QUOTE OF THE DAY…. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tends to run into trouble when he addresses subjects he knows nothing about. Take the Constitution, for example.
Last week, for example, the conservative Iowan told a group of Republicans, “Americans want and Americans deserve the real original Constitution: A strong military, lower taxes, jobs through the private enterprise, border security, no apologizing for America. And most importantly, respect for life.”
Ian Millhiser explained how truly ridiculous this is.
Grassley’s call for a return to the “original Constitution” — a term that normally refers to the Constitution before it was amended — is downright terrifying if he actually means it. Slavery was permitted under the original Constitution; women and minorities were denied the right to vote; and basic human rights such as the freedom of speech or the right to choose your own faith were unprotected. Although, to be fair, it’s much more likely that Grassley simply didn’t understand what he was saying when he claimed that Americans deserve this “real original Constitution.”
That’s probably a safe assumption. Grassley has a tendency to simply make up whatever he thinks sounds good at the time — remember the “sheer idiocy” he offered during the health care debate? — which leads him to think the “real original Constitution” includes provisions that exist only in his imagination.
Oh, and did I mention that Grassley will likely be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee if Republicans take back the Senate?
On a related note, Grassley also recently explained how he changed his mind about the individual mandate in health care policy. After having supported the idea for years, the Iowa senator said last week that he came to believe the opposite in “April or May” of 2009.
In June 2009, Grassley told Fox News, “I believe that there is a bipartisan consensus to have individual mandates…. There isn’t anything wrong with it.” In August 2009, Grassley argued that an individual mandate represents “individual responsibility and even Republicans believe in individual responsibility.”
By any reasonable measure, Chuck Grassley just has no idea what he’s talking about.
