Fouling Up

Taxes and babies dog two pols

Into the gap between words and actions has fallen many a politician, as two more discovered to their sorrow last week.

In Iowa, Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Roxanne Conlin, 38, attacked the G.O.P. for seeking to monopolize "the American dream" by such elitist devices as tax shelters. Conlin was the clear favorite over her Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Terry Branstad, until she released a financial statement disclosing that she and her husband James, a millionaire real estate broker, had paid no state income taxes last year and only $2,995 in federal taxes, largely because of paper losses suffered...