Senator Harkin's remarks on reform of the filibuster on January 25, 2013.

For the second time this week, a veteran member of the United States Senate has announced that he will be exiting the Congress after the 2014 midterms. This will be a great loss for Senate Dems, and the nation, as Tom Harkin announced his decision to retire:

Via:

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin will not seek re-election in 2014, the Iowa Democrat said Saturday.

The 73-year-old Harkin told The Associated Press in an interview, “It’s just time to step aside,” noting that by the time he would finish a sixth term, he would be 81.

Harkin said the move also would allow a new generation of Democrats to seek higher office.

Harkin will end four decades in Washington with his retirement, after serving for a decade as a member of Congress representing the state's (now-defunct) 5th district before being elected to the Senate in 1984.

Harkin is a leading liberal in the Senate, chairing the health, education, labor and pensions committee and having served as a key salesman of President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care bill.

While discussing the announcement with C&L's own Scarce, he remarked "You've got to think the recent filibuster b.s. was the final straw for Harkin, or at least played a part in his decision."

Harkin was an outspoken advocate on filibuster reform, having just addressed the Senate on the topic on the morning of Harry Reid's filibuster debacle.noted that his decision came as a surprise "considering he had $2.7 million in his campaign war chest and was planning a gala fundraiser in Washington, D.C., next month."

Ah, to be a fly on the wall of the senate chamber...

Harkin becomes the third Senate retiree in recent weeks, joining Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.

President Obama's final campaign rally was held Monday night in Des Moines, Iowa, wrapping up the 2012 campaign with an emotional speech marked by references to his 2008 campaign and the Iowa caucus victory that helped catapult his political career.

"I came back to ask you to help us finish what we started because this is where our movement for change began," Obama declared. "To all of you who’ve lived and breathed the hard work of change: I want to thank you. You took this campaign and made it your own ... starting a movement that spread across the country.

"When the cynics said we couldn't, you said yes we can. You said yes we can and we did. Against all odds, we did," he said.

The President wiped an occasional tear from his eye, and while looking over a crowd of 20,000 concluded the night by telling the story of Edith Childs, who inspired the "fired up, ready to go" chant of his first presidential campaign.

There's nothing really new in Obama's remarks in Iowa, but he does outline his vision for a second term in much clearer terms than he is given credit for doing.

Thirty-eight states now elect their high court judges. Large sums of money — $200 million over the last decade, much of it secret and tied to partisan agendas — are pouring into these judicial campaigns. In Florida, Pennsylvania, and Iowa, for example, justices are being targeted by radical groups that abhor judicial independence and want the courts to reflect their political bias.

In Iowa, a state whose judicial system has been praised for its fairness and impartiality, the political and religious Right ousted three justices in 2010 over marriage equality, and is now trying to take down a fourth over the same issue. But this time a bipartisan coalition called Justice Not Politics is fighting back. Its co-founders – Democrat Sally Pederson and Republican Joy Corning, both of whom served Iowa for eight years as lieutenant governor — join Bill to talk about what’s at stake when justices are at the mercy of partisan passions and money in politics.

“What people would like to do is intimidate judges and make them understand that if they make a decision that’s counter to the interests of certain groups, that they’ll go after them,” Pederson tells Bill. “You know, we elect our legislators, we elect our president, governor. If we also have money and politics involved in our courts, then what is safe from just the opinions of the day?

Full transcript available here.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to thousands of supporters at a campaign event at the Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa, September 1, 2012.[ REUTERS]

Thousands of supporters wait in Colorado to hear U.S. President Barack Obama speak at a campaign event on September 2, 2012. [REUTERS]

It's Friday the 13th, and this Peregrine Financial Group CEO seems to be having terrible luck. Russell Wasendorf Sr. was arrested today for making false statements to regulators from 2010 to July 2012, according to the agency. The statements concerned his Iowa-based company, Peregrine Financial, that filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday. The CFTC and the National Futures Association have accused Wasendorf of misappropriating over $200 million in customer funds. These allegations were brought to light after Wasendorf tried to kill himself on Monday in the parking lot of Peregrine headquarters. He is set to appear in federal court later today.

Via:

Wasendorf had been hospitalized at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics after attempting suicide outside the company's headquarters in Cedar Falls on Monday by hooking up a tube to his car's tailpipe.

His company filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, the same day the industry's top regulator filed civil fraud charges alleging the firm misused customer money and falsely claimed a bank account contained more than $220 million when it actually had about $5 million. The money in that account belonged to customers, and was supposed to be kept separate from Peregrine's own money.
...
An affidavit by FBI agent William Langdon, made public with the criminal complaint, says authorities found Wasendorf unresponsive Monday in his vehicle, along with a suicide note addressed to his wife and a signed statement in which he detailed his fraud.

"Through a scheme of using false bank statements I have been able to embezzle millions of dollars from customer accounts at Peregrine Financial Group, Inc. The forgeries started nearly twenty years ago and have gone undetected until now. I was able to conceal my crime of forgery by being the sole individual with access to the US Bank accounts held by PFG," he wrote in the note, according to court documents.

Wasendorf said that he faced "a difficult decision" when his access to capital was limited earlier in his career.

"Should I go out of business or cheat? I guess my ego was too big to admit failure," he wrote. "So I cheated, I falsified the very core of the financial documents of PFG, the bank statements."

It's difficult to feel any sympathy for the man, he did know exactly what he was getting into and how wrong it was. I do feel badly for his family. They'll no doubt carry the shame that Wasendorf should have felt.