Senator Charles (Chuck) Grassley (R-IA) built his reputation playing the down-to-earth farmer next door who went to Washington to represent the common sense of the folks back home. After arriving in Washington, he went after publicity as a critic of wasteful procurement practices, exposing the thousand dollar hammers and such. That act played well in Iowa and he became unbeatable. I truly wonder, however, if the man has anything left.
Watching his recent performance (since W took office), he appears more and more to be just another Republican placeholder - taking orders from the White House and regurgitating their talking points on cue.
A recent example of this has to do with his reaction to the situation in Iraq and the actions Congress is trying to take to change course. During last Saturday's cloture vote, Grassley voted with the prevailing side to prevent debate and consideration of the non-binding resolution. What did the Senator have to say about it?
Here is Senator Grassley's Bizarre Press Release:
For Immediate Release
February 17th, 2007SATURDAY IRAQ VOTE
Senator Chuck Grassley today issued the following statement after the United States Senate failed to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed to a resolution that expresses a sense of the Congress on the current strategy in Iraq. Grassley voted against proceeding to the bill.
Here is Grassley's comment.
"This is a rare Saturday vote. We've had only a handful of votes on Saturdays in the last 20 years. Even though I had to cancel a couple of speeches in Iowa, this is the place to be because the War on Terrorism is the most important issue facing Americans.
"The American people deserve a full debate complete with votes on resolutions put forward by both Republicans and Democrats. Not only is it important to vote on whether we support the new direction in Iraq, but it's even more important that we vote on whether we support funding for our troops. There's no doubt that things haven't gone well in Iraq, but now is the time to show our troops in harm's way that we are standing behind them."
So there you have it. The remark on how rare it is to have a vote scheduled on a Saturday says nothing, really. He needs to be there to vote because the "War on Terrorism" is the most important issue facing Americans. OK.
What he is saying there is that he stayed in Washington to make sure that the resolution would not be debated and voted on because "The American people deserve a full debate complete with votes on resolutions put forward by both Republicans and Democrats."
It is indeed quite perplexing and seems truly bizarre. This will, of course, be the subject of my next letter to him.
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