IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Matt Stoller found this shameful tidbit in the Congressional Record
from last Friday. The speaker is Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who is
mad that some senators want to find budget cuts to offset disaster aid
for Iowa: "So I don't want anybody telling me that we have to offset a
disaster relief package for the Midwest where people are hurting, when
we didn't do it for New Orleans. Why the double standard? Is it
because people aren't on rooftops complaining for helicopters to
rescue them, and you see it on television too much? We aren't doing
that in Iowa. We are trying to help ourselves in Iowa. We have a
can-do attitude. It doesn't show up on television like it did in New
Orleans for 2 months." Open Left commenter SpitBall raises an
excellent point--a better question is "why federal aid to the flood
victims in Iowa should require a budgetary offset, when the invasion
[and] occupation of Iraq does not."

Labels: Charles_Grassley

Go ahead. Insert your Viagra/Cialis joke here. Does size matter? I
mean, when it comes to crowds. Barack Obama drew about 7,500 last
night in downtown Des Moines for his first post-caucus visit. John
McCain's return run brought in about 250. By my math, that means Obama
brought 30 times as many peeps. What does it mean? Obama's people say
it proves Obama has all the mojo. Senator Chuck Grassley, on behalf of
McCain, told us polls matter more than rally size (I'll be curious
what he says about polls later on in the campaign).

Labels: Barack_Obama, Charles_Grassley

"I'm too old to be vice president," Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley told
Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill. Grassley is 74; Republican
presidential candidate John McCain is 71. "But I am young enough to be
reelected to the Senate," said Grassley, hinting at a run for a sixth
Senate term in 2010. The Hill asked all 97 senators who aren't running
for president for their thoughts on the vice presidency and published
the verbatim responses. Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin demurred on the vice
presidency himself, saying his choice is Daily Show host John Stewart.
Other responses from senators Iowans may know well...

Labels: Charles_Grassley, Tom_Harkin

It was only last fall that Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on
the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, took an unpopular party stance
against Pres. George W. Bush's domestic health care policy. Grassley
took some hits on the Hill as a result of his stand, but one Iowa
group wants him to know they appreciate his effort. Iowa for Health
Care met Grassley during a stop in Linn County on Tuesday to thank him
for his "leadership on positive health care reform" and to ask him to
continue to fight for the issue. Grassley not only voted in 2007 to
expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover
nearly 4 million more uninsured children throughout the nation -- a
figure that included thousands in Iowa -- but took a notably activist
stance, circumventing House Republican leadership, to recruit
rank-and-file Republicans to rally against the wishes of the White
House.

Labels: Charles_Grassley, health_care

Senator Charles Grassley thinks Iowa has enough gambling. He made it clear he wasn't talking as a U.S. Senator when he gave his opinion this afternoon. He only was talking, he says, as a private citizen. He said he is not "an advocate of taking money out of one pocket and putting it in another". He believes Iowa has enough gambling, so he's not hoping the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission decides to grant more licenses in the state. (He did say his grandson, Pat, who is a state legislator, may have more influence on this topic than he would). Grassley also said he's fine with his party's nominee for Prez, Senator John McCain. Grassley said this year was the first time since 1980 (he thought it was 1980, he said) that he didn't endorse a candidate during the nominating process.

Labels: Charles_Grassley, John_McCain

By Chuck Grassley, U.S. Senator... On a crisp winter night in early January, Iowans once again successfully kicked off another presidential nominating contest. In 1,781 precincts across the state, a record number of caucus-goers underscored how seriously Iowans uphold their civic duty and passion for electoral politics. In the first open race for the White House since 2000, the contenders who campaigned for months and months in the Hawkeye state readily discovered what I've long known about the Iowa electorate. Iowans attend town hall meetings, they show up with tough questions and have high expectations to get answers.

Labels: Charles_Grassley

A battle over the President's policy view of using tax deductions to
afford private health coverage rather than helping uninsured kids to
Medicare coverage may lead to a desertion by Iowa's Chuck Grassley.
The Washington Post reports that our most senior Senator accused
President Bush yesterday of holding up a bipartisan three months,
along with campaign advertisements accusing Republicans of abandoning
children. That way, pressure would mount either on Bush to sign the
bill or on House Republicans to override the veto... Asked if Bush was
holding the children's health bill hostage, Grassley said, "Yes."

Labels: Charles_Grassley, health_care

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