On the blogosphere, partisanship and strong language are generally the norm. As normal every day citizens, bloggers venting about a topic certainly aren’t averse to using harsh, abusive language. I certainly have done my share of that from time to time. Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Mitch McConnell, Rick Santorum, and John Boehner have all felt my verbal wrath at times. Rush Limbaugh has CERTAINLY felt my verbal wrath, given the very public, hate-filled messages he spouts from his radio show every day. Given some of my past posts, I suppose it could be viewed as a wee bit hypocritical to say what I’m about to say, but Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa has DEFINITELY crossed a line with a tweet he made over the weekend.
The Senate USED to be the place of “gentlemen” (and women) Senators, where partisanship took a back seat to civility and cooperation, at least in a MUCH stronger sense than civility and cooperation has been a cornerstone of the House. Those days are gone. Republicans in general have followed Rush down into the gutter, increasingly relying on stirring up hatred to drive their politics. Evidently the Senate is no longer immune to that trend either.
In Sen. Grassley’s tweet yesterday, he said “Constituents askd why i am not outraged at PresO attack on supreme court independence. Bcause Am ppl r not stupid as this x prof of con law.” When Grassley’s staff were asked about the tweet, the Grassley contingent took full ownership of the statement, stating that the tweet did indeed come from Grassley himself, and that he wasn’t backing down on anything he said.
It’s one thing for a sitting Senator and the President of the United States to disagree with each other. It’s QUITE another for an active Senator to personally attack the office of the President of the United States, and call the President “stupid“. What bothers me the most about the current crop of Republican Senators and Representatives is that there seems to be absolutely NO respect for the President of the United States. It’s damned hard to have a functioning government when basic disagreement on policy has morphed into a complete lack of respect, and a complete unwillingness to even LISTEN to the other side of a story, much less cooperate and compromise to reach a solution on an issue.
It’s one thing for bloggers or every day Americans to call out a politician. I don’t like the messages of pure hatred that have permeated political discussion, but hey, it’s America, we all have the right to have our voices heard. However, having our highest elected officials hurl personal insults at each other crosses a line, and damages the structure and functioning of our political and governmental framework. Senator Chuck Grassley, congratulations…you have won my “Scum of the Week” award.
