Senator Grassley Knows Better, And Should Act Accordingly

Watching  Senator Grassley during “Face The Nation” on Sunday was rather difficult to do.  It was painful to watch as Grassly tried to find a way to answer the questions, and not come across as foolish as he did at the town hall meetings back in corn country, when he uttered some truly outrageous claims.   After that performance in Iowa by a Senator that knows better, and that is the main rub here, that in spite of his knowledge he is pandering to the lowest common denominator, comes this editorial in this morning’s paper.

If only similar backbone were shown by politicians like Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican principal in the Senate’s Gang of Six health care negotiations. Instead of helping to educate his constituents or move the debate ahead, he provided more red meat for fulminators, erroneously insisting that the rival House health care bill features “a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on grandma.”

Mr. Grassley now insists he never uttered the “death panels” canard at the heart of Sarah Palin’s health care diatribe. But he said what he said. He and the rest of us are stuck with the grandma line, even as he supposedly is pursuing reasonable compromise in Washington. Back home, the senator also conveniently overlooks his support for the 2003 Medicare drug subsidy that included the sort of counseling for end-of-life issues and care found in the current House bill.