Hillary Clinton is in Iowa this week, a state which she “doesn’t plan on taking for granted” in the presidential race. But when it comes to White House aspirants, you know what Iowa means… King Corn. It’s nearly impossible to find anyone interested in being president – aside from Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina – who doesn’t bend a knee before the ethanol throne. So what does the former First Lady think about this subject? Robert Bryce has been tracking the story.

[Clinton] and three of her senate colleagues — New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer and California Democrats Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer — used that very word, “tax” to describe then-pending legislation that was to require the blending of two billion gallons of corn ethanol per year into domestic gasoline supplies. Their … letter said the pending measure would add “an astonishing new anti-consumer government mandate — that every US refiner must use an ever-increasing volume of ethanol.”

They said consumers would be “forced” to use ethanol and that the legislation was “the equivalent of a new gasoline tax.” In all, during her stint in the Senate, Clinton voted against ethanol 17 times.

Wow! I must confess, I didn’t see that one coming. That’s quite the brave and principled stand and might cause us to take a fresh look at the newly announced candidate. It’s a well reasoned position on an important policy position, and …

Oh, wait. That was in 2002. So what did she say when she decided to run for President in 2007?

[W]hen she set her sites on the White House and realized she had to kowtow – just as Barack Obama was doing – to Big Corn in Iowa, she flipped like a hotcake. In early 2007, during a visit to Des Moines, Clinton said that the US needs to work on “limiting our dependence on foreign oil. And we have a perfect example right here in Iowa about how it can work with all of the ethanol that’s being produced here.”

Now she’s back in corn country, so what will her answer be this time? Whichever way she flips this year she’ll have plenty of company on the trail keeping an eye on her responses. One person in particular will be watching and it’s the son of Iowa’s ethanol loving governor.

Candidates, welcome to Iowa. Now meet the governor’s son, who is tracking you.

Eric Branstad, a Republican like his father, Gov. Terry E. Branstad, has lurked at candidates’ events across the state, sometimes with colleagues recording video. But rather than collecting opposition research, the younger Mr. Branstad is representing Iowa’s prized ethanol industry, which faces increasing pressure to wean itself of government support.

The younger Branstad has been haunting the steps of Ted Cruz ever since he came out against the Renewable Fuel Standard, planting people with cameras at virtually all of his events and pushing him to answer more ethanol questions on the record. They are clearly getting ready to try to punish Cruz for his failure to bend a knee, so it would be remarkable indeed if Hillary Clinton mustered the courage to defy them.

Will that happen? Color me skeptical. But no matter which way she leans this time she can at least claim she’s been consistent. After all, she’s taken both positions before.