IGOV reunion?

Sources (people who were invited) tell me there’s a reunion tonight for all the people who’ve worked in Governor Tom Vilsack’s office the past eight years.  It’s to be held in Des Moines, and not everyone will be able to make it.  Some of the staffers have moved on to DC; one is in law school on the east coast; a few have to wash their hair tonight and won’t be there. 

The governor held a news conference in his statehouse office today to announce that in one of his last acts as governor he’d be asking legislators to immediately appropriate $4 million of state taxdollars to help minority- and women-owned businesses in Iowa.   Reporters in the room asked a few questions, Vilsack answered them, then there was a lull.

"Other questions?" Vilsack asked reporters.

"On another subject," I replied.

So Vilsack thanked the group standing behind him, and the folks filed out of the room.  As we sat waiting, Vilsack offered an observation.

"I just realized that Glover’s kind of like the Helen Thomas of the press corps," Vilsack said.  Jennifer Mullin, one of the people on Vilsack’s communications staff, laughed.  "So I’ll defer to you if you have a question," Vilsack added, addressing Glover.

I’m guessing Vilsack meant Glover (AP reporter Mike Glover) oftentimes asks the first question at a press conference, as Helen Thomas used to do at the White House.  For the doubters who want to check to see whether Glover resembles Helen Thomas, Glover’s the guy with the blue hood standing next to me in that picture to the right.  The picture was taken one November day in 2003 when John Kerry had a press conference in a Des Moines parking lot, in a drizzle (that’s a reference to the weather), in front of his campaign bus.  Learfield’s web guru cropped JFK (John Forbes Kerry) out of the shot.