Don't You Know How We Do Things Here?

Charles Grassley is one of those fossils who appears to have been grown in the Senate chamber and will likely return to the primordial soup there as well. He has this sense of entitlement that is endemic to a class of Senators that are probably still pissed off that they have to be elected directly. Grassley's all pissed off at Barack Obama for asking constituents of his to participate in their democracy. Such practices should be verboten.

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama stepped up his pressure on Republican Sen. Charles Grassley on Thursday, arguing voters should urge the Iowa lawmaker to help override President Bush's veto of a bill that would set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq [...]

"It isn't personal," Obama told about 300 people at a town hall meeting at Simpson College. "I respect him greatly. But I said then and I say now that he needs to hear from you and people across Iowa who understand that it's time to change course." [...]

Grassley has rejected the suggestion that he can be pressured on the issue, saying Obama, an Illinois senator, is violating traditions of the institution by traveling to another state and publicly applying pressure to a colleague. He has labeled that step "not senatorial" and said he had no intention of voting to override the veto.

Obama said he has not overstepped his grounds, saying those senatorial traditions pale before the magnitude of the war.

"This isn't about Washington etiquette, it's about bringing our troops home," said Obama. "This is how real change happens in America. This isn't symbolic, this is real."

Grassley exemplifies exactly the kind of clubby insiderism that has brought us such maladies as the Washington Consensus and the military-industrial complex. Senators of Grassley's era, pompous as all get out, truly believe they own their seats and that they should never be questioned by anyone, friend or foe.

You can say what you will about Obama (and I have), but he doesn't believe in that DC circle jerk. In fact, everywhere he's gone, he's asked citizens who believe in ending the occupation of Iraq to petition their Senators for redress of grievances (you know, like it says in the First Amendment). This isn't even about Grassley. Obama's done this in Louisiana and Virginia and Iowa and elsewhere.

If you want to relieve the pressure, stop continuing to be a rubber stamp for the failed policies of George W. Bush. But don't give me this crap about "senatorial tradition" when all Obama's asking is for citizens to make a phone call. This comes from the same GOP that saw Bill Frist go to the Minority Leader's state in 2004 and campaign on behalf of John Thune against Tom Daschle. I guess it's only un-senatorial if a Democrat does it. They really are the Baby Party.