IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Even if Democrats manage to pass health reform legislation, if it
contains an individual mandate it could prove unconstitutional, U.S.
Sen. Chuck Grassley said Thursday. During an interview with KAYL radio
in Storm Lake and the Marshalltown Times Republican, Grassley said
that even though he's never studied law and is not a constitutional
expert, he still believes mandating insurance coverage could be a
violation of the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. "[The 10th
Amendment] says something like anything that's not specifically
delegated to the federal government is reserved to the states and the
people thereof -- all those rights and powers," Grassley said, later
adding: "So states, if they want to mandate you buy something, they
can do it. But that doesn't give the federal government the right to
do it."

Labels: Charles Grassley, health_care

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is complaining the Obama administration may
be breaking the law with a web site that has a button asking visitors
to "state your support" for passing heath insurance reform this year.
The button leads to a form letter expressing support for a series of
reform principles and lets them leave their names and contact
information. Grassley sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius, saying, "the use of the official HHS.gov Web site for
activities that seem to be nothing more than government propaganda
raises many serious questions," according to a story posted last night
on Roll Call's web site. An HHS spokesman, Nick Papas responed:
"Healthreform.gov is a valuable resource for the American people and
we look forward to discussing this resource with the Senator," Roll
Call says.

Labels: Charles Grassley

The WaPo's Chris Cillizza lists the winners and losers from
yesterday's health care vote and among the losers: "Chuck Grassley:
Grassley... took himself out of the negotiations on the bill early on
-- effectively ceding any ability to influence the legislation.
Grassley's pull-out allowed Democrats to paint him as a rank partisan,
a portrayal that won't help him as he runs for reelection next fall."
Attn: Christie Vilsack? (That bandwagon is rolling again...)
Meanwhile, up in Cedar Rapids, the date is set for Nov. 24 and the
candidates are emerging for House District 33: "Norm Sterzenbach, Sr.,
a military veteran who has been a steady presence in county politics
for years and currently serves as the county Democrats' second vice
chairman, is expected to make a bid for the seat." ... No GOP names
yet. With Terry Branstad about set to jump in and knock everyone but
Vander Plaats and Rants out of the governor's race, what legislative
district does Christian Fong live in? Update: I'm told he's in Renee
Schulte's turf.

Labels: Charles Grassley, health_care

Jon Stewart had a go at Senator Chuck Grassley on Tuesday's edition of
The Daily Show. The "debt and deficit dragon" segment is worth
watching if you missed it. I can't embed the video here, but you can
watch it at TheDailyShow.com or at Radio Iowa. While I enjoy laughing
at Grassley as much as the next person, Paul Blumenthal's reporting on
Grassley for the Sunlight Foundation blog this week is more important
than mocking Grassley's bizarre visual aids and mixed metaphors.
During the second quarter of 2009 alone, Grassley "pulled in $165,100
from health and insurance PACs." Blumenthal posts the details here. It
appears that a large chunk of that money came from two fundraisers
that interest groups opposing health care reform held for Grassley in
late June.

Labels: Charles Grassley

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley's been in the news a lot lately because of
his role in the health care talks. But he's also drawing some
attention for his vote against the nomination of Appeals Court Judge
Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was Grassley's first
vote against a Supreme Court nominee in his 29 years in the Senate.
He's said that he wasn't convinced Sotomayor wouldn't let her personal
beliefs affect the outcome of cases. The Wall Street Journal's
coverage this week quoted him extensively. And here's a piece from CBS
News legal analyst Andrew Cohen expressing shock at Grassley's vote.

Labels: Charles Grassley

Senator Chuck Grassley's office announced today that he will vote
against confirming Judge Sonia Sotomayor as an associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court. ... The gist is, he acknowledges Sotomayor's
"credentials on paper" but has unanswered questions about her judicial
philosophy. He doesn't trust her to apply the law without regard for
her "personal biases and prejudices." He also disliked "her lack of
clear and direct answers to simple questions regarding the
Constitution" during her confirmation hearings. For the last 20 years,
Supreme Court nominees have tried to avoid answering specific
questions about issues that are likely to come before the court.

Labels: Charles Grassley

In talking on the phone with Iowa State University professor and WOI
Radio "Dr. Politics" host Steffen Schmidt I couldn't see if he was
maintaining a straight face when he put forward this idea: U.S. Sen.
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, as a presidential candidate. Schmidt, who
has been in Ames for four decades as a political science professor,
assured me he was serious, that his face was in fact straight, that he
was basing his comments on conversations with people inside the
Republican Party. "It's not a throwaway, B.S., or a joke or anything,"
Schmidt said. The GOP, Schmidt said, is in need of an "adult" who can
speak for the party without embarrassing it -- as former potential
presidential candidates Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and U.S.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., have done in recent weeks.

