Grassley too quick to tweet

By Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier

----

Sen. Charles Grassley once again created a bit of a fizz in the political world last week with his Twitter account.

On April 21 Grassley, upset that Coca Cola stopped supporting the conservative group American Legislative Exchange Council, encouraged his followers to stay away from the soft drink mainstay.

In his typical fashion, Grassley's post was brief, to the point, short of vowels and long on unique methods to shorten words.

“U might think abt not drinking Coca Cola since company sucombed to pressure fr Leftist not to support ALEC,” tweeted Grassley.

ALEC has long helped develop model laws for legislators in all 50 states to introduce. Among those it has supported are voter identification and, the one that brought it into the center of a national controversy, the “Stand Your Ground” laws who many have criticized in light of the Trayvon Martin case in Florida.

The group is funded primarily by a large number of major corporations including Coca Cola, at least until recently.

Grassley, in a conference call with Iowa reporters this week, said he made the comment out of frustration that corporate executives would give in to protests from liberal groups. Coca Cola happened to be one of several corporations to withdraw funding for ALEC after the controversy. It also was the first Grassley noticed.

The Iowa senator has become a popular figure on Twitter with more than 43,000 followers. He often shares his views on issues in Congress or whatever he's doing when he's back in Iowa. Sometimes he draws criticism, such as when he commented that the American people were not as stupid as President Barack Obama. The comment was about Obama trying to influence the Supreme Court in the health care law case. Grassley later said he should have phrased it better.

In the Coca Cola case, Grassley seems to be promoting a view that doesn't fit with Iowa's best interests. The primary ingredient in Coke is corn syrup. Guess where that comes from?

Coca Cola also has bottling plants in Waukee and Atlantic.

In response to Grassley's comments, liberal group Progress Iowa launched a protest campaign to “Send Chuck A Coke.” The group promises to send Grassley a soda for every online signature it receives in the campaign.

We appreciate Grassley's willingness to share his thoughts with constituents through Twitter and his annual 99-county tour.

It would be nice though if he would occasionally check his gut reactions and put a little thought into what he's saying before taking issue with a company that makes extensive use of Iowa products and employs Iowans.