Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Grassley Missing From Republican Senators That Have Called for Change of Course In Iraq

The past month have seen numerous Republican Senators speaking about the need to begin to withdrawal our troops from Iraq.

Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg and John Sununu are firmly in that camp. So too Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Robert Bennett of Utah, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. And it’s not just that their ranks are growing; it’s that those ranks include voices that have always spoken with sound and sober judgment on issues of foreign policy.
Iowans will notice one name that is missing from that list: Republican Sen. Charles Grassley.

The latest poll in Iowa from June 22-24 show 83% of Iowa Democrats and 56% of Iowa Republicans favor a withdrawal of all United States military from Iraq within the next six months. Grassley have even acknowledges he knows Iowans wants our troops to come home.
He acknowledged that when Iowans bring up Iraq at town hall meetings, most of the time they want U.S. troops to begin leaving, while supporters of the president's plan are generally silent.

"The people that bring it up have the strongest convictions about getting out of Iraq," Grassley said.
However, Grassley is failing to show strong convictions on this issue. He has said he will wait until September when General Petreas's report comes out, a report Grassley has admitted he is "kind of pessimistic" about.

This week the Senate is discussing a change of course in Iraq. Please call Sen. Grassley at the numbers below and ask him to support binding legislation that would begin reducing the number of troops in Iraq and would set a timeline for the withdrawal of our troops.

Here are the numbers to Grassley's office...

Washington Office: (202) 224-3744
Des Moines: (515) 288-1145
Cedar Rapids: (319) 363-6832
Davenport: (563) 322-4331
Sioux City: (712) 233-1860
Council Bluffs: (712) 322-7103
Waterloo: (319) 232-6657


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm reminded of Edmund Burke, the pro-American member of Parliament back before the Revolution. During his election as MP from Bristol, Burke noted that even though elected as a representative of the town he was under no obligation to slavishly parrot public opinion. He had his own convictions, and that was what he would present. If the voters didn't like his stances they could elect someone else.

The Iraq war debate seems to have supercharged the idea that elected officials have to espouse whatever the public opinion polls of their constituents shows. Leaving aside whether opinion polls actually give a true representation of what the mythical "average voter" thinks, I think we sell ourselves short if we want our elected officials to be nothing more than puppets for whatever the whim of the day might be.

Say what you like about Joe Lieberman (and there is plenty to be said), but he is right on one thing. At their best politicians should be leaders; statesmen who devote themselves understanding complex issues, and with the wisdom to see past the short term. The check on this is of course the ballot box. If you don't like what a politican is doing vote for someone else....or run for office yourself.



Oh by the way....Burke lost the next election after making his speech against being beholden to the whims of his constituents.

8:47 AM
Anonymous said...

I agree that Democrats and independents should run a serious challenger against Grassley in 2010 or whenever he is up for re-election.

In the meantime all we can do is try to pressure him with people power.

1:52 PM

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