Now this is something I didn’t think I would see. Chuck Grassley has been in the Senate since I was five years old. He’s 91 and Eisenhower was president when he was first elected in 1958. If Grassley was a different person and a far better statesman than he is, he could write some incredibly insightful memoir on what it is to start with with Eisenhower and end (most likely) under Trump. That is some journey. It is a journey Grassley has taken but what he may or may not have gleaned from it, is something else altogether. As you watch this video of Grassley’s townhall it seems that he hasn’t learned much of anything lo these six and a half decades other than to pivot and deflect on questions. That seems to be his chief survival skill.
That was pretty brutal for anybody but for a guy who is an Iowa institution like Grassley, it’s a real wake up call. Grassley would do well to heed it and so would every other elected Republican. The pattern in these townhalls is unmistakeable. People are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.
That’s Iowa’s senior senator. Then there’s its junior senator, Joni Ernst, remember her? The one who was going to vote against Pete Hegseth?
Joni Ernst is as corrupt as it gets. There is no gentle way to say this, but banging at least two lobbyists — the chief lobbyist of the Air Force and the chief lobbyist of the US Navy — is beyond reproach. Both the general and the admiral were demoted and disciplined. Here is a taste of the story, according to ProPublica:
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said of the relationships with officials advocating before Ernst’s committee: “It kind of takes your breath away.”
The relationships, Canter said, make Ernst vulnerable to being extorted if people learned of them and could give someone undue influence over her.
“It draws into question every position she’s taken that would affect his office,” Canter said. “You’re expecting her to represent her constituents’ interests every time she supports a policy or votes. Once she has engaged in that kind of relationship, you have to call into question her impartiality.”
The military is particularly strict about romantic relationships, with rules against adultery, liaisons between employees of different rank, and various other types of relationships that could create ethical pitfalls.
One former high-ranking Pentagon official said he thought some of the rules may be antiquated and overly strict, but that a relationship between an officer handling legislative affairs and a senator created too severe a conflict.
“That seems way beyond inappropriate to me, somebody who’s there representing the U.S. military within the military chain of command with a U.S. senator on Armed Services, that makes it really bad.”
Joni Ernst has built her political identity around claims of being a sexual assault survivor. Yet, when it came time to vote on whether the preposterous Pete Hegseth, an accused rapist and certified drunk with Christian nationalist tattoos stamped all over his chest, she voted YES.
Why?
It’s simple.
She was blackmailed by the Trump political team, which knows the things that Iowa voters don’t get to know.
Hegseth got her vote.
I don’t doubt the capacity of Iowa voters to tolerate this disgrace, but I also know there is hope.
This next campaign is going to require toughness, courage and integrity.
Joni Ernst betrayed her country, her oath and her state.
She went to Washington, DC, and inhaled the power. She became who she was always meant to become down deep. She is rotten to the core, and should be fired from her position of public responsibility. Let her spend her retirement years trolling the officers’ club, flag lounge, and picking up the occasional speaking gig.
Joni Ernst deserves a brutal campaign. Let her have one.
She does not care about Iowans.
She does not care that Iowa farmers export $1.5 billion annually to Canada.
She does not care about anything, or anyone anymore except Trump.
What would Joni Ernst have said if Eric Holder declared Barack Obama was not bound by a federal court ruling?
She is a sickness in our politics.
Both Grassley and Ernst are, but for different reasons. It’s occurred to me that maybe what’s going to happen now is a major housecleaning in both chambers of Congress that would not have happened but for Trump. Maybe that’s wishful thinking but look at it this way: we have never seen uprisings at townhalls like we have seen in the past sixty days. Not once.
So it is entirely possible that Republicans, knee deep in buyers’ remorse, will decide to do something about it and not send these same people back to Washington. I hope and pray that this is the case. Because the Republicans in Washington now are nothing more than fearful rubber stamps for the worst president in our history.
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Zoomers, if you’ve got any spare change in the couch cushions, we can use it. We’re in month five of depressed traffic. Our intention is to keep putting through cyberspace until people are done being depressed and return to the fray. Thank you. Ursula
Had I been there I would have said: Talk is CHEAP Senator. How you VOTE on legislation, or cabinet members and others that require Senate confirmation are not. They state quite clearly where you stand when it actually matters and you do NOT stand with us! As for your complaint about journalists when you walk between your office and the Senate chamber NOTHING prevents YOU from turning on your phone and recording who asks what and how you respond and posting it yourself on your website! That is old technology by now, so if what you’re now claiming is true why haven’t you been doing it? With a follow up noting things you think are important that didn’t get reported?
He stammered, hee’d and haw’d…like he just got caught out in the hallway, after lights out, by the staff.
The expression “beyond reproach,” means the opposite of what you want it to mean. It means “beyond criticism. I assume you meant “beneath contempt.”
What a pair. Ernst needs to.go home and castrate hogs. She had her chance to.castrate Hegseth but refused to.do so.