Grassley’s Glory Diminished
Unlike Cicero, the 90-year-old U.S. senator has chosen popularity over “doing what is right.”
By Michael Judge
Of all the folksy things Chuck Grassley has said in his 43 years as a U.S. Senator from Iowa, the one that will likely define him was spoken alongside Donald Trump in October 2021 among hundreds of ecstatic Iowans, many holding “Save America” placards, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.
“I may have been born at night, but I wasn’t born last night,” the then 88-year-old Grassley, who was seeking and won an eighth term in 2022, said after being endorsed by Trump and called up on stage. “If I didn’t accept the endorsement of a person that’s got 91 percent of the Republican voters in Iowa, I wouldn’t be too smart.”
Smart is not the word that comes to mind. What does come to mind is a quote from Cicero, the great Roman orator and senator who understood the difference between mere popularity and the public good. “I have always been of the opinion that unpopularity earned by doing w…
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