"Judging" Senator Grassley
How has he done judging nominees for the courts and other top government jobs?
This is a media column, not a political one, but ‘tis the season and I have a few thoughts after covering Senator Charles Grassley for the past 42 years, as he runs for his EIGHTH six-year term in the U.S. Senate.
I was assigned to cover Grassley’s first run for the Senate in 1980, when he beat the incumbent Democrat John Culver. Over the decades, I’ve covered him on many occasions. In general, he likes reporters and treats them well. He’s been a big proponent of the First Amendment. Each session, he introduces a bill that would permit cameras and microphones in federal courts, something that is much needed in this country. So far he hasn’t succeeded, but he’s tried. The Senator invited me to testify on the subject before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee in 2000. I nominated him for a prestigious First Amendment award because of his work, and I voted for him on occasion in his Senate career. Which is all to say, I have no personal animus toward him.
But the Grassley we have today is not the Grassley Iowans once knew. My main complaint is about his role on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he has chaired in the past and will do again should he win and Republicans take control of the Senate. I’m a fan of good government and there is nothing good about how he conducted himself in recent years. I don’t need to re-hash the details of his role in blocking President Obama’s rightful pick to fill a Supreme Court vacancy with nearly a year left in his presidency in 2016, and then completely reversing course to rush through Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination just weeks prior to the 2020 election. It was one of the most hypocritical power plays I’ve witnessed in government. And now we see the impact as rights we thought we had are taken away and more rights are threatened.
This cynical ploy has eroded Americans’ trust in the Supreme Court. A Gallup poll released in late September shows approval of the Supreme Court is at an historic low with only 47% saying they trust the court, a drop of 20 percentage points in two years. We can point the finger squarely at Chuck Grassley for this disturbing decline that hurts all Americans, regardless of how you feel about the Dobbs decision.
My concern doesn’t end with the Garland or Barrett cases. The Senator’s handling of the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson is equally distressing. If you watched her hearing before the Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley kept his head down and read questions prepared by his staff. Regardless of what Judge Jackson said in her response, Grassley simply read the next question on his sheet. She could have said she is from Mars and decides tough cases by a coin toss, and I’m pretty sure the Senator would have simply read the next question.
From my research, Jackson is supremely qualified. She answered questions with intelligence and poise. She has experience as a public defender and a federal judge. Senator Grassley had a chance to be on the right side of history by voting for the court’s first African American woman, but he voted no, even though other Republicans supported her.
His rationale? He fell back on his standard “process” argument about not receiving documents he requested. He also criticized her decision to sentence a drug dealer to less than the mandatory minimum requested by federal prosecutors. Jackson used a new law passed in 2018 called the First Step Act that permits federal judges to make such decisions because they, not Congress, have a fuller grasp on the circumstances of a particular defendant. The purpose of the law is to avoid putting drug addicts and dealers in federal prison for long sentences. Grassley’s objection is that Judge Jackson applied the law retroactively to a case that began before Congress passed it. She explained that the circumstances fit the case.
Other Republican Senators criticized Jackson for giving sex offenders sentences below the suggested sentencing guidelines, but research shows Judge Jackson was right with the mainstream of other federal judges, nearly all of whom Grassley voted to confirm. Why did he support those judges? Because they were nominated by President Trump.
When you look at many other Trump nominees Grassley voted to confirm, from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who was no friend to Iowa’s ethanol industry and was an embarrassment in office, Voice of America administrator Michael Pack, who injected political meddling into VOA’s journalism, to HHS Secretary Tom Price who took wasteful trips on military aircraft – one must wonder just what ethical system Grassley is using to “judge” top government officials. Too often, he votes no on eminently qualified candidates and yes on some highly suspect characters.
One other point. When I covered that first Grassley run for Senate in 1980, I was a relatively inexperienced 26-year-old reporter. By that time, Grassley had already been in elected office for 22 years! He was first elected to the Iowa legislature in 1958. We’re talking Eisenhower, Elvis and the Edsel. It’s time for new ideas and new energy in the job.
I don’t know nearly as much about Democrat Michael Franken. I’ve met him once, heard him speak, watched him on TV and read about him. He’s bright and he brings much-needed Washington and military experience.
Iowa is a ruby red state these days. Things were better when we had Republican Grassley and Democrat Tom Harkin representing Iowa in the Senate, covering both sides of the aisle. It’s time we return to that kind of balance.
IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative can’t stem the tide of market forces decimating local journalism. However, we are linking readers directly to Iowa writers. If you are interested in this content, please consider subscribing to as many local columnists as possible. And, please, support your local newspaper.
Here’s our current list:
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland
Debra Engle: A Whole New World
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt
Dana James: New Black Iowa
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger
Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi
And, for a weekly roundup of our columnists, subscribe here:
Thank you for this excellent review of Senator Grassley’s record. His partisan votes have made clear his loyalty to his party, and his hypocrisy in demonstrating “selective ethics” has made clear that he has been in office too long.
Bravo!