Chuck, is everything okay?

Senator, whether it’s explaining away Alito’s ethical missteps (the gist—senators lie so why expect federal judges to keep their word?), or championing Bush’s DOA social security reforms, or trying to make Swiss cheese out of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, you’ve been playing rubberstamp republican for quite some time.

That’s why your “rare slap” at the Bush administration—calling for drug czar John Walters to be fired for a failure to act “fast enough to combat the rising use of methamphetamine”—comes to us as such a shock. A public disagreement with the Bush administration? Senator, is there something wrong?

Hopefully this isn’t the start of an independent streak; Iowans can’t have the Grassley we’ve come to know and love go and change on us. Senator, need we remind of your roots?

As a former assembly line worker, you know what it means to be a hard working blue-collar American. That’s why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gives you a 100% pro-business rating, while the AFL-CIO gives you a 0% rating on your support for unions.

With five children and PhD work, you know the importance of education. That’s why you voted against moving $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education.

As a proud man of faith, you know that attempts to reduce teen pregnancy through education and contraceptives should be stopped at all costs. That’s just part of why NARAL gives a 0% rating to your support for reproductive rights.

Chuck, you have been serving Iowans for almost fifty years, don’t let us down now.

Next time you feel like breaking with the Bush administration, make sure it’s about corn syrup. We like that.

-Your loving state, Iowa.

2 comments April 27th, 2006