Challenger tells Grassley to 'bite his tongue'

By James Q. Lynch

Des Moines Bureau

A Democratic challenger told Sen. Chuck Grassley “to bite his tongue,” after the Republican incumbent referred to President Kim Jong Il as the “the biggest and meanest dictator in the world.”

Bob Krause's criticism followed Grassley questioning whether former President Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea enhanced the stature of Kim, who Grassley called one of the Communist nation's “outright liars” in diplomatic relations with the U.S.

Clinton spent 20 hours in North Korea brokering the release of two American journalists who had been held for 140 days after being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korea.

After expressing gratitude for “the good thing President Clinton did,” Grassley questioned whether the visit by a former president “enhances the credibility of Kim at a time when the biggest and meanest dictator in the world should not have that sort of recognition.”

That's the same Bush-Cheney “neoconservative philosophy that caused us to stumble into Iraq,” according to Krause of Fairfield, the only Democrat who has announced plans to challenge Grassley in 2010.

“With two U.S. wars already going on, this is not a good time to go rattling sabers in Asia,” Krause said. He called North Korea an “aggravation, and can be a threat” but there's no need for direct confrontation.

Grassley made no mention of war or military action in his response to a reporter's question about Clinton's trip.

Krause spent time in South Korea while in Army Reserve helping planning its defense against North Korea.

“Americans have to remember that no matter what happens in the Korean theater in the long run in a war, in the short run, even with a conventional war, it is immediately devastating to Seoul, which is a metro area of 23 million people on the border with North Korea,” Krause said. That's been North Korea's trump card, he said.

Asked about Clinton's visit, Sen. Tom Harkin called it appropriate and hoped it signaled a new opening in relations with North Korea.

To rule out trying to free the journalists would “doom these two women to stay there forever and ever?” the Iowa Democrat said. “I think that was the proper humanitarian thing to do.”

Unlike Grassley, Harkin didn't see the visit as good publicity for Kim.

“It gave good public relations to Bill Clinton,” Harkin said.

Neither Grassley's Senate office nor campaign responded to Krause's criticism.