#U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley

[minnesotafollower]

Need To Prod Congress To Enact the Afghan Adjustment Act     

A recent Wall Street Journal editorial strongly endorsed enactment of the pending Afghan Adjustment Act to provide changes in U.S. immigration law to protect the 67,000 Afghans relocated to the U.S. after its withdrawal of forces from that country.[1] However, that editorial did not discuss the reasons why Congress has not done so. A recent column in the Philadelphia Inquirer by columnist Trudy…

[filosofablogger]

Say WHAT, Chuckie???

Isn’t it funny how easily Republicans slip up on their own hypocrisy???  They are all on about President Biden’s age, even though their own presumed nominee is only three years behind Biden and Biden is far more physically fit and mentally coherent.  But then there’s Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa who is 90 years of age!  And still just as obnoxious as ever!  Now, say what you will, but I…

[thenewdemocratus]

The Daily Beast: Ben Jacobs: Harry Reid Goes Nuclear on Filibusters

The Daily Beast: Congress: Harry Reid Goes Nuclear on Filibusters The New Democrat Just to be perfectly clear, the Senate filibuster on executive and lower judicial nominations, meaning non-Supreme Court appointments to the federal bench have been removed from possible future filibuster challenges. Which means President Barack Obama and any other future president from either party, as long as the…

[reality-detective]

To read the document 👇

You Decide 🤔

[simply-ivanka]

Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Cornyn (R-TX), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Kennedy (R-LA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Todd Young (R-IN)

VOTE THESE PIECES OF SHIT OUT OF CONGRESS.

[nodynasty4us]

From the November 28, 2023 story:

An ABC News bombshell report revealing then-Vice President Mike Pence had, at one point, decided to not preside over the January 6 joint congressional session to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election is once again bringing up questions about remarks U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had made one day before the event, which some interpreted as him announcing he, and not the Vice President, would be presiding over the proceedings. Grassley later denied the claim.

The ABC News report includes conversations Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team had in closed-door sessions with Pence, including the former vice president’s notes they obtained from the National Archives.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

mike luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 18, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 19, 2024

This afternoon, Congress passed a new continuing resolution necessary to fund the government past the upcoming deadlines in the previous continuing resolution. Those deadlines were tomorrow (January 19) and February 2. The deadlines in the new measure are March 1 and March 8. This is the third continuing resolution passed in four months as extremist Republicans have refused to fund the government unless they get a wish list of concessions to their ideology.

Today’s vote was no exception. Eighteen Republican senators voted against the measure, while five Republicans did not vote (at least one, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, is ill). All the Democrats voted in favor. The final tally was 77 to 18, with five not voting. 

In the House the vote was 314 to 108, with 11 not voting. Republicans were evenly split between supporting government funding and voting against it, threatening to shut down the government. They split 107 to 106. All but two Democrats voted in favor of government funding. (In the past, Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and MIke Quigley of Illinois have voted no on a continuing resolution to fund the government in protest that the measure did not include funding for Ukraine.) 

This means that, like his predecessor Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to turn to Democrats to keep the government operating. The chair of the extremist House Freedom Caucus, Bob Good (R-VA), told reporters that before the House vote, Freedom Caucus members had tried to get Johnson to add to the measure the terms of their extremist border security bill. Such an addition would have tanked the bill, forcing a government shutdown, and Johnson refused.

“I always tell people back home beware of bipartisanship," Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH) said on the House floor during the debate. “The most bipartisan thing in Washington, D.C., is bankrupting our country, if not financially, morally…. It’s not just the spending, it’s all the terrible policies that are attached to the spending.”

Republican extremists in Congress are also doing the bidding of former president Donald Trump, blocking further aid to Ukraine in its struggle to fight off Russian aggression and standing in the way of a bipartisan immigration reform measure. Aid to Ukraine is widely popular both among the American people and among lawmakers. Immigration reform, which Republicans have demanded but are now opposing, would take away one of Trump’s only talking points before the 2024 election. 

A piece today in the Washington Post by European affairs columnist Lee Hockstadter about the difficulties of reestablishing democracy in Poland after eight years under a right-wing leader illuminates this moment in the U.S. Hockstadter’s description of the party of former Polish leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski sounds familiar: the party “jury-rigged systems, rules and institutions to its own partisan advantage, seeding its allies in the courts, prosecutors’ offices, state-owned media and central bank. Kaczynski’s administration erected an intricate legal obstacle course designed to leave the party with a stranglehold on key levers of power even if it were ousted in elections.”

