Chuck Grassley's Cop Out
America's Oldest Senator Chose to "Duck & Cover" on Biden's Age
Nobody in the US House or Senate, or in gubernatorial offices around the country, has more experience being old and in major public office than Iowa’s own US Senator Chuck Grassley.
At age 90, Grassley is the longest serving Republican in the 237 year history of the U.S. Congress and the 6th longest serving Senator from either party in America’s history.
He is, indeed, at this moment, America’s oldest US Senator. Grassley will turn 91 on September 17.
Which makes it very strange that he has had virtually nothing to say about Joe Biden’s age, 81 - or Donald Trump’s for that matter, age 78.
Both Biden and Trump are proverbial “whipper snappers” compared to Grassley who at nearly 91 has been in public office for all or portions of 8 decades.
Grassley is the perfect case study for how aging affects a public official. When Grassley was first elected to public office in 1958, Dwight Eisenhower was president, John F. Kennedy was the junior Senator from Massachusetts and Joe Biden - had he lived in Iowa at the time, under the laws of Iowa at the time - would have had to wait five more years for his 21st birthday, the point at which he could have legally bought a bottle of Budweiser in an Iowa bar. He could have obtained an Iowa Drivers license that year, however, but he would have had to wait until his 16th birthday in November.
Chuck Grassley has served in public office as a young man, a middle aged man, and for the last couple of decades or so, as an old man. For the last several years, he has served in public office as very old man.
Do you want some insight on how advancing age either does or does not affect an individual’s ability to do the demanding work required in major public office? Chuck Grassley - it would seem - is your obvious “go to guy” for expertise on that question. His insight comes from his own lived experience.
But Grassley hasn’t had much to say about the topic. It’s almost like he’s hiding, hoping everyone will forget about him when the topic turns to aging public officials. While the debate about Biden’s age rages, Chuck Grassley sits quietly in his corner growing older every day.
When asked directly on a phone call with Iowa reporters on July 10 about Biden’s age, its possible effect on his ability to do the job - and specifically - whether he should step aside - Grassley demurred.
Actually, what Grassley chose to do was cop out. He chose to “duck and cover.”
Well, you know, that’s something for Biden to discuss with his family, his personal family, and his Democratic family, Grassley opined. Next question?
That was a very odd response from a fellow who spent much of his last re-election campaign claiming that his own advancing age was not an issue. Grassley was 89 on Election Day 2022 - eight years older then than President Biden is now.
In effect, Grassley simply claimed in 2022 that he was as good as he ever was. And ran full page newspaper ads with 30 year old photos of himself to prove it.
If Chuck Grassley honestly believed he was as good as he ever was when he ran for re-election at age 89, then now would be a good time time for him to tell the country his story. How did he know he was fit? How did he know he hadn’t slowed physically or mentally? Most of us do both. What led him to believe he did neither? If he did admit, at least to himself, that things were changing, what differences did see as he aged, and how did those changes affect his ability to do his job, if at all? How did he assess himself; how did he guard against self delusion on that score, etc.
Tell us what he saw of himself so we can compare it to what we saw in him as he aged.
Personally, I never bought Grassley’s “good as I ever was” claim as he sought re-election at age 89. I don’t recall the last time I saw him speak, either on the Senate floor or in a Senate committee, without reading from a script prepared for him by staff, and generally reading it badly.
I also saw The Young Grassley who made a name for himself as a relatively independent Republican morph into the The Old Grassley - a reliably partisan errand boy for Republican party leaders who was even “all in” for stealing a Supreme Court appointment from President Barack Obama.
If Grassley truly believed his “as good as I ever was” claim, then it would be helpful if he shared a bit of his experience with us. Tell us how he saw himself, what adjustments - if any - he made, and what questions he asked himself, who else he consulted; and what led him to conclude that his age was not a factor in his decision to seek another term.
In doing so, Grassley doesn’t even have to talk about President Biden. Talk about his own experience. He’s right not to get into a discussion about whether Biden should stay in the race or not. But that doesn’t mean he has nothing to add to the on-going discussion.
The debate about Biden’s age is, yes, a discussion about the presumed Democratic nominee for president, but it is also about the incumbent President of the United States.
If Grassley’s experiences as an aging public official can help Americans better understand the current situation with their president, I think he has an obligation - as an American - to share his own experience. It would be helpful if he did.
Grassley’s response to the reporters on the call started with what poker players - and observant reporters - call a “tell.”
“I don’t want to dump on Biden as either a presidential candidate or any accusations about his health,” Grassley said. He then proceeded to “dump on Biden” with boiler plate Republican talking point “policy failures” - for which, as usual, he offered no documentation or support, no matter how feeble. He simply made the evidence-free case that America needs “a Republican president.”
Grassley knows that if he were to “dump on Biden” regarding his age, it would only invite greater scrutiny of Grassley’s own advanced age and declining performance.
Iowa’s senior senator - and America’s oldest US Senator - seems blissfully unaware that there might be an option other than “dumping” on Biden’s age or health. Only a partisan politician would think that was the only road available.
A statesman, however, would recognize the intersection of this moment in America’s history and Grassley’s long career and highly advanced age, not as a chance to “dump on” a president of an opposing party, but rather as an opportunity to help the country learn something about how age might affect a public official.
That, apparently, is a bridge too far” to expect from America’s oldest U.S. Senator, The Old Chuck Grassley.
It would, however, be a particularly valuable service when the presumptive nominees of both political parties are old men, one age 81 and the other age 78.
Great column!
Duck and cover have sort of become Grassley's modus operandi these days, no matter the topic.