are expected to take place between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Interview times and dates are to be determined.