Who do I trust? Not these "insiders"

Sharon Holle used to send me consistent emails about former congressional candidate Rick Dickinson, in fact my reaction to one of those emails is still the fifth result if you google Rick Dickinson Dubuque.

Now apparently she's moved on to working for Senator Joe Biden, because today she forwarded me a press release from Danny O'Brien, Biden's former Chief of Staff and current Executive Director of UniteOurStates.com . The press release makes a claim that seems mildly outlandish:

The good news to report is that late last week, The National Journal released a survey confirming what I learned firsthand working and traveling with Senator Biden: he is the most trusted Democrat when it comes to issues concerning foreign policy and national security.

According to a National Journal poll of "insiders," 29% of those polled trust Joe Biden more than any other Democrat on national security.

So I asked myself, who did they poll? Here's what I discovered:

Sixty-seven Democrats voted in the poll. Some of them gave multiple answers to the same question. I scanned the full list of names and found these notable Iowans, most of which I wouldn't actually consider Washington "insiders,"

Former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell
Des Moines Lawyer and Dem activist Jerry Crawford
Iowa State Senate co-president Mike Gronstal
Dem Operative Jeff Link
Marcia Nichols of AFSCME
Sarah Swisher of SEIU
Iowa Attorney General's Chief of Staff Eric Tabor

And I'm sure there are other Iowans I don't know or didn't recognize in the full list.

There's no one on that list that I voted for, and there's no one on that list whose opinion I would request on national security issues. One of them also appears to have voted for Vilsack, and Jeff Link happens to be on Heartland PAC's payroll. Makes me wonder how many "insiders" are on Biden's payroll.

As an aside, the full poll document shows that 61% of Democrat insiders think Al Gore would be a good candidate for President in '08. That's interesting.

KL