Labels: Charles Grassley

The Senate Judiciary Committee began Judge Sonia Sotomayor's
confirmation hearings today, and Radio Iowa has Senator Chuck
Grassley's opening statement. He gave quite the lecture about
"judicial restraint" as opposed to "President Obama's 'empathy'
standard." ... Notice how Grassley quotes from Judge Sotomayor's
speeches rather than from the more than 3,000 rulings she has written
or joined. That's typical of Sotomayor's critics. They refuse to
acknowledge, for example, that in nearly 100 race-related cases she
has not shown unusual sympathy for litigants claiming discrimination.
I don't remember Grassley raising similar concern about Justice Sam
Alito's empathy, even though Alito acknowledged during his
confirmation hearings that he thinks about his own family's
experiences when considering immigration or discrimination cases.

Labels: Charles Grassley

Bob Krause, who is running for U.S. Senate next year against five-term
incumbent Chuck Grassley, was in the news last week with some sensible
comments about health care reform. He encouraged Grassley to demand
higher reimbursement rates for Iowa health care providers in exchange
for dropping his opposition to a public option in the Senate bill ...
Krause is obviously right on both counts, but don't expect Grassley to
listen. He is the leading Republican voice against the public option
and has an ally in Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a
Democrat whose health care reform plan may be worse than the insurance
industry's. Iowa Democrats have given Grassley a pass for too many
years. I appreciate Krause's commitment to running a real race against
him.

Labels: Charles Grassley

My first bet on the Sotomayor nomination was, she gets confirmed
80-20. Now that I think it through, I'm guessing more like 70-30. I
looked at the Senate roster and I just can't think of 20 Republicans
who'll vote for her. Traditionally, the President got the man (always
a man) he wanted for the Supreme Court. There were exceptions, to be
sure, like the Fortas-Haynsworth-Carswell trifecta of failure in 1968
and 1969. But it wasn't until Bork and Thomas that the modern high
stakes circus atmosphere of confirmations became more or less
permanent. The Dems will be unanimous, including the occasionally
unreliables (Ben Nelson). ... Sotomayor can cross anyone off the list
who either has national ambitions (DeMint, Ensign, Thune) or is
worried about a primary back home (Vitter, Murkowski, Bob Bennett of
Utah, maybe even McCain?). Grassley was a no vote in Sotomayor in 1998
and my guess is he's more worried about tending to his base than he is
about the general election.

Labels: Charles Grassley

Survey USA recently released new polling numbers for Iowa, and it
wasn't good news for Governor Chet Culver. Senator Chuck Grassley's
approval was at a multi-year low in the same poll. ... SUSA found
Culver's approval rating at 42 percent, with 50 disapproving. In
February and March, SUSA found that 46 percent of Iowans approved of
Culver's performance as governor. If you look at the graph of SUSA's
numbers for Culver since he took office, you'll see that 42 percent is
the lowest approval number SUSA has ever recorded for him. For most of
his tenure, his approval has been in the 50s. He dipped into "net
negative territory" (with disapproval exceeding approval) from
February through April 2008, then bounced back above 50 percent for
the rest of last year.

Labels: Charles Grassley, Chet_Culver, polling

CQ writes: "Charles E. Grassley is thinking about passing up the top
spot on a committee he really likes in order to help colleague Arlen
Specter." ... Of course, they both have to get re-elected before they
play musical chairs. Specter needs all the help he can get, pinned
between a primary challenge from the right and outrage from his
sometime allies in labor after he flip-flopped on card check. On the
other hand, I'd rather have Specter as the top Republican on Judiciary
when a Supreme Court nomination rolls around than non-lawyer Grassley.

Labels: Charles Grassley

I'm in the the midst of interviewing the six Siouxland persons who
will be going to the Sept. 1-4 Republican Party national convention
as voting delegates. In addition to asking about the excitement level
on participating in the biggest national political stage, I'm also
querying them on the Republican they'd like to see John McCain pick as
a running mate. So far the vice presidential list includes Mike
Huckabee, John Thune and Charles Grassley. The list being debated
nationally has the likes of Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney and Tom Ridge. I
first pitched the veep preference question to Dan Lederman of Dakota
Dunes, S.D., who quickly answered with Thune, the senator representing
South Dakota. Sitting next to Lederman, delegate Bob Vander Plaats
then immediately also used a home state name, Grassley, before saying
he could definitely support Thune on the ticket.

Labels: Bob Vander Plaats, Charles Grassley, John_McCain

As noted last week, I have a friend in DC who ran in the Capital
Challenge and saw Senator Charles Grassley cross the finish line.
Yesterday, at the conclusion of Grassley's weekly conference call with
Iowa radio reporters, I asked him about the race and Grassley
expressed some discomfort with not improving his time. "You know,
after nine years of doing (that race) I should do better than the
first year and I'm not doing better because my first year was 27
minutes (and) 20 seconds," Grassley said, "and now this one was 29
minutes and 29 seconds." Grassley ran the three-mile course this year
with a faster time than in 2007. "By about half a minute, so I'm not
as bad as I was last year," Grassley said.

