When politicians are unintentionally funny, it's often not benign, which is why the Twitter feed of Sen. Chuck Grassley, the 88-year-old Iowa Republican, deserves recognition. Yesterday, he tweeted:
Just spent 45 mins finding out why I don’t hv history channel Negotiations btwn 4 channels incl history & Direct tv Results: if I want history channel my bill go fr $65 to $99 I’m not paying $34 for history ch when not much history /or should I change from Direct to DISH??
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) December 11, 2021
This caught my attention and has spurred me to collect a small miscellany of the senator's social media work. His dissatisfaction with the History Channel is a theme but let's try to keep this positive by paying particular attention to objects of his affection, like Dairy Queen:
Windsor Heights Dairy Queen is good place for u kno what
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) November 3, 2014
I don't want to reveal too much about myself, but, reading this, it seems to me sufficiently cryptic as to suggest an inside joke among boys at school on the Monday morning after the Saturday night that something went down in the DQ parking lot. That must be part of why it's funny. On the day he tweeted this the senator was 81 and I'm fairly confident the "u kno what" refers to soft serve ice cream. About a year later he tweeted, self-referentially:
I'm at the Jefferson Iowa DairyQueen doing "you know what" !!!
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 16, 2015o
One of his constituents replied: "Whoa! Whoa! What happened to Windsor Heights?" I've researched it, and Windsor Heights is in the exurbs of northwestern Des Moines, whereas Jefferson is around 45 miles west of Ames. The senator gets around Iowa, but he's also a man of the world, and an ambassador for Twitter:
Welcome to Twitter Pope Benedict. U will find it useful and interesting
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) December 3, 2012
Couple of hip eldsters working their thumbs. But you can't take the boy out of Iowa farm country for long:
Fred and I hit a deer on hiway 136 south of Dyersville. After I pulled fender rubbing on tire we continued to farm. Assume deer dead
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 26, 2012
If you want to keep up with the Iowa geography lesson, Dyersville is in the east central part of the state, about 30 miles west of the Mississippi River town of Dubuque. The senator soon appended:
@ChuckGrassley Followers legitimately asked about condition of dear that attacked our Prius I didn't hv a flashlight to check on critter
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 27, 2012
Which inspired another of his constituents to create a Twitter account, "Deer in Iowa," just so s/he could reply, "I'm alive and well but a little sore, because that was most definitely not a Prius." Here is probably my favorite specimen of the senator's constituent service via Twitter:
If u lost ur pet pidgin /it’s dead in front yard my Iowa farm JUST DISCOVERED here r identifiers Right leg Blue 2020/3089/AU2020/SHE ///LEFT LEG GREEN BAND NO PRINTED INFO. Sorry for bad news
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 19, 2020
What some people call "haiku." The senator's style is inimitable. If he ever tweeted something impolitic, it would be impossible to blame a staffer. Like the Bible, the story of Senator Grassley's Twitter feed commences sublimely:
I now h v an iphone
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) February 13, 2012
It has a flashlight, senator. For next time you might want to check on a wounded critter in the night.
Comments