Thanks for your column, Barry. While I am a life long democrat and Iowan, I too used to have respect for Charles Grassley and his positions. He seemed principled. He has fallen so far from that, that it makes me wonder if I imagined it. I suppose it is the years in Washington and the desire to hold onto power. Whatever happened, it is sad, pathetic, and so dangerous. His part in the manipulation of the Supreme Court has already done great damage. He appears determined to be part of the attempt to overturn democracy. Not a legacy I thought would ever be attached to Charles Grassley.
Thank you, Barry. Grassley’s actions are so much more than disappointing. They are a betrayal of the trust Iowans have given him to represent who we are as citizens of Iowa and our country. And, to date, there are no answers about why he would make a statement telling the country that he would preside over the electoral count on January 6, 2021. His reputation will only become more tarnished as time goes by.
Well said, Kathy. Thanks for adding his puzzling comments on January 6 to that list. They certainly belong on it, too. You are right about the increasing damage he is doing. If his Senate “work” had been a boxing match, the ref would have “stopped the fight” long ago. Instead Senator Grassley keeps punching away, on course to a self-inflicted knock out as far as his place in history is concerned.
Absolutely. I still want to see the day where he’s grilled under oath about Jan. 6. Won’t happen. If did, he’d likely take the Fifth. But I’d still like to see the day.
About twenty years ago, I took a group of high school students to a leadership conference in Washington D.C. and we visited Senator Grassley in his office. He visited with the students and told us political anecdotes, remarking with frustration that the only way they could get then President Bush(the younger)to do anything politically cooperative was to act to take away something he liked. The man that Senator Grassley used to be doesn't seem to exist anymore...he has become a tool instead of a thinker... sad legacy...
Appreciate your column today, Barry. Like others, I am old enough to remember when Grassley’s claim to fame was identifying wasteful (corrupt?) spending by the Pentagon in purchasing overpriced hammers. Today, he is simply a water boy performing errands for those who wish to send democracy down the drain.
Thank you. I agree. Why he’s gone so incredibly far down this super partisan path, I don’t know and certainly don’t understand. He had multiple opportunities to provide real leadership and service to his country - but has chosen this.
I often interviewed Grassley when I was a reporter in Iowa and always found him to be cordial and responsive.
Yes, he has always been a conservative, even right-wing Republican, but that's his right, despite the consistent suggestions by Piatt and other Democrats that there is something wrong with that point of view.
I read columns by members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative as a way of staying in touch with my native state but the effort is increasingly difficult due to the strident nature of much of the material, which constantly attacks anyone who dares to differ with Democratic party dogma.
Sorry, but if I sound strident it’s only because Republicans these days are giving us so much to be strident about - overthrow democracy anyone?
It’s a free country and the conservative view is a legitimate - though in my view often misguided one - view to hold. But there is so little actual “conservatism” left in today’s Republican Party that you’re more likely to find actual conservatism on some dusty, back shelf in the Smithsonian’s attic than you are in today’s Republican Party.
I spoke often with Senator Grassley over my years on Capitol Hill, and did indeed find him to be a friendly and cordial man - which makes his metamorphosis into a predictable water carrier for the worst impulses of what has become an incredibly corrupt Republican Party all the more difficult to witness.
Thanks for reading “Barry Piatt on Pokitics: Behind the Curtains,” though.
The best formulation, I think, is the one that Eugene Debs came up with, namely, that the major parties are two wings on the same corporate bird of prey.
Both are committed to austerity and war. There was a time, when I volunteered for McGovern and Mondale, when I thought Democrats were marginally better than Republicans.
The false equivalency claim has never been accurate or persuasive.
Do you really think we were better off as a country when one party was trying to overthrow democracy; when refrigerator trucks were stacked up outside hospitals for use as temporary morgues because so many people were dying because the then president’s strategy for dealing with Civid was to diminish and deny it; when the economy was collapsed; and bigotry and xenophobia were given free rein at the White House?
I don’t.
Joe Biden inherited a mess from Trump and has been a success of historic proportions in healing this country from that mess.
Which is why Republicans rely so much on empty ad hominem attacks against him and falsehoods that also make for convenient distractions, they hope, from the disgraceful and in-going record of Donald Trump which they don’t even try to defend with anything that is actually accurate.
Thanks again for reading my column and sharing your views.
Apparently not as well as you think you do if you think Biden’s record is preferable to Trump’s. And if one party trying to end democracy in America is not even on your radar screen as something to be concerned about.
Readily available facts - not talking points - make a compelling case to the contrary.
Democrats remind me of the academics I knew in Iowa City who sat in their nicely-furnished homes and whined about how working people just didn't appreciate how good they had it.
I listened in disbelief at a recent Grassley town hall in our community as he defended NATO and then tried to persuade us into believing Trump was the answer to everything when he gets elected. Has he heard nothing Trump says about NATO?
