February 2016

Senator Grassley:

I write this letter as a taxpayer who pays your salary, as a retired military officer, and as one of over three hundred million taxpayers on whose behalf you are supposed to be working.

I begin this letter with a quotation that will undoubtedly live in ignominy and infamy: “”Once the political season is under way, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over,” (Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley).

You and your fellow obstructionists are guilty of simultaneously violating both the Constitution and the trust which the American people put in you when you were voted into office. Our national Supreme Court has a vacancy, and you and your fellow obstructionists have repeatedly stated your willful intent to deliberately and neglectfully leave that seat open for an entire year or longer.

Your attempts to excuse this willful misuse of your elected office are infantile and baseless, and transparently political and self-serving.

You do not work for the Republican Party. You work for the United States of America and all of its millions of men, women and children. Not just the Republican citizens, not just those citizens who you personally support, not just those citizens who you choose to support, not just those citizens who donate to your campaigns and causes. You do not have the moral, ethical or Constitutional right to hijack a Constitutional process to support a partisan agenda.

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States of America states that the President “…shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court…” He is duty-bound to nominate a replacement for any Supreme Court vacancy. There is no provision for the President to willfully ignore his Constitutional duty for an entire year.

Your position is clearly that the President should abdicate his Constitutional responsibilities once he is one year out from leaving office. What else do you want the President to stop doing? Everything else in Article II, Section 2? Should he stop being the …”Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States…”?

Should he abdicate his “…Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties…”?

Or perhaps you think he should blow off Article II, Section 3, where the Constitution states the President “… shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.”? I find it curious that you would like him to tell all the armed forces that they can forget about getting any more commissioned officers for at least a year, and also that currently serving officers can’t be promoted until next year, when his successor takes office. How mean-spirited, unbecoming and unpatriotic of you.

Senator, you took an oath when you took office. Evidently you have forgotten it, despite your years in Washington. Or perhaps you have forgotten it because of all your years in Washington. Since you are evidently in need of a reminder of the words of that oath, here is the text: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

That oath binds you to support this Nation’s Constitution. Yet you feel strongly that you must lead the way in willfully ignoring and violating not only the Constitution but also the oath you took. How you can act in such a manner is incomprehensible and unconscionable.

Were you aware that many other public servants, as you are, take oaths? Millions of police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and military servicemen and women take oaths too. Many of these fellow citizens place their lives on the line in conditions where they know they may lose life or limb. Many of them perform invaluable, life-giving and life-restoring services and provide protection to the rest of us, often for very little pay and no recognition. Many have indeed given their lives in the service of their fellow citizens and this nation.

None of these people have first asked the political party of those whom they aid, protect and defend before they perform their jobs. They just do the job. Liberal firefighters don’t let conservative houses burn. Conservative EMTs don’t look for a Republican bumper sticker on a vehicle before treating the injured occupant. Servicemen and women don’t ignore the Constitution as they defend our nation against all enemies, foreign…and domestic. Your hypocrisy is unfathomable compared to the service these men and women perform each and every day.

You earn a very sizeable income, nearly $200,000 per year, and have accrued significant pension and other benefits, yet you deliberately and hypocritically choose to take this salary while violating the Constitution and the oath of office you took. This is shameful and reprehensible, and you should either resign or do your sworn duty. Else you are not only a Constitutional violator and liar, but a thief as well.

What happened to you to so completely violate your oath and duty to the country? What happened to the Grassley who fought against misuse of federal money and ministry dollars and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry? Who sought better tax policy and accountability in big business?  Who favors increased rigor in the mental health component of background checks? Who favors wind energy and sought to protect whistleblowers? How could you have so completely and totally lost your moral and ethical compass?

Senator, the people of American expect you to do your duty. We will be watching. And voting.