The Curmudgeon

Charles Grassley used to be a mostly quiet Senator from Iowa. He also used to go by "Chuck".

Your Curmudgeon is not sure why, but it does seem like Grassley has been coming unhinged recently. While the reasons for this now-folksy, now-rabid downward spiral are not certain, it IS certain that Chuck Grassley has earned the title of Ignoranus of the Moment. First, he intimated that AIG CEOs should consider committing suicide. Then, he had himself a little moment intimating that he may have had a good time with another Senator's wife. Earlier this summer, Grassley was all a twitter tweeting about the health care reform process.

Now, while on his August break, Grassley's back in Iowa, pressing the sweaty flesh with his constituents in town hall meetings. His meetings have not become occasion for the neo-brownshirt goon brigade tactics seen in those held by Democratic legislators. Not content with this sort of non-newsy quiet, the Senator has decided to raise the rhetorical stakes, and fanned the wingnut hysteria over the outrage du jour, the fictional 'death panels' objection to health care reform.

It is without question a bitch move on Grassley's part. The whole lie about death panels is an intentional fiction. Hell, even Sarah freaking Palin stepped back from her own bullshit about it. To stake out an even more whacked out position, to the far loon flank of Palin, requires an unique combination of stupidity and assholery, and as such, Grassley stands out as the Ignoranus.