A Modest Proposal

Let's help cool things off and trust each other again

There used to be a tradition in American politics that both winners and losers would come together after an election to bind up the wounds from election campaigns and lower the public’s temperature and blood pressure. Election campaigns are hard fought. Harsh words are often exchanged. You can’t run a country with a population constantly at each other’s throats.

That effort is more important than ever after the 2022 midterms.

That tradition, of course, was incinerated by Donald Trump and his Big Lie. The country is worse off because of it. Much of the unpleasantness — to put it mildly — in the country over the past two years stems directly from Trump’s unwillingness to help cool things down. He chose, deliberately, to keep fanning the flams of white-hot partisan division.

I have a modest proposal to help do things differently after the last week’s elections

Let Iowa take the lead in binding up campaign wounds, promoting reconciliation, and removing - even if only for a while - partisan suspicions.

Politically, Iowa is used to being “first in the nation.” Let’s do so again, only this time let Iowa show the way in getting politics back on track to the point that even if we don’t always - or even often - agree with each other, we can at least trust each other across the political aisle again.

My modest proposal concerns Senator Chuck Grassley. He was re-elected on Election Day 2022. He certainly was not my choice, but he won. So congratulations to him. God bless him, and best of luck to him.

A problem remains, however.

At the age of 89, voters gave him a six-year Senate contract. He promised to fill out the full term.

Yet there is no insurance company in the world that would underwrite a “contract completion” policy on an 89 year old man - any 89 year old man - completing anything that takes six years to finish. Actuarial tables don’t lie. And it is only natural to wish for - in fact, often, to need - a less vigorous schedule as we age.

Whether Senator Grassley should have been given a new six year contract for a very physically and mentally demanding job, however, is no longer the issue.

The issue that matters now is whether Senator Grassley will keep his promise to serve the full six year term he just won, and whether Iowans - particularly Democrats - can trust him to do so.

Grassley will be 95 when his new term that begins in January 2023 ends in January 2029.

Here’s the problem: I don’t know anybody — literally anybody — who believes Grassley will keep his campaign promise to serve the full term. No one.

There are a host of possibilities that are, of course, beyond the Senator’s control that may prevent him from doing so, but there are others that are entirely within his control that would likely prove very tempting to quit before he reaches age 95 years.

There are some very tempting hand-off prospects that could convince him to retire before his term is up.

Grassley’s grandson Pat Grassley, is active and prominent in Iowa government and politics. He is Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives. It would be quite tempting for Grandpa Grassley to hand the office to his grandson, which could happen easily enough if Governor Reynolds, who would appoint Grassley’s mid-term successor, goes along with it. She might, since it is probably good Republican politics to keep the Grassley name on statewide ballots in Iowa.

Another potential temptation for Grassley to quit early is that Governor Reynolds clearly has ambitions of her own to step onto the national stage.

Grassley could leave office, followed by Reynolds resigning, with the understanding that Lt. Governor Adam Gregg, once he moves up to become Governor, would appoint Reynolds to fill Grassley’s empty Senate seat. And there you go - a new Republican Senator and a new Republican Governor, both of which gained their new offices without the bother of an election, both ready to run in the next election with all the advantages of incumbency.

Folks who are suspicious about these potential scenarios are not paranoid. They have all happened before in other states.

In 2002, Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski appointed his daughter, Lisa, to fill the Senate seat from which he resigned to become Governor. She’s still one of Alaska’s two US Senators today.

In 1976, Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson resigned as Governor after arranging with his Lt. Governor, Rudy Perpich, to be appointed to the Senate seat vacated by Senator Walter Mondale when he was elected to be President Jimmy Carter’s Vice President.

In fact, Iowans have bee burned on this very issue before - a broken campaign promise to serve a full term if re-elected.

Governor Terry Branstad. Remember him?

When running in what would be his final re-election campaign for Governor in 2014, Branstad promised Iowans that he’d serve the full term if re-elected.

He was re-elected.

Then in 2016, he was offered a federal appointment as US. Ambassador to China. Rather than keep his promise to serve his full term, and decline the offer, Branstad’s response, metaphorically, was to run home and pack his bags for China.

His Lt. Governor, Kim Reynolds, became Iowa’s new Governor and was able to run for election in her own right in the next election as a fresh incumbent, with all the advantages of incumbency, without the bother of first being elected to the office.

Given that history, people have good reason to be skeptical about Grassley’s promise, for reasons that go well beyond the actuarial tables and the normal wear and tear of advanced aging.

My modest proposal is this: Take the potential for self-dealing and partisan games out of the equation. Honor democracy and the voters instead.

Grassley should re-affirm his “complete term” promise and then serve his full term. That would be a promise kept.

Grandson and Speaker Pat Grassley should take himself out of consideration for appointment to an unfinished term of his Grandpa Senator Grassley.

Governor Kim Reynolds should take herself out of the game, too, by announcing that should Grassley’s seat become open for any reason while she is Governor, she will not, in effect, appoint herself to his seat and or accept an appointment to the seat by her successor as Governor.

If Speaker Grassley and Governor Reynolds do that, they will have taken the potential for self-dealing and partisan gamesmanship off the table.

Grassley made a promise to Iowa voters and they elected him to a six year term after receiving it. His grandson, Speaker Grassley, and Governor Reynolds can help ensure that he keeps that promise by removing self-dealing or blatant partisanship as a motive for breaking it.

It’s a modest proposal, but by helping to cool things off after a hot campaign season and helping Iowa Democrats and Republicans trust each other again, it could accomplish something big.