Grassley has honed the art of double speak. He is all in on the seashell by the seashore prosecution which is purely an SNL skit and abuse of the legal process. I think the House of Representatives finally acted on the Farm Bill as it can be a campaign bullet point that is showy with limited substance.
I agree, and in fact wrote recently, that I thought the House action on the Farm Bill was purely performative - so Republican farm state candidates don’t get beat up this Fall for continued failure to pass it.
I think it is very unlikely that the Senate will act on it before the election. Which is more bad news for farmers. If anything good was going to happen, they’d get it done before the election.
Identifying the crucial farm issues cogently. Grassley’s fellow Iowans need to read your insightful article. Grassley’s chief asset is his drawl, nicely nasal, thunderous to some degree, and slow, both in enunciation and thought. My husband left Sioux City for Chicago, then New York, and had some terrified memories of bullying farm-bred kids. Grassley reminded him of their attitudes.
Farmers used to be the backbone of our country. Iowa has the highest rate of cancer in the Country thanks to people like Grassely. Wake up Iowa, God helps those who help themselves. Get rid of this BOZO in Congress and the BOZO in the White House!
There's little upside in shouting myself hoarse denouncing Charles Grassley anymore. I can at least take a little pride in saying that I have been able to vote against him
eight times. As for the now 40 year old & shabby bowling trophy he flaunts to cosplay as a fearless pillar of fiscal rectitude, I suspect those $500 hammers & toilet seats he built his stature on denouncing are now billing out at $5,000 each today. Or even better, "name your price," because it's free-range smash & grab time for MAGA predators & looters now pillaging government at every level. And Grassley just chews his cud, placid as a Hindu cow in fogbound indifference.
I am old enough to remember how the entire Federal budget was about $250 billion back when I was a high school debate team kid in 1972. Now the Trump plunder squad brazenly demands 1.5 TRILLION for the maliciously rechristened "Dept of War" all by itself AND unsurprisingly the feeble and poisonously vain Grassley, now politically impregnable and beyond any consequences basks in the rewards from a life of servility to evil, all ratified by the crosseyed imbecility of Iowa voters.
I bitterly remember Grassley leading the Judiciary Republican attack on Anita Hill and confirmation of the odious Clarence Thomas. Thomas, who has hurled dung at Americans every day since then, while pocketing every bribe shoveled his way with contemptuous indifference or any pretense of shame.
Grassley has skated by for decades, and who's gonna stop him from running again if he chooses to? Apparently not Iowa voters. I ask again, what's the upside of this here "Constitutional" system of government when it's hijacked by yapping jackals like Charles Grassley? How much allegiance should I owe to a system that rewards MAGA and openly depraved criminal syndicates like the Republican party?
At least Senator-for-life Grassley has ascended to the Strom Thurmond throne for putrid decreptitude and infinite vanity. Somehow I don't believe these are the qualities of public service we ought to enshrine & subordinate ourselves to.
Thank you. For the past 16 months, through phone calls, post cards and office visits, have been asking for a RedLine on this administration. Nope. Only MAGA Speak!
He’s been a partisan hack for a long time. He came to Aegon in Cedar Rapids to try to sell Bush’s “mandate” to privatize Social Security to a room full of actuaries. We were polite and didn’t heckle him. And he was a hack before that, the media just provided this story that he wasn’t a political hack because the state had one senator from the Democratic Party and one from the former Republican (now fascist) Party.
I’m against term limits, per se. I’ve lived in Virginia for 18 years, and counting. I like the fact that Abigail Spanberger will serve a single term of six years, and cannot run for reelection. In this case, the founder who wrote the constitution for the commonwealth of Virginia got it right the first time, concerning terms for its executive branch.
On the other hand, some sort of check on power-grabbing should be legislated into our constitutions at the state and federal levels.
How about this idea: senate terms are for 6 years. What if we the people continue to vote on candidates for senate every six years, but incumbents are prevented from running for reelection every consecutive term, since they enjoy a great advantage in being reelected.
How about this idea: Maybe senators should be eligible to run for a second term, but not eligible to run for a third term of the same office (like our president).
