Let’s get this straight. The Iowa Republicans in the legislature are moving to change Iowa’s long-standing merit-based judicial appointment system, which serves as a model nationwide, because lawyers comprise half the nominating panel. The governor and Republican proponents of this radical change say it is a move towards more direct responsibility given to people who are elected, rather than giving power to lawyers, even well-informed lawyers who are not elected.

So one might think that Republicans strongly support giving greater responsibility to officials who are elected. Then why are they now voting to reduce the responsibility of Iowa’s Attorney General, who has been elected more times than any other AG in the country? The same Republicans arguing they should have more say about which judges are appointed are saying the popularly-elected Attorney General should have less authority to decide which cases his office participates in.

If you are experiencing whiplash, you are not alone. This is self-interested inconsistency at its most shameful.