Although voters in Poland last fall reelected former prime minister Donald Tusk to reestablish democracy, his ability to rebuild the democratic and judicial norms torched by his predecessor have been hamstrung by his opponents, who make up an “irreconcilable opposition” and are trying to retain control over Poland through their seizure of key levers of government. 

The U.S. was in a similar situation during Reconstruction, when in 1879, former Confederates in the Democratic Party tried to end the government protection of Black rights altogether by refusing to fund the government until the president, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, withdrew all the U.S. troops from the South (it’s a myth that they left in 1877) and stopped trying to protect Black voting. 

At the time, the president and House minority leader James A. Garfield refused to bow to the former Confederates. Five times, Hayes vetoed funding measures that carried the riders former Confederates wanted, writing that the Confederates’ policy was “radical, dangerous, and unconstitutional,” for it would allow a “bare majority” in the House to dictate its terms to the Senate and the President, thus destroying the balance of power in the American government.

In 1879, well aware of the stakes in the fight, newspapers made the case that the government was under assault. American voters listened, the former Confederates backed down, and Garfield somewhat unexpectedly was elected president in 1880 as a man who would champion the idea of the protection of Black rights and the country itself from those who wanted to establish that states were more powerful than the federal government. 

Chastened, the leaders of the Democratic Party marginalized former Confederates and turned to northern cities to reestablish the party, beginning the transition to the party that would, fifty years later, usher in the New Deal.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Executive at Ukrainian gas giant (Burisma) has 17 audio recordings laying out a $5,000,000 bribery scheme:

2 conversations between himself & Joe Biden

15 conversations with Hunter Biden

Everytime we get evidence of Biden family corruption, they put out another hit on Trump.

Zlochevsky is believed to have paid President Biden $5 million in exchange for Biden’s assistance as vice president in getting Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired.

On Monday U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced that a foreign national who claims to have bribed President Biden kept audio recordings of the encounter as an insurance policy.

Foreign National Kept Secret Audio Recordings of Him Bribing Joe & Hunter Biden

[pennsyltuckyheathen]

Republicans are so desperate, unethical and corrupt.   Grassley isn’t even on the House Oversight Committee.  It’s all lies and manufactured drama to trigger the MAGA base.  How do these people reconcile their never-ending deception with their sworn Oaths of Office?  They don’t.  

[yourreddancer]

Admiral Mike Franken

 As bombs began raining down on Ukrainian cities and Russian tanks began pouring over the Ukrainian border, Fox News host Laura Ingraham had the gall to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “pathetic.”

If you tune into Tucker Carlson these days, you’ll see a show that might as well have been written and produced by Russian state media. Fox News showcases the fringe-right cabal now headed by Donald J. Trump.

As the commander of military forces in East Africa, I asked the American Forces Network to replace Fox News during meal hours for troops. They were harmful to America's outreach overseas. They put our troops in jeopardy and made my job harder.

My answer to Fox when I was an admiral in the U.S. Navy? I pulled the plug.

If I defeat Chuck Grassley and turn Iowa blue this November, I will be the most senior military person ever elected to the United States Senate. I think it’s about time we had more people in leadership who understand the true costs of war and disinformation.The polls show we can win. The pundits say we must win. And with your help today, we can fight back against McConnell’s Super PAC lies and protect our Democratic majority in the Senate.

[filosofablogger]

It's Time To Say 'Goodbye', Senator Feinstein

We’ve heard a lot of opinions about Senator Dianne Feinstein lately – her health is an ongoing concern, even more so now that we know her health issues are even more serious than we were first told.  For the record, while it is heartbreaking to see her struggling just to get around, I do think the time has come for her to step down. But before I say more about that, I’d like to tell you a few…

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON – Minnesota's two senators want to name a federal building in Minneapolis after the late Sen. Paul Wellstone.

Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith are behind the push to honor Wellstone, with Tuesday marking the 20th anniversary of his death in a plane crash near Eveleth 11 days before the 2002 Senate election.

Wellstone, who was 58 and running for a third term when he died, remains deeply influential in DFL politics. Klobuchar called him a mentor and a friend in an interview. While some local places have been named after Wellstone, Klobuchar said the federal government should also take this latest step to "acknowledge his service."

"He just believed in the power of people," Klobuchar said.

