Sen. Grassley

Senator Grassley should no longer be taken seriously as a partner in bipartisanship. All these months, the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have wasted valuable time, laboring to find compromises that could gain his support and produce a bill with at least some token bipartisan support.

And now he's at home touting the right-wing talking points about "end of life consultations" as a threat to "pull the plug on grandma." And saying that he won't support any health care bill that doesn't have a majority of Republicans supporting it. That is, he's not even going to provide any leadership with his own people for bipartisan support -- just follow the angry mobs.

But his latest (New York Times) puts him out there with the wingnuts:

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, called President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi “intellectually dishonest” on Tuesday, saying that Democrats were using the flap over end-of-life consultations to divert attention away from health care legislation currently being considered in the House.

Excuse me? Who created the flap? Who keeps it going? Were Obama and Pelosi supposed to just ignore the blatant lies and distortions? Including those of Grassley himself?

He should no longer be taken seriously -- on anything. He, like all the Republicans, likes to play the game of being the go-to Republican on bipartisanship, get the Democrats to make concessions, and then say -- no, it's not enough. We can't support it.

Enough !!! It's time to call them on it and go our own way to get effective health care reform. I think even Grassley must realize the jig is up and so he might as well play to his base.

So be it. The line is drawn in the sand. Let's do what the people voted Obama into office for.

Ralph