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A lesson for Iowa politicians: Never belittle farmers, especially Iowa farmers.

Thats a lesson Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley, whos running for Senate in the state, is learning the hard way, as Republicans continue to hit back against his comments about Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa).

The conservative America Rising PAC posted a video Tuesday of Mr. Braley addressing a group of lawyers at a Texas fundraiser, in which he derided Sen. Grassley as a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school [and] never practiced law.

Mr. Braley apologized for his remarks Tuesday afternoon, but Republicans are, well, making hay while the sun still shines. Mark Jacobs, the Republican businessman Mr. Braley will likely face in Novembers election, released a statewide radio ad Wednesday asking why the congressman would insult Sen. Grassley and all the hardworking Iowans who make their living off the land. Mr. Jacobs website adds: Bruce Braley thinks hes too good for Iowa and too good for Iowa farmers.

Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst, whos also vying for the Republican nomination in the Senate race, got in on the action, too. Bruce Braley thinks the way to suck up to Texas trial lawyers is by bashing Iowa farmers, she said in a statement. How out of touch with Iowa can you be?

She called on Mr. Braley to apologize to Mr. Grassley and every other farmer in Iowa. (Ms. Ernst separately made a splash Tuesday when she released an ad entitled Squeal in which she says, I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I get to Washington, Ill know how to cut pork.)

On Wednesday, the Braley campaign struck back at Mr. Jacobs. In a press release, the campaign said Mr. Braley grew up in rural Iowa and worked on Iowa farms, and as a congressman has kept fighting for Iowa farmers and agriculture. The campaign said Mr. Jacobs has been calling for the repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, advocating for a return to his glory days on Wall Street.

Iowa is one of worst states to be a politician caught making digs at farmers. According to preliminary results of the 2012 Census of Agriculture, Iowa has the third-highest number of farms of any state in the U.S.

Mr. Braley, whos running to succeed retiring Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin, held a double-digit lead over most of his likely Republican challengers, according to a Quinnipiac poll earlier this month. Mr. Jacobs trailed by nine percentage points in that poll.

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Republicans Continue Bashing Braley Over His Grassley Remark

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Sen. Wendy Davis spoke at Scholz Garten on Monday, March 24,...

Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis' latest spate of attacks on state Attorney General Greg Abbott has Austin Republicans a little baffled.

At issue is equal pay legislation that Gov. Rick Perry vetoed last year. Abbott says he supports equal pay but also would have vetoed the bill as it overlaps with federal legislation on the issue. Davis has criticized his stance, and those criticisms were fueled by a San Antonio Express-News report that female assistant attorneys general in Texas are paid less on average than their male counterparts.

"Act like a Texan, Greg Abbott, and answer this question for yourself: What on earth is going on in your attorney general's office?" Davis said, per the Texas Tribune.

Behind the scenes, Davis onslaught hasnt proven too discomfiting to state Republicans. Some say that by pressing the issue this early in the game more than seven months before the general election Davis may have reduced its impact. One Republican insider says this line of attack would have done more damage to Abbott if it came up in September or October. As it stands, he says Republicans have ample time to plan rejoinders and counter Democrats messaging.

But thats not to say Republicans feel the charges are unserious. One Austin Republican consultant says the campaign is highly aware of the potential for gender optics to become problematic.

Abbott's people know they've got to do something to dispel the Democratic notion that there's some sort of war on women in Texas, he says.

So Republicans are certainly a little jittery.

The entire Republican Party of Texas is on high alert right now, says another Austin consultant. They're very concerned about Battleground Texas and Wendy Davis and the elections. They're not taking anything for granted. Every issue that comes up, it will seem like there's a panic about it.

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Republicans jittery about Wendy Davis' equal pay attacks in Texas governor's race

Progressives
Progressives.

By: AAVigil2011

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Progressives - Video

Progressives In The Driver Seat (w/ Maya Rockeymoore)
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Progressives In The Driver Seat (w/ Maya Rockeymoore) - Video

The progressive community on Wednesday was celebrating the life, work, and activism of longtime writer and Yale University professor who passed away late Tuesday at his home in Brooklyn after a battle with cancer.

Author, educator, and activist Jonathan Schell (1943-2014) A journalist who reported on the Vietnam War as a staff writer for The New Yorker and whose book, The Fate of the Earth, is still regarded as one of the great books on the nuclear threat, Schell became a longtime member of The Nation magazine's community of writers and an activist who focused on nonviolent struggles, human rights, and ending the injustice associated with foreign wars abroad and assaults on liberty at home.

Schell was a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and a lecturer at Yale University, where he taught courses on nonviolence and nuclear disarmament. Over the years, his work appeared in numerous print and online publications, including: The Nation, TomDispatch, Harper's, Foreign Affairs, and Common Dreams.

For a look at those articles which appeared on Common Dreams, click here.

In the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and in its aftermath, Schell was an outspoken critic of the Bush administration and put particular emphasis on the failure of a pliant media that asked too few hard questions both before and during the war.

In his last essay in a column series, titled 'Letter from Ground Zero,' based specifically on the aftermath of 9/11 and the misguided road to Iraq, Schell wrote movingly about how the flawed response to the attacks of September 11th, though clear for a time, at some point became hard to distinguish from deeper problemsboth new and old that he perceived were gripping the American republic.

"Until recently," he wrote in 2006, "it seemed possible to trace the main developments in the Bush administration's policies back to that horrible, fantastical day in September 2001, as if following an unbroken chain of causes and effects. Now it no longer does. The chain is too entangled with other chains, of newer and older origin."

Though many voiced the idea that "9/11 changed everything," Schell proved himself capable of more sophisticated analysis in which, despite the widespread damage and deep implications of those events and the Iraq War that followed, he concluded that "what remains most striking and most surprising is the degree of continuity of the systemic disorder in the face of radical, galloping change in almost every other area of political life."

And comparing the so-called 'War on Terror' to the Cold War that preceded it, Schell asked an essential question: "By looking at external foes, are we looking in the wrong place for the origins of [our society's] illness?"

In response to his death, Yale colleague Jim Sleeper offered a 'fond farewell,' calling Schell a "luminous, noble" individual who gave others a "powerful example of how to dissent" and concluded: "A much better societys future is dimmed a bit by the loss of Jonathan Schells insight, magnanimity, and love."

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Progressives Mourn Passing of Author and Activist Jonathan Schell