The legislation would name a federal building on S. 3rd Avenue in Minneapolis the Paul D. Wellstone Federal Building. It's home to the Minneapolis Passport Agency and also has offices for the National Labor Relations Board and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to the U.S. General Services Administration's website.

"Naming a federal building after him I think is in recognition of how he worked so hard as a progressive to also be effective in the Senate," said Smith.

Wellstone died in a plane crash that also killed his wife, Sheila, daughter Marcia, three campaign workers and two pilots.

A college professor, Wellstone upset incumbent GOP Sen. Rudy Boschwitz in the 1990 election. Notable moments in Wellstone's political career include his voting against war with Iraq both early and late in his tenure while his work focusing on mental health and addiction continues to be a lasting part of his legacy.

"Everyone thinks about him as a fighter for people," Klobuchar said, also noting that Wellstone had "optimism about our country and what we can get done."

While the Senate bill was only introduced last month — and has not made its way through Congress — the late senator's oldest son expressed appreciation about the potential change.

"This is wonderful," Dave Wellstone said. "It continues on that legacy."

The bill counts GOP Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who served with Wellstone, as an early supporter.

"From neighboring states, we often teamed up on agriculture and other issues to find common ground and get things done for Iowans and Minnesotans," Grassley said in a statement. "Although we had very different political philosophies, we shared a common passion for serving our constituents the best we could."

Over the years, other efforts have gone on at the federal level to remember Wellstone. They include President George W. Bush signing legislation into law in 2002 for a community center in St. Paul named after Wellstone and his wife. A group of Muscular Dystrophy Specialized Research Centers also bear the late senator's name, according to the National Institutes of Health.

A bill introduced in 2003 attempted to name the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis for Wellstone, but failed to get enough support.

In remembering the DFL senator, Klobuchar's new bill says that Wellstone's "legacy of advocacy and candor will always be remembered."

"We all need a dose of Paul right now," she said.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley on Wednesday expressed support for proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act, which would clarify rules governing presidential elections and the counting of electoral votes.

"I have not read the bill, but I have read a lot about the bill," Grassley, a Republican, told reporters Wednesday. "And I think that I'm going to vote for it."

Grassley said he would wait to read it before making a final decision about his vote.

The bipartisan effort to amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887 comes after former-President Donald Trump and his allies attempted to exploit ambiguities in the law following the 2020 election to reject electoral votes that were cast for President Joe Biden.

The bill will need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the evenly divided Senate. Even if all 50 Senate Democrats are in favor, it will need at least 10 Republican votes. Nine Republicans were part of the bipartisan negotiations on the bill, and Grassley's support could bring them to 10.

The legislation would clarify that the Vice President's role in presiding over the counting of electoral votes is purely ceremonial, ensuring that the Vice President would not have the power to unilaterally reject or accept electoral votes.

Trump and his allies unsuccessfully pressured former-Vice President Mike Pence to interfere with the counting of electoral votes over objections from White House attorneys, according to testimony given to the House Jan. 6 Committee.

Grassley said that change is among the reasons he would support the bill.

"I don't know what the... law specifically says on this subject," he said. "It probably doesn't say anything, and then people thought well, maybe the Vice President has some discretion. He should not have had this discretion ever. And this law will make it clear that he won't have that discretion."

Grassley said he also supports a provision that would raise the threshold for objecting to electors in Congress. It would require one-fifth of the House and one-fifth of the Senate to bring an objection, a much higher bar than the current law, which allows one member of the House and one member of the Senate to bring an objection.

"This is going to make those challenges much more legitimate if there's a reason for having them," he said.

The measure also would require Congress accept as valid only one slate of electors submitted by each state and certified by that state’s governor or another official. In 2020, multiple states attempted to submit alternate slates of presidential electors without the legal basis to do so.

Derek Muller, a University of Iowa law professor who teaches election law, testified Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, speaking in favor of the proposal.

“At every turn, the bill offers more clarity, more precision and more stability,” Muller said.

Muller said there are significant risks if Congress fails to pass the legislation and leaves the current Electoral Count Act in place without changes.

“Some have attempted to exploit ambiguities over the years, most significantly in 2020,” he said. “To leave those in place ahead of the 2024 election is to invite serious mischief.”

[iowamedia]

Trump claims ‘great unity’ after talks with congressional GOP

Former President Donald Trump is applauded by U.S. Senate Republicans — including Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, far left, and Joni Ernst, far right — before giving remarks to the press at the National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters on June 13, 2024. Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, visited Capitol Hill to meet with House and Senate Republicans. (Photo by Anna…