‘Maybe it’s time for him to retire’ Harkin says is Iowa sense of Grassley
'I have on several occasions read some things and said, ‘That’s not the Chuck Grassley I know. That’s not the Chuck Grassley I served with.’ Harkin adds of former long-time colleague
COUNCIL BLUFFS
Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who has served in public office since the Eisenhower administration, should perhaps “retire,” “step aside” is the sense his former colleague Tom Harkin gets when traveling the state, talking to Iowans — including political independents, a voting block Harkin thinks could swing the Nov. 8 election in favor of Democratic Senate candidate Mike Franken, a retired admiral.
Rural Iowans see that Franken, a high-ranking retired military figure and a native of Sioux County who worked in meat-packing plants to put himself through college, has a solid resume and values — and is poised to outperform recent statewide Democratic candidates in rural reaches of the state, Harkin said Thursday night in an interview with The Carroll Times Herald following a Democratic event in Council Bluffs for Josh Turek, a state legislative candidate, and Jeff Shudak, a Democrat labor leader seeking a Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors seat.
Harkin said Franken is clearly the change candidate in a U.S. Senate race where that matters.
“I think first of all, I think he will win the independent vote, not because people are mad at Grassley,” Harkin said. “Look, I’ve been a friend of Chuck Grassley all the time I was in office. We are talking about 40 years. We came together in1975. We had a different political philosophy. I always liked Chuck. I got along fine with him. What I sense is that a lot of people think is maybe it’s time for him to retire.”
Harkin, elected to the U.S. House in 1974 and the Senate in 1984, retired in 2014 and was succeeded in office by Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, who then captured a second term in 2020.
Should Grassley have retired in 2016, going out around the same time as Harkin? Did Grassley stay too long?
“Look, people have to do what they feel they have to do,” Harkin said. “I can’t say that. And I can’t say that I personally feel Grassley should retire. What I’m telling you is that what I’m hearing from a lot of people is they think Grassley has done a good job, they’ve appreciated his representation of Iowa all these years, but, you know, maybe it‘s time for him to step aside, to retire. I think a lot of that sense is going around the State of Iowa, and that’s why I think Mike Franken has a very good chance in this.”
Harkin said Grassley, with whom he interacted on countless agriculture initiatives and other endeavors for Iowa, with effective bipartisanship, often surprises him with statements and political decisions.
“I have on several occasions read some things and said, ‘That’s not the Chuck Grassley I know. That’s not the Chuck Grassley I served with,’” Harkin said.
Specifically, Harkin said Grassley was out of line to suggest that Internal Revenue Service officials would potentially bring firearms to meetings with Iowans, and possibly gun down small businesspeople
“Senator Grassley says they are going to come out with AK-15s shooting our local, small businesspeople,” Harkin said. “That does not sound like the Chuck Grassley I’ve known in the past.”
Speaking in August on “Fox & Friends” Grassley said of the IRS:
“Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small business person in Iowa with these, because I think they’re going after middle class and small business people, because they think that anybody that has pass-through income is a crook, and they aren’t paying their fair share, and we’re going to go after them.”
So what does Harkin think it is? Is Grassley just that desperate to win and hold on to power or is he a different person?
“I’m not making a judgment, I don’t know,” Harkin said. “All I can tell you is it just doesn’t sound like the Chuck Grassley I used to know.”
Has Harkin ever thought about picking up the phone and calling Grassley and saying, “What are you doing? This isn’t you.”
“Maybe I should have, I don’t know,” Harkin said. “I haven’t.”
Meanwhile, Harkin says he has gotten to know Franken quite well.
“I think what rural people like is they like the real deal,” Harkin said of Franken. “They want someone who, ‘Hey, you’re honest, you’re real, you’re not being phony. He’s the real deal, and I think people sense that.”
Please consider subscribing to other voices in the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt
Dana James: New Black Iowa
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi
Iowa Writers Collaborative: Iowa Writers Collaborative
Yes...it is time to retire, Chuck. As a moderate conservative independent voter I voted Grassley all those years, not because I agreed with the Senator on everything, but because I felt his integrity was impeccable and he did work for Iowa.
That is no longer the case. The Trump era has destroyed Grassley's integrity and he had more than enough opportunity to speak up when so many obvious things were happening that were upending our democracy. Now it's all politics and the Senator's handlers are carefully scripting all of his words. It's hard to believe he has fallen so far.
I know little about Franken, but so far he reflects the character I want to see. I expect I won't agree with all of his ideas, but I also expect he will work as hard for Iowa as our current senator has in the past.