After sitting out (as in off the ballot) for one or two terms, they would be able to run again for that same office. We need a way to level the playing field, and hold incumbents accountable at the ballot box.
until the money going in is reformed as well as making lobbyists illegal, term limits will mean nothing. Read David Pepper's book Laboratories of Autocracy
Hi Barry. Excellent analysis on a physiology of a failing State. Grassley, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell et al., have demonstrated their persistently pushing ciphered agenda as shown with their voting records. They have weakened and worn holes in federal affirmative action- by restricting race conscious hiring (1995); praised the SCOTUS for striking down voting rights (Shelby County v. Holder, 2013), and voted against the job discrimination act based on gender (Employment Non-Discrimination Act, 1996). Grassley refused to hold any Judiciary Committee hearings for Garland (2016) and later admitted as such in 2025. Meanwhile, Coney Barrett was confirmed eight days before the 2020 election.
Grassley is what he has become, and it didn't happen yesterday! Talking about it isn't going to change the "Senile" first senator and chairman of the Judiciary Committees mind, assuming he really has one that doesn't belong to someone else. Even in the days of the "500 dollar hammer" it was largely smoke and mirrors. When you try and cost out everything in building an aircraft right down to the last rivet there are hidden costs that are neccessary that get missed and to get them covered at the last minute you end up with a very expensive hammer, seat or something else that will sound rediculous, just to get everything covered that goes into the manufacture. The cost of change orders is a good example, a part that worked before suddenly is unexceptable and a replacement part that costs more didn't make it into the cost "estimate" iniitially, and gets tacked on somewhere rather than locating it in the millions of items to its exact spot. The real question, at this stage of the game: how can we rid ourselves of "Chuckles" in a timely fashion? This appears not a part of the discussion! Waiting for him to keel over from natural causes looks to be the only way! Term limits never get touched! It may be the only way to end the established control the wealthy have to insure the "People" never can control the out comes they need, like Medicare for all, keeping Social Security alive and well, increasing the minimum wage etc. which make possible all the tax cuts and welfare for the rich, while bankrupting the system they want to control for their benefit alone.
Thank you for this. I have written the Senator about much of this several times. He does respond to some it saying "I have provided oversight to POTUS of both parties." Which is true, but his oversight is far more active when a democrat is in office. I have written him with this very concern of how his time in office will be remembered and the look is not good, especially with the confirmation of the most corrupt cabinet members in our history. His defense of Emil Bove vote is disgraceful and I have told him so as he ignored all the actual evidence provided as he deemed it "unfounded". His true self is showing "bigly" during this second trump term.
Senator Chuck Grassley is also being ill-served by today’s Republican political culture and by parts of the Senate staffing system. Many congressional staffers come directly from campaigns and partisan messaging operations — Democrats do this too, of course. But before the Trump-era escalation of polarization, intimidation, and loyalty politics, Grassley’s Iowa and DC staffs were respected, responsive, and genuinely workable across party lines. The institutional culture has changed..
There is a qualification difference is the republican and democrat staffs, republicans load up on communication staffers, while democrats are heavy on policy staffers.
Thank you. I speak from older experience, not within the past 10 years. I had some lasting acquaintances. Now, I could be cynical and say why do you need policy staffers, if you take your orders from one person. Of course, I could be critical of Dem staffers who would not know how to communicate themselves out of a paper bag.
Pretty much true. However, the emphasis on communication staffers is why people like Pence, Hawley, Nunn and others manage to keep the voters in the dark as they stress the on the surface positives while ignoring the long range problems that are created like in the OBBBA - no tax on tips - Ha! - so tax on social security - ha!. They boast about deregulation while never being questioned about the effects. Democrats keep missing the target when they fail to communicate these issues.
I have read that R's message more on emotions/feelings, in contrast to D's messaging with nuance. Regardless, D's have failed for 10 years. I live in once purple, now red Iowa; campaign messaging this summer and fall should attack lots of media attention. I hope D's pay attention to why right wing media resonate.
Grassley should have lost last time, but the campaign message was weak. Not hard core enough. Dems have to stop going high all the time when there is so much fertile stuff to use provided by the repubs.
Much of my criticism, as seen in my Substack writings over the past 2 years, has been critical of both the party and advocacy groups. For the particular Senate campaign, we ran a person who could have been an excellent Senator, but was not a good campaigner. I am unsure about the quality of political advice he was given.
Grassley has honed the art of double speak. He is all in on the seashell by the seashore prosecution which is purely an SNL skit and abuse of the legal process. I think the House of Representatives finally acted on the Farm Bill as it can be a campaign bullet point that is showy with limited substance.
