It was a beautiful fall day and I was admiring the hint of color in the oak trees on Grand Avenue when my thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.

“It has finally happened,” said my old friend K.C. “Your buddy the governor has gotten too big for his britches.”

“What do you mean,” I said. “Compared with the presidential candidates running around the state, Terry Branstad is starting to sound like a real statesman. Just the other day, he said two things that I thought were very commendable.”

“Yeah. What was that?” asked K.C.

“One was the way he took on Bob Vander Plaats when he demanded the governor cut funding to Planned Parenthood,” I said. “I thought that it took real courage for Branstad to stand up to the right-to-life crowd. Those people have been with him since he first ran for office back in 1972.”

“Horse feathers,” K.C. said. “He stood up to Vander Plaats because he hates him. In fact, he’s hated Vander Plaats has ever since he challenged Terry for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010. 

“What’s the other thing that impressed you?” K.C. asked.

“We’ll,” I said, “it was when he stood up to the University of Iowa faculty after they complained about the way the Board of Regents hired the new university president. Branstad told them that it was outlandish for them to suggest that he fire the regents, because he doesn’t have that power.”

“What’s outlandish,” K.C. said, “is that those bobbleheads in Iowa City ever thought that Branstad would listen to them. 

“He tuned them out years ago,” K.C. said. “When Terry was a student there during the 1960s, the war protesters made fun of him because he was the only conservative on campus. He’s never forgotten the nasty names they called him back then.” 

“Whatever,” I said. “My point is that Branstad did the right thing by letting the U of I crowd know that what they wanted him to do was illegal, and that he wasn’t going to break the law.”

“Why not?” asked K.C. “That’s never stopped him before. 

“People said it was illegal when he closed all those unemployment offices around the state. They said the same thing when he closed the state home for troubled girls in Toledo, and when he closed the state mental health hospitals in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant. Right now, they are questioning whether he can unilaterally turn Iowa’s Medicaid program over to private contractors.

“Branstad’s problem,” K.C. said, “is that he’s ignored the law so many times that people are starting to think it doesn’t apply to him. That’s what I meant when I said he’s getting too big for his britches.  

“When Branstad doesn’t follow the law, he sets a horrible example,” K.C. said. 

“Now, that example is coming home to roost, and people who should know better, like the U of I crowd, are asking him to do things that he can’t legally do, like fire the Board of Regents.”

“Or Vander Plaats asking him to defund Planned Parenthood,” I added.

“Exactly,” K.C. said. 

“But the truth is,” he added, “Branstad doesn’t have to worry anymore about right-to-life voters or any other voting blocs, because he’s never going to run for office again. 

“When he made that decision, it freed him from a lot of the commitments he’s made over the years.

“The only thing he has to worry about now is his legacy,” K.C. said. 

“Branstad is enough of a student of history to know that in the long run, it doesn’t matter what or how you do something, as long as you do it,” K.C. said as he walked west into the setting sun.