Letter: Grassley showing signs of courage

Dear Sen. Chuck Grassley,

Please continue to resist the administration's ploy to start the Supreme Court Justice replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Please do not cut a deal with President Barack Obama to have you start before the November election. A devious deal would be for the president to assure nomination of an Iowan who was his colleague in exchange for starting before the next election. That would be the ultimate cronyism which so many of us are fed up with in Washington.

Please do not be pressured or persuaded by the Cedar Rapids Gazette editorial ('Sen. Grassley has a responsibility to lead,” March 3) or others who appeal to high moral ground or who imply damage to your re-election chances if you do not go their way. For many of us, going the administration's way would be counterproductive to your own re-election and, of course, could kill the chances of getting a Constitutional justice for decades to come. Did the administration and the radical left take the high moral ground while ramming through the unaffordable Obamacare and doing an end run around Congress with the Iran Nuclear Deal? No, they did not.

Being an 'obstructionist” to do the right thing is not wrong. As you and your colleague Mitch McConnell stated, let the people decide through and after the next election. Now that is courage.

Tim Bickel

Cedar Rapids