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A new Des Moines Register poll suggests many Iowans would like to see Senator Chuck Grassley, who is up for election in 2022, to not run for re-election and bow out.
"55% of Iowans want Grassley to end his political career next year as compared to just 28% who said they would like to see him run for another term.
Most remarkable -- and concerning for Grassley -- is that more than 1 in 3 self-identified Republicans (35%) say they think the time has come for him to retire."
My state used to have two really long serving US Senators- Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings. Strom was there for 48 years and basically retired at 100. Fritz was there a mere 40 and retired at 83. When interviewed about his retirement he said he did not want to wear out like Strom- who had spent the last couple of years being checked in/out of Walter Reid every night, having to step aside from committee chairmanships despite being the most senior senator in history at that point, and literally having Orin Hatch walking him into committee rooms to announce he would vote for Thurmond by proxy. It was sad/humorous for two reasons- people had insisted on carrying on some myth that Thurmond was a super-aging exception to all rules (which might have been true until his late 80s) and because Fritz had a well-earned reputation for saying whatever the heck he felt like saying. The rest of the Senate and state pols had done a ridiculous tap dance around just how useless Strom had become.
I think all the 80 year olds would be well-served to look at just how rapidly Feinstein has declined in the last two years. Leahy had an overnight hospital stay two months ago and Bernie had a heart attack in late 2019.
This is a bipartisan issue on which most people agree. I think there may be a few 80 yr olds who are almost as mentally sharp as ever but for the majority that isn't the case. Factor in what these politicians have actually done in terms of sponsoring bills. If they are like Beijing Buydin and Pickled Pelosi, they should have been booted out years ago. They will never live long enough to spend the millions they've grifted.
That would be great. But I hope they don't replace him with someone who's further to the right over in conspiracy theorist/QAnon territory because that seems to be the trend with Republicans these days.
Long ago (over a decade ago) Chuck Grassley was a reasonable, middle-of-the-road Republican with a folksy rural charm, and the duo of Grassley and Tom Harkin made for a pretty unexciting but stable R vs D dynamic that solidified Iowa as a purple state that could swing either direction politically. Ever since Tom Harkin retired in 2015, Grassley seems to have lost his way and gone full-blown Trumplican. I think the long-time friendship with Harkin kept Grassley tethered toward the middle, but Joni Ernst and especially Trump have been a corrosive influence on his decision-making over the last several years. He twisted himself into a pretzel trying to explain why he voted against Merrick Garland yet voted for Amy Coney Barrett despite the circumstances being nearly the same. He lost his principles and became a rubberstamp for far right policies.
Good riddance if he decides not to run again. I just hope we don't get somebody even worse running in his place.
A number of senators on both sides of the aisle should retire.
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