I agree, and in fact wrote recently, that I thought the House action on the Farm Bill was purely performative - so Republican farm state candidates don’t get beat up this Fall for continued failure to pass it.
I think it is very unlikely that the Senate will act on it before the election. Which is more bad news for farmers. If anything good was going to happen, they’d get it done before the election.
It’s all show, in my view.
Identifying the crucial farm issues cogently. Grassley’s fellow Iowans need to read your insightful article. Grassley’s chief asset is his drawl, nicely nasal, thunderous to some degree, and slow, both in enunciation and thought. My husband left Sioux City for Chicago, then New York, and had some terrified memories of bullying farm-bred kids. Grassley reminded him of their attitudes.
Farmers used to be the backbone of our country. Iowa has the highest rate of cancer in the Country thanks to people like Grassely. Wake up Iowa, God helps those who help themselves. Get rid of this BOZO in Congress and the BOZO in the White House!
There's little upside in shouting myself hoarse denouncing Charles Grassley anymore. I can at least take a little pride in saying that I have been able to vote against him
eight times. As for the now 40 year old & shabby bowling trophy he flaunts to cosplay as a fearless pillar of fiscal rectitude, I suspect those $500 hammers & toilet seats he built his stature on denouncing are now billing out at $5,000 each today. Or even better, "name your price," because it's free-range smash & grab time for MAGA predators & looters now pillaging government at every level. And Grassley just chews his cud, placid as a Hindu cow in fogbound indifference.
I am old enough to remember how the entire Federal budget was about $250 billion back when I was a high school debate team kid in 1972. Now the Trump plunder squad brazenly demands 1.5 TRILLION for the maliciously rechristened "Dept of War" all by itself AND unsurprisingly the feeble and poisonously vain Grassley, now politically impregnable and beyond any consequences basks in the rewards from a life of servility to evil, all ratified by the crosseyed imbecility of Iowa voters.
I bitterly remember Grassley leading the Judiciary Republican attack on Anita Hill and confirmation of the odious Clarence Thomas. Thomas, who has hurled dung at Americans every day since then, while pocketing every bribe shoveled his way with contemptuous indifference or any pretense of shame.
Grassley has skated by for decades, and who's gonna stop him from running again if he chooses to? Apparently not Iowa voters. I ask again, what's the upside of this here "Constitutional" system of government when it's hijacked by yapping jackals like Charles Grassley? How much allegiance should I owe to a system that rewards MAGA and openly depraved criminal syndicates like the Republican party?
At least Senator-for-life Grassley has ascended to the Strom Thurmond throne for putrid decreptitude and infinite vanity. Somehow I don't believe these are the qualities of public service we ought to enshrine & subordinate ourselves to.
Thank you. For the past 16 months, through phone calls, post cards and office visits, have been asking for a RedLine on this administration. Nope. Only MAGA Speak!
Same and I have a pile of responses to back up his sell out.
There is another ancient Republican who destroyed his legacy by licking Trump's boots: Rudy Giuliani. I see Grassley as Giuliani in overalls.
He’s been a partisan hack for a long time. He came to Aegon in Cedar Rapids to try to sell Bush’s “mandate” to privatize Social Security to a room full of actuaries. We were polite and didn’t heckle him. And he was a hack before that, the media just provided this story that he wasn’t a political hack because the state had one senator from the Democratic Party and one from the former Republican (now fascist) Party.
I’m against term limits, per se. I’ve lived in Virginia for 18 years, and counting. I like the fact that Abigail Spanberger will serve a single term of six years, and cannot run for reelection. In this case, the founder who wrote the constitution for the commonwealth of Virginia got it right the first time, concerning terms for its executive branch.
On the other hand, some sort of check on power-grabbing should be legislated into our constitutions at the state and federal levels.
How about this idea: senate terms are for 6 years. What if we the people continue to vote on candidates for senate every six years, but incumbents are prevented from running for reelection every consecutive term, since they enjoy a great advantage in being reelected.
How about this idea: Maybe senators should be eligible to run for a second term, but not eligible to run for a third term of the same office (like our president).
