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It was our good friend Rahm Emanuel who once quipped, never let a serious crisis go to waste.

And that really is something that Democrats take to heart.

Enter Iowa House Democrats.

All session we have heard their frustration and anger over the lack of a mask mandate at the Capitol.

COVID is a serious illness. We’re in a pandemic. People are dying.

It is so serious that the Democrats have resorted to desperate ploys like wearing blue jeans to raise money.

Considering the lack of actual power Democrats hold in Des Moines, essentially they’ve been politically neutered when it comes to stopping anything Republicans in Iowa want to do, they’ve had to resort to over-the-top theatrics.

State Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell made a point this week. She boldly showed up on the House floor wearing jeans — which is in violation of House Rules.

The Chief Clerk asked Wessel-Kroeschell to change her pants, but she refused.

Speaker Pat Grassley did not allow Wessel-Kroeschell to speak against a bill because she was violating the rules.

The Democrats point out in their fundraising email that there have been five confirmed cases of COVID detected in the Iowa House.

At least one of those cases involves a double-masker, according to sources. And by all indications, every one of the positive cases involves individuals who have worn a mask.

Mask efficacy be damned!

Anyway, the fundraising email notes that “we are in the middle of a pandemic that has killed thousands in Iowa and hundreds of thousands across this country.”

“And all the Democrats can do is protest by wearing blue jeans.” (OK, full disclosure, this sentence is not in the fundraising email but added by me.)

The actual fundraising email states Republicans are putting all who work at and visit the Capitol in danger because they refuse to issue a mask mandate.

The horror.

Keep in mind this is the same Democrat Party who, at the national level, set an example early last year by focusing on a sham impeachment process rather than prepping for the COVID outbreak to begin as it entered our country.

So, what did this sorry political stunt prove?

Well, not much.

It grabbed a headline in the Des Moines Register and resulted in a fundraising email.

Congrats.

In terms of legislative accomplishments, this may be the highlight of the session for Democrats.

People are dying from the virus. Yet here the Democrats are using the virus to try to score cheap political points with even cheaper political theater while trying to raise money off a pandemic.

Maybe if Democrat lawmakers took lawmaking a little more seriously, they’d find themselves in the majority able to institute whatever restrictions against individual rights and liberties they’d like to impose.

But they are not.

And stunts like this are why.

Author: Jacob Hall

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