Althouse: "Do you think I spend my day wondering about how Chuck Grassley will go down in history?"

May 16, 2016

"Do you think I spend my day wondering about how Chuck Grassley will go down in history?"

"I don’t care if I ever go down in history. I’m here to do a job and how the history books treat me — my name will probably never be mentioned in the history books."

The old what-about-your-legacy move — whipped out by Harry Reid over the Merrick Garland nomination — doesn't work on Chuck Grassley.

Ironically, this is the post that gets me to make a Chuck Grassley tag.

32 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Chuck Grassley for VP.; 5/16/16, 2:00 PM
Nonapod said...: Anybody who actively opposes Harry Reid gets big points in my book. And I almost don't even care what the issue is. I mean... that dude is like... the worst.; 5/16/16, 2:00 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: If that is Grassley's view, then good for him. It's been said that one of Ronald Reagan's great strengths was that he really didn't give a hoot what the people in Washington - and especially the pressarazzi - thought of him.; 5/16/16, 2:03 PM
eric said...: If Republicans had this attitude the last six years, we would be in a much better place right now.

Good on him.; 5/16/16, 2:05 PM
n.n said...: Grassley, a man of integrity. He seems to possess the right principles, too.; 5/16/16, 2:06 PM
David Begley said...: Chuck's legacy is the Althouse blog. Thirty minutes.; 5/16/16, 2:10 PM
David Aitken said...: "And that’s the fundamental and inescapable problem with Grassley’s contrived “let the people speak” rationale for refusing to hold hearings. It’s built on a framework of contradictory assumptions that conflict with past practice and the U.S. Constitution, and aren’t even grounded in reality:"

It's my recollection that Biden, Reid, and Hillary all said, at one time in the past, that we should wait until the people have spoken. How soon they forget.; 5/16/16, 2:18 PM
Kate said...: My chiropractor, a very erudite man, has no idea who Harry Reid is. The irony of that combined with this story is just too delicious.; 5/16/16, 2:25 PM
n.n said...: Grassley's legacy will be recorded in his Posterity, as a public servant in promoting the general Welfare, and generally in his success to reconcile moral and natural imperatives.; 5/16/16, 2:25 PM
bagoh20 said...: Hitler has more adoring fans than any senator ever will, so good luck on your legacy being all that anyway.; 5/16/16, 2:43 PM
rcocean said...: I guess Joe Biden wasn't interested in how he went down in the History books either.

Grassley is just invoking the "Biden rule".; 5/16/16, 2:45 PM
rcocean said...: Does anyone remember who James Eastland is? He was the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee for over 20 years.

Sic transit gloria mundi; 5/16/16, 2:49 PM
Real American said...: Of course, Grassley cares about how he goes down in history. That's part of the reason he doesn't want to be remembered as the guy who allowed the left to complete its takeover of the Supreme Court and complete its destruction of our country.; 5/16/16, 3:04 PM
madAsHell said...: The Merrick Garland nomination has been displaced by gender neutral bathrooms.; 5/16/16, 3:07 PM
Wince said...: If Hillary wins, she can re-nominate Garland.

These "confident" Democrats doth protest too much.; 5/16/16, 3:12 PM
Chuck said...: The real question history will be asking is what happened to Harry Reid's face? Was he threatened and beaten by a Nevada mobster? Or was he sucker punched by his drunken brother?; 5/16/16, 3:16 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I, for one, will miss Harry Reid. I did vote against him, when I had the chance, almost six years ago. But I will miss him. My partner remembers him bringing his flock of kids over to play, when they were all growing up. Seems like the Mormons in town were inevitably trying to convert them. And, Reid and her father both boxed, at least as younger men. Plus, I had one of his sons in my law firm when I was still in NV. One of the best liked guys around, though there were murmurs about his expertise in his specialty of (no surprise) govt relations - maybe not the best on his feet. Still, I liked him, and we would joke about all the lawyers and brothers in our families.

Thing is, I could still appreciate him, no matter how much I disliked his politics and methods of getting things done. His most likely successor, Chuckie Schumer, doesn't have any of Reid's redeeming virtues, but is rather a swarmy politician bought and paid for by Wall Street money.; 5/16/16, 3:22 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/16/16, 3:46 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/16/16, 4:07 PM
Fernandinande said...: Ozzy Osbourne is still not missing.; 5/16/16, 4:15 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/16/16, 5:22 PM
David said...: "my name will probably never be mentioned in the history books."

He could beat Harry Reid with a cane on the Senate floor. Preston Brooks will never be forgotten.; 5/16/16, 7:29 PM
Achilles said...: Harry Reid will probably be mentioned in the history books though.

He will wish he wasn't.; 5/16/16, 8:24 PM
iowan2 said...: This is just another piece working to rewrite history. The Senate is constitutionaly charged with advise and consent. The have done that. Advised the President to not waste his time. The President is under no requirement to take the advice, just as the Senate is under no obligation to conduct a formal vote.
The solution to the standoff is political, nothing more or less. The people, and ONLY the people will get exactly the result they want.

As far as Grassley and the legacy. He already has one. This is just a single, short,chapter of it. How does it go down in the History books?
Well, History used to be written by the victors. But today, History is written by academicians. Being very adverse to diversity, they are overwhelmingly leftist, so History will falsely label Grassley as some form of obstructionist/anti constitutionalist. History and reality no longer have anything in common.; 5/16/16, 9:23 PM
narciso said...: it's as if the biden rule, didn't exist, and obama and schumer and co, hadn't filibustered the nominations, shocker,; 5/16/16, 9:31 PM
cubanbob said...: Senator Pat Geary is a fine one to lecture Senator Grassley.; 5/16/16, 10:40 PM
narciso said...: actually he's more senator roark from sin city,; 5/16/16, 10:52 PM
Brando said...: Reid's legacy is clear. He'll be remembered for the "win at all costs, forget principles" tactics that have become the norm in the Senate. This is the man whose opinion on the filibuster flips whenever his party switches in and out of the majority, and who shamelessly bragged that he lied about Romney's tax returns simply to help him lose the 2012 election.

I get that Democrats like this, as it serves their narrow interests. But history will remember him as a particularly odious Senate leader.; 5/17/16, 6:03 AM
Humperdink said...: "His most likely successor, Chuckie Schumer, doesn't have any of Reid's redeeming virtues ...."

If Reid has any redeeming virtues, I have yet to see any. Not one. Not even a smidgen of one. The man is pure evil.; 5/17/16, 6:18 AM
Brando said...: "If Reid has any redeeming virtues, I have yet to see any. Not one. Not even a smidgen of one. The man is pure evil."

Be that as it may, Schumer is probably worse. I suspect we're going to learn quite a lot about that guy and things in the Senate are about to get real ugly--particularly if the Dems take the majority. The filibuster, for one, will fly away like dust.; 5/17/16, 6:49 AM
dbp said...: "...the public outcry shows no signs of tapering off."

Life inside the bubble. I see some attempt to gin-up outrage on places like NPR, but for most people there is no awareness of this "issue".; 5/17/16, 7:51 AM
damikesc said...: It has been three months since Grassley first declared that he wouldn’t hold hearings for any Supreme Court nominee put forward by Obama, and the public outcry shows no signs of tapering off.

How can one "taper off" from a starting point of zero?; 5/17/16, 10:05 AM