After sitting out (as in off the ballot) for one or two terms, they would be able to run again for that same office. We need a way to level the playing field, and hold incumbents accountable at the ballot box.
until the money going in is reformed as well as making lobbyists illegal, term limits will mean nothing. Read David Pepper's book Laboratories of Autocracy
Chuck Grassley-the paragon of the cowardly republican whose only goal is to stay in office, democracy be damned
Hi Barry. Excellent analysis on a physiology of a failing State. Grassley, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell et al., have demonstrated their persistently pushing ciphered agenda as shown with their voting records. They have weakened and worn holes in federal affirmative action- by restricting race conscious hiring (1995); praised the SCOTUS for striking down voting rights (Shelby County v. Holder, 2013), and voted against the job discrimination act based on gender (Employment Non-Discrimination Act, 1996). Grassley refused to hold any Judiciary Committee hearings for Garland (2016) and later admitted as such in 2025. Meanwhile, Coney Barrett was confirmed eight days before the 2020 election.
Grassley is what he has become, and it didn't happen yesterday! Talking about it isn't going to change the "Senile" first senator and chairman of the Judiciary Committees mind, assuming he really has one that doesn't belong to someone else. Even in the days of the "500 dollar hammer" it was largely smoke and mirrors. When you try and cost out everything in building an aircraft right down to the last rivet there are hidden costs that are neccessary that get missed and to get them covered at the last minute you end up with a very expensive hammer, seat or something else that will sound rediculous, just to get everything covered that goes into the manufacture. The cost of change orders is a good example, a part that worked before suddenly is unexceptable and a replacement part that costs more didn't make it into the cost "estimate" iniitially, and gets tacked on somewhere rather than locating it in the millions of items to its exact spot. The real question, at this stage of the game: how can we rid ourselves of "Chuckles" in a timely fashion? This appears not a part of the discussion! Waiting for him to keel over from natural causes looks to be the only way! Term limits never get touched! It may be the only way to end the established control the wealthy have to insure the "People" never can control the out comes they need, like Medicare for all, keeping Social Security alive and well, increasing the minimum wage etc. which make possible all the tax cuts and welfare for the rich, while bankrupting the system they want to control for their benefit alone.
Grassley has become the Dairy Queen ice cream eating personality and nothing more.
Look up « fucking moron » in any dictionary and you’ll find Chuck.
Thank you for this. I have written the Senator about much of this several times. He does respond to some it saying "I have provided oversight to POTUS of both parties." Which is true, but his oversight is far more active when a democrat is in office. I have written him with this very concern of how his time in office will be remembered and the look is not good, especially with the confirmation of the most corrupt cabinet members in our history. His defense of Emil Bove vote is disgraceful and I have told him so as he ignored all the actual evidence provided as he deemed it "unfounded". His true self is showing "bigly" during this second trump term.
Harkin’s leadership made Grassley act more accountably when the two were in office.
Amen especially at his advanced age of being supposedly able to Not give damn about ruining a career
Senator Chuck Grassley is also being ill-served by today’s Republican political culture and by parts of the Senate staffing system. Many congressional staffers come directly from campaigns and partisan messaging operations — Democrats do this too, of course. But before the Trump-era escalation of polarization, intimidation, and loyalty politics, Grassley’s Iowa and DC staffs were respected, responsive, and genuinely workable across party lines. The institutional culture has changed..
There is a qualification difference is the republican and democrat staffs, republicans load up on communication staffers, while democrats are heavy on policy staffers.
Thank you. I speak from older experience, not within the past 10 years. I had some lasting acquaintances. Now, I could be cynical and say why do you need policy staffers, if you take your orders from one person. Of course, I could be critical of Dem staffers who would not know how to communicate themselves out of a paper bag.
Pretty much true. However, the emphasis on communication staffers is why people like Pence, Hawley, Nunn and others manage to keep the voters in the dark as they stress the on the surface positives while ignoring the long range problems that are created like in the OBBBA - no tax on tips - Ha! - so tax on social security - ha!. They boast about deregulation while never being questioned about the effects. Democrats keep missing the target when they fail to communicate these issues.
I have read that R's message more on emotions/feelings, in contrast to D's messaging with nuance. Regardless, D's have failed for 10 years. I live in once purple, now red Iowa; campaign messaging this summer and fall should attack lots of media attention. I hope D's pay attention to why right wing media resonate.
Grassley should have lost last time, but the campaign message was weak. Not hard core enough. Dems have to stop going high all the time when there is so much fertile stuff to use provided by the repubs.
Much of my criticism, as seen in my Substack writings over the past 2 years, has been critical of both the party and advocacy groups. For the particular Senate campaign, we ran a person who could have been an excellent Senator, but was not a good campaigner. I am unsure about the quality of political advice he was given.