Thanks for your column, Barry. While I am a life long democrat and Iowan, I too used to have respect for Charles Grassley and his positions. He seemed principled. He has fallen so far from that, that it makes me wonder if I imagined it. I suppose it is the years in Washington and the desire to hold onto power. Whatever happened, it is sad, pathetic, and so dangerous. His part in the manipulation of the Supreme Court has already done great damage. He appears determined to be part of the attempt to overturn democracy. Not a legacy I thought would ever be attached to Charles Grassley.
So true, Virginia, on all points.
Thank you, Barry. Grassley’s actions are so much more than disappointing. They are a betrayal of the trust Iowans have given him to represent who we are as citizens of Iowa and our country. And, to date, there are no answers about why he would make a statement telling the country that he would preside over the electoral count on January 6, 2021. His reputation will only become more tarnished as time goes by.
Well said, Kathy. Thanks for adding his puzzling comments on January 6 to that list. They certainly belong on it, too. You are right about the increasing damage he is doing. If his Senate “work” had been a boxing match, the ref would have “stopped the fight” long ago. Instead Senator Grassley keeps punching away, on course to a self-inflicted knock out as far as his place in history is concerned.
Absolutely. I still want to see the day where he’s grilled under oath about Jan. 6. Won’t happen. If did, he’d likely take the Fifth. But I’d still like to see the day.
About twenty years ago, I took a group of high school students to a leadership conference in Washington D.C. and we visited Senator Grassley in his office. He visited with the students and told us political anecdotes, remarking with frustration that the only way they could get then President Bush(the younger)to do anything politically cooperative was to act to take away something he liked. The man that Senator Grassley used to be doesn't seem to exist anymore...he has become a tool instead of a thinker... sad legacy...
Exactly.
Appreciate your column today, Barry. Like others, I am old enough to remember when Grassley’s claim to fame was identifying wasteful (corrupt?) spending by the Pentagon in purchasing overpriced hammers. Today, he is simply a water boy performing errands for those who wish to send democracy down the drain.
Thank you. I agree. Why he’s gone so incredibly far down this super partisan path, I don’t know and certainly don’t understand. He had multiple opportunities to provide real leadership and service to his country - but has chosen this.
Money, power… the usual Sirens’’ Song, I’d assume… with a hefty dose of legitimate fear for his wellbeing. There’s a whole lotta crazy out here.
I often interviewed Grassley when I was a reporter in Iowa and always found him to be cordial and responsive.
Yes, he has always been a conservative, even right-wing Republican, but that's his right, despite the consistent suggestions by Piatt and other Democrats that there is something wrong with that point of view.
I read columns by members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative as a way of staying in touch with my native state but the effort is increasingly difficult due to the strident nature of much of the material, which constantly attacks anyone who dares to differ with Democratic party dogma.
You need a greater diversity of voices.
Sorry, but if I sound strident it’s only because Republicans these days are giving us so much to be strident about - overthrow democracy anyone?
It’s a free country and the conservative view is a legitimate - though in my view often misguided one - view to hold. But there is so little actual “conservatism” left in today’s Republican Party that you’re more likely to find actual conservatism on some dusty, back shelf in the Smithsonian’s attic than you are in today’s Republican Party.
I spoke often with Senator Grassley over my years on Capitol Hill, and did indeed find him to be a friendly and cordial man - which makes his metamorphosis into a predictable water carrier for the worst impulses of what has become an incredibly corrupt Republican Party all the more difficult to witness.
Thanks for reading “Barry Piatt on Pokitics: Behind the Curtains,” though.
The best formulation, I think, is the one that Eugene Debs came up with, namely, that the major parties are two wings on the same corporate bird of prey.
Both are committed to austerity and war. There was a time, when I volunteered for McGovern and Mondale, when I thought Democrats were marginally better than Republicans.
Now, in the era of Biden, I no longer think so.
The false equivalency claim has never been accurate or persuasive.
Do you really think we were better off as a country when one party was trying to overthrow democracy; when refrigerator trucks were stacked up outside hospitals for use as temporary morgues because so many people were dying because the then president’s strategy for dealing with Civid was to diminish and deny it; when the economy was collapsed; and bigotry and xenophobia were given free rein at the White House?
I don’t.
Joe Biden inherited a mess from Trump and has been a success of historic proportions in healing this country from that mess.
Which is why Republicans rely so much on empty ad hominem attacks against him and falsehoods that also make for convenient distractions, they hope, from the disgraceful and in-going record of Donald Trump which they don’t even try to defend with anything that is actually accurate.
Thanks again for reading my column and sharing your views.
As I suggested earlier, too much of the material produced by the writers collaborative reads like DNC talking points.
As a former political writer I know propaganda when I see it.
Apparently not as well as you think you do if you think Biden’s record is preferable to Trump’s. And if one party trying to end democracy in America is not even on your radar screen as something to be concerned about.
Readily available facts - not talking points - make a compelling case to the contrary.
Democrats remind me of the academics I knew in Iowa City who sat in their nicely-furnished homes and whined about how working people just didn't appreciate how good they had it.
Limousine liberals.
I listened in disbelief at a recent Grassley town hall in our community as he defended NATO and then tried to persuade us into believing Trump was the answer to everything when he gets elected. Has he heard nothing Trump says about NATO?