Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Chuck Grassley has a case of the fleas from sleeping with dogs. nnThe senior Republican senator from Iowa intimated at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting July 30 that President Trump had hurt his feelings.
The night before, Trump attacked Grassley for not moving his judicial appointments along fast enough. Trump was upset that Grassley would not dispatch so-called “blue-slips,” a tradition that allows a senator to scotch a US attorney or federal district court nominee.
“Last night, I was surprised to see President Trump on Truth Social go after me and Senate Republicans over what we call the ‘blue slip,’” Grassley said. “I was offended by what the President said, and I’m disappointed that it would result in personal insult.”
Trump called the practice a “scam.” He was angry because New Jersey’s two Democratic senators scuttled the nomination of Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, to be that state’s top federal prosecutor.
Trump reposted on Truth Social jabs at Grassley’s age (91) and tenure in office.
Amid the swirl Grassley shoved through the appointment of Emil Bove as an appellate judge. Democrats walked out of the Judiciary Committee process, as Bove reportedly had urged the Trump Administration to ignore court orders over deportations.
Grassley found out that his loyalty to the tyrant is worthless. That will not prevent him from standing aside generally as Trump deconstructs liberty.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, stuck up for Grassley and this particular tradition, for the time being. Republicans will appreciate the blue slips should they lose control of the upper chamber.
What should they expect? They have done Trump’s bidding every step of the way, and when they get trampled their tears could cry me a river.
Grassley and Trump deserve each other.
Grassley the self-righteous and Trump the self-loathing. Yin and Yang.
What a way to trail into the twilight of what could have been a creditable career, to be an errand boy for a felon who kicks manure in your face. It’s a vision of Hell, to be permanently chained to the blathering beast.
Trump claimed that he got Grassley elected! That deserves an exclamation point because it is the ultimate humiliation for a man who held elected office since 1959.
Grassley puts up with it because beneath the sweater vest beats a heart that lusts for power. He wielded it to block President Obama from appointing a Supreme Court justice — again, doing the lifting for someone else, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, while soiling his own integrity.
Before that, Grassley sputtered about “death panels” in the Affordable Care Act as he cowered before Tea Party complainers in Pocahontas, Iowa. He was afraid more than anything about losing his grip on power. He would say or do whatever it takes, anytime. He threw in with the biggest fleecer ever to ride down the golden escalator.
Trump suggested that people are laughing at Grassley. Democrats, even. It has to be tough on the poor clodhopper. So tough that he had to take his gripe public. Grassley could flee to the farm to escape the abuse, but he comes back for more. He sweeps up ahead of Bove. Grassley will do his duty by whacking away at the elderly and disabled through Medicaid reductions and cuts to food assistance. He has been around so long that you don’t even notice. He keeps on. Grassley likes wielding that gavel.
It means taking heaps of abuse from a man who was found by a jury to have committed sexual assault, and who was convicted by a jury on 34 felony counts in association with him cavorting with Stormy Daniels.
Go ahead. Be offended. Take umbrage at the insult. Nurse your ego. Let the boys pat you on the back in the cloakroom. Ignore dark prisons without due process for immigrants in El Salvador or Sudan. Never mind losing renewable energy tax credits you authored. Stamp out the National Institutes of Health. Trump may be an ogre but you have to play along.
Suck it up, buttercup, you made your bed with the Big Dogs.
Art Cullen is publisher and editor of The Storm Lake Times Pilot in northwest Iowa (stormlake.com). He won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2017 and is author of the book “Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from America’s Heartland.” Email times@stormlake.com.
