CLAWS EXTENDED

The Des Moines Register (and its chief editorial writer, David Yepsen) are still all over Gov. Tom Vilsack for last week’s acknowledgement that the Gov doesn’t really know how to use e-mail. Yepsen is today implying Vilsack’s national ambitions may be over now:

The charitable view is that he was initially being disingenuous about his digital limitations in order to cover his tracks. No politicians want it known they want to take money from private corporations and their political donors to secretly supplement the salary of a new state economic-development director - a person who can hand development grants back to the very business interests that paid part of his salary.

But if it’s true Vilsack really is electronically challenged, the damage is compounded. The most horrible thing that can happen to a politician is to become a joke. (”Honey, did you see where the governor of Iowa can’t do e-mail?” “Yes, dear, he doesn’t need it to talk to the hogs.”)

Real funny. As a result, any hopes Vilsack has of becoming president or vice president have been damaged by his handling of this. Democrats didn’t get too far with a guy who claimed to invent the Internet, and it’s unlikely they’ll want one who once said he can’t use it at all. Republicans are also chuckling. They know the next time an Iowa Democrat starts thumping President Bush for being a nitwit, they’ll be able to note that Tom Vilsack can’t do e-mail.

One could also wonder what effect this will have on the Iowa caucuses, but I think it will be quite minimal. The best quote on the matter, though, comes from last year’s unsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Gross, in this column from yesterday: “I guess I was overqualified for the job.”