Paul Ryan isn't getting many takers for the hard sell he's making to get Republicans to show up to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer—and is getting particular resistance from those GOP senators running for re-election this year. He can't even get John McCain, the freaking 2008 nominee, to attend. Here's another one of those profiles in courage: Chuck Grassley.
Other senators up for re-election who are planning brief stays include Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Richard Burr of North Carolina. They each insist their past experiences have taught them that conventions suck up valuable time.
“I’ve gone to every convention since 1980, and every time I get done going I wonder why I went to the convention,” Grassley said. “And I think this time I’m going to talk to myself beforehand instead of afterwards. You waste a lot of time.”
He might go for a day, early on—well before there's an actual and extremely embarrassing nominee. Maybe that will make the people of his home state forget this regrettable display, when Grassley provided a rousing introduction to Donald Trump at a rally in Iowa back in January.
"We have an opportunity once again to make America great again," he said back then, enthusing about "the big crowds [and] the big energy that comes with it," and how "we've got to keep up this energy that's shown here today and many other places around Iowa because that is what is going to take for us to win back the White House in November." Those big, energetic crowds seem to have lost their appeal to the senior senator from Iowa. Associating with them in Cleveland would just be a waste of his time now, it seems?
What a difference three months (and a potential opponent like Patty Judge) make.
Please donate $3 today to help retire this guy.