Grassley: Embrace of social media part of early adapter attitude

DES MOINES - Sen. Chuck Grassley prides himself on being an early adapter.

He was one of the first U.S. senators to have a fax machine, the 82-year-old Republican bragged Friday morning when was asked about his active presence on social media. He also was one of the first Senate members to use satellite links to have town hall meetings with constituents.

'Whatever it is, I try to adapt to give everyone an opportunity” to communicate with him, Grassley told a Des Moines Rotary club.

Although he reminded the group how to connect with him via email, postal main, phone, Facebook and Instagram, Grassley was modest about his social media prowess.

'Ask some 10-year-old and they'll probably tell you I'm 10 years behind in what I'm doing,” he said.

Asked about his use of Twitter for nearly nine years, Grassley downplayed his mastery of the social media network where @ChuckGrassley has more than 98,000 followers and has built a reputation for posts ranging from political to folksy and sometimes cryptic misspellings.

'I haven't adapted because my thumbs are so big,” he said with a laugh. 'If you wonder why I get blamed for so much misspelling, I'm not going to punch the same word three times.”

Whatever the medium, Grassley said, it's just one step in keeping the lines of communication open with his constituents, who he hopes re-elect him to a seventh term this fall.

'Boy does it stimulate debate,” Grassley said. 'Once in a while, when I read it, I figure about one out of 10 people agree with me.”

Get a taste of Grassley on Twitter at http://bzfd.it/1SyZCDy and http://politi.co/1WhpjuW.