Labels: Charles Grassley

In today's Des Moines Register, there's a story about how Iowa's
Republican senator, Chuck Grassley, chided higher education
institutions into using more of their endowment funds to pay for
tuition for struggling students. It seems that they were listening, as
Yale has agreed to help "struggling" families making "as little" as
$180,000 per year. Excuse me, but since when are families making
$180,000 dollars per year "struggling?" And, if a family can't afford
to send their student to Yale, there are a lot of other fine
institutions that charge quite a bit less. The real crisis in
education in this country is the lack of federally backed student
loans for every student.

Labels: Charles Grassley, education

With word this morning that embattled (no other adjective fits better)
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, the reaction from
tri-state legislators is trickling in. The latest was the most concise
- Nebraska 1st District Congressman Jeff Fortenberry says, "I think
it's the right decision. (Gonzales') ability to govern has been
significantly diminished." So with Republican Fortenberry saying that,
it's not a case of all Republicans backing the Bush administration's
guy, there has been considerable erosion of support for Gonzales.
Another Republican, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, said the
Democrats claimed a scalp after criticism of Gonzales, but Grassley
contended the attorney general had a good record in protecting
children by aggressively pursuing child predators. But Grassley
conceded, "Obviously, the last couple of years have been very tough
for him."

Labels: Charles Grassley

Way back before Tom Harkin was elected to the Senate, Iowa had two Republican senators: Roger Jepsen and Chuck Grassley. We used to call them "Tweedle Dumb" and "Tweedle Dumber." For those of you too young to remember, Tweedle Dumb lost to Harkin despite the massive Reagan landslide of 1984. His campaign faltered when it became public knowledge that he had frequented "massage parlors." Why did it become public knowledge? Because Tweedle Dumb used his personal credit card to pay for the massage parlor services. But I digress. It's easy to forget Chuck Grassley was ever known as Tweedle Dumber, but I remembered when I saw this piece in the Des Moines Register: Grassley: Ethanol plants should use coal. Responding to worries that the ethanol boom will drive up the price of natural gas used to power the ethanol plants, Grassley had a brilliant idea.

Labels: Charles Grassley

There is a lot of intrigue and there are a lot of details surround the dismissal of eight US Attorneys by the Justice Department and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. And it seems like there is a lot of detail missing as well, which is what led to the DOJ releasing thousands of pages of documents and emails — and also led to House and Senate Committees to issue subpoenas to White House staff about the decision to fire the attorneys. On the Senate Judiciary Committee, only one Republican Senator voted in favor of issuing the subpoenas: Iowa's own Chuck Grassley. ... Whatever differences I have with Sen. Grassley (and there are many), I do sincerely thank him for his responsible vote in this endeavor.

Labels: Charles Grassley

Some anti-war protesters do not know trespass is a crime. Unlike the days of Jim Crow, trespass is neither required nor an essential part of speaking out against bad policies. The people who were arrested in Grassley's office and the Cedar Rapids Federal Courthouse got what they deserved. They were not arrested for "speaking truth to power," or any other mythological reason. They were arrested for the incredibly common and mundane crime of trespass. ... Today's criminals were arrested for disobeying sensible laws that were unrelated to the policies they protested. That is why they are common criminals whereas the brave black men and women who were arrested in their protests were heroes.

Labels: Charles Grassley, Iraq

... The success of protest depends on how you define the target. If the goal is publicity and attention to Grassley's pro-war policies, they were a success. Front pages, and here I am writing about it. But if the idea was to actually persuade Grassley, then it was a waste of time. Attempts to persuade seated politicians only work on small to medium size issues. On the hot buttons issues, on questions of basic philosophy, politicians are either firm or, if not, they are hurt more by the obvious pandering (see The Entire Career of Mitt Romney for details). ... The only way to deal with politicians who can't be persuaded is to work around them, persuade the larger public, and defeat them. That's why I've chosen to focus my activism on electoral politics.

Labels: Charles Grassley, Iraq

I guess there are some rumors that Harkin might not be running for re-election in 2008. Vilsack's departure from the Presidential race today would put him in prime position to run for Senate. ... I would much rather have Tom Vilsack as a Senator than as President. I would much rather have Tom Harkin as my Senator than Tom Vilsack though. If Harkin does retire, Vilsack would be hard to beat and it is important Democrats keep the seat. If Harkin does run, Grassley is up for re-eclection in 2010. I have heard rumors that Grassley might not run again. If Vilsack ran, Democrats would have a great chance at holding both Iowa Senate seats.

Labels: Charles Grassley, Tom_Harkin, Tom_Vilsack