At 4:00 AM this morning Senator Grassley tweeted his announcement prior to beginning his morning jog. There was some speculation about whether he would run and this conservative held the opinion that the timing was best for the country’s senior senator to retire. Iowa is in good shape politically to replace him with a younger conservative if they are of a MAGA orientation and then to see that person be reelected.
I welcome a primary that recognizes Grassley’s past contributions to sustaining key elements of conservatism, yeoman work, but no Republican competitor should shrink from a call to the future critiquing Grassley’s performance of late. Grassley has validated the legitimacy of the Biden atrocity without a serious fight, expressed calumnies about events of January 6th, and seriously hazarded the country against the better judgement and foresight of the great majority of his own Republican caucus by essentially advancing a Marxist agenda wrapped up in an infrastructure bill (bad in its own right) setting the stage for a reconciliation bill that puts the country at the mercy of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema unnecessarily risking the Republic.
Grassley did this in the name of the entry sign to the swamp -“regular order” – as if the denizens in charge abided by it when it did not suit them or as if whatever chess game he thinks he is playing actually has any rules the other side will not circumvent in a heartbeat. Ironically Chuck did these things, swamp things, beltway things, weak things ultimately hazarding even his own “bring home the bacon” agenda of ethanol and wind, that is if he has any appreciation of the implications of what he has voted to advance.
A lot is at stake Chuck and you are not all that necessary.
At 88 years old now I do not know what the actuaries say about his completing another six-year term without debillitating major illness or something more permanent. That said, Chuck Grassley is no doubt one of the most likely late octogenarians to do so intact. He remains bright and vigorous, far more than Biden ten years his junior. I will support the Republican victor in a primary because the stakes are that high but I think the future calls for a solid conservative alternative to emerge from the primary as they can beat anyone the Democrats have.
R Mall
