Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers.

After reading a CNN article about how State Auditor Rob Sand is “leading with faith” as a strategy in his campaign for governor, I am dismayed.

He is wrong, and I think his rhetoric puts the future of our state and the Democratic Party in jeopardy. I like Rob, and I think he would be a better governor than any Republican, but using faith in this way is a dead end for him and the party. He may pick up voters and may even win with this approach in 2026. But it’s not a sustainable long-term strategy, in light of our increasingly secular populace, with older voters having the strongest religious affinity.

On February 16, 2011, Congressman Tom Latham stood on the floor of the House of Representatives and made a complete fool of himself while simultaneously attacking the Iowa ethanol industry.  It’s not clear if Latham just didn’t read the amendment he was attacking, if his staff gave him bad analysis, or if he is so desperate to attack Congressman Bruce Braley, who sponsored the amendment, that he ignored all of the facts and the numerous ethanol and renewable fuels organizations who were aggressively encouraging lawmakers to support it.

Check out the video and see how Latham breathlessly goes on and on about the common sense amendment, it’s pretty astonishing:

The New York State Senate and Assembly, too often a model of corruption and dysfunctionality, rose above petty politics last week to pass forward-thinking legislation on climate and energy, setting a precedent for bipartisanship and a sensible cap and trade system.  The State Senate passed the groundbreaking Green Job/Green New York Act, with strong support from Republicans, Democrats, and the Working Families Party, which spearheaded the legislation. The bill — expected to be signed into law this week by Gov. David Patterson leverages $112m in revenue from the Northeasts's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) into $5 billion of private investment to finance home weatherization, energy efficiency projects, and green jobs creation.

I don’t plan to dive into caucus politics too regularly this campaign season, but this one was too good to pass up.  Seems that one of the folks at Red State (a heavy-hitter in the conservative blogosphere) has turned against Mitt Romney.  Why?  Because they now label him “Multiple Choice Mitt”.