September 3, 2007 3:14 PM

We're back -- and so are Billary and friends

View image Photo by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

They say some Iowa voters don't start paying attention to elections until Labor Day.

Well, here it is, the day that brings our Back Roads to the White House vacation to an end -- and just in time to catch the unofficial start of the sprint to the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucus.

You can start paying attention now.

CLICK HERE to see where the story left off...

On Monday, the national Democratic front-runner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, brought her husband, former President Bill Clinton, back to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, where he first joined her on the campaign trail in July.

The occasion was "Solidarity Fest," the holiday show of force for the South-Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

But don't let the event's name fool you. One of Clinton's leading rivals, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, made sure he had made his pro-labor speech and got out of there before the Clintons and their unusually large media tag-along crew arrived.

And so, on labor issues, the Democrats remain separate but unified.

View image Photo by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

The sprint begins with Clinton holding a double-digit lead in national polls, and at a time when Edwards is trying to cling to his long-presumed front-runner status here in Iowa.

For Democrats, Labor Day represents one of the high holy days on the political calendar, so it's no wonder that Clinton, Edwards, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson all made trips to different ends of Iowa on Monday to court this critical caucus constituency: union workers.

At the fairgrounds event in Des Moines, Edwards sounded all of the "working class" themes upon which he has built his campaign, including his pledge to help rebuild the nation's labor movement.

"I'll be the president who walks out on the White House lawn and says the word 'union,'" Edwards said.

We thought that might be a veiled reference to certain recent Democratic presidents, including one who was on his way to the 4-H warehouse where the event was held. So after his speech, we asked Edwards if he thought former President Clinton or others had been too shy about saying the word "union" while working in the White House.

"I'm not interested in talking about what people have done in the past. I'm talking about what I would do as president. And I believe that the union movement, the organized labor movement, is crucial to strengthening ... the middle class. And I will make that case to America while I'm making the argument that we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, (how) we need universal health care... I can only tell you what I'm going to do. What I'm going to do is speak out loudly and clearly for organized labor and for working Americans."

A short while later, the former president took the stage to introduce his wife.

"The next president has got to restore the middle class," he said, and he made the case that Sen. Clinton was the one to do that.

At past joint appearances for the former first couple appearances, including the July 3 event on the other end of the fairgrounds, the former president sometimes has overshadowed his wife. But here, she drew more raucous applause lines from a crowd of several hundred union workers, particularly when taking shots at the current Republican administration.

"Are you ready for a secretary of labor who actually believes in labor and the people who do the work?" she asked.

She bragged about millions of jobs being created under her husband's leadership, and she spoke of the need to spur millions of new "green collar" jobs by promoting development of renewable energy sources, like solar and wind power.

Sen. Clinton referred to the windmill that generates energy for the Iowa State Fairgrounds, and shrugged off critics who say giant wind turbines are an ugly blight on the landscape.

"I'll tell you what... I like the way it looks better than a tanker pulling out of the Middle East," she said to applause.

And so, the sprint toward the Iowa caucus begins -- and on Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut return to the state to stake their claims.

As of Monday, there were 133 days to go -- less if states like Florida and Michigan move up their primary events, as threatened, and force Iowa to reshuffle its calendar to keep the first-in-the-nation status.

After a week on hiatus, we're tanned, rested and ready to cover the final sprint. So check back.

View image Photo by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

POST-SCRIPT: Once again, Sen. Clinton declined to talk to the Rocky Mountain News, Des Moines bureau, following her appearance at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Sunday. (That's nothing new. In our nearly five months in Iowa, she has not granted any of our interview requests nor invited us to a single group media availability.) But luckily, this cardboard cut-out proved to be quite charming and accessible.

Photo by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

Posted by M.E. Sprengelmeyer at 3:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack