THE TODD AKIN OF THIS ELECTION CYCLE IS A DEMOCRAT: So God Made a Lawyer: What do you call Rep. Braley’s gaffe? A bad start.
Iowa’s Sen. Tom Harkin, a popular left-wing Democrat, announced early last year that he’ll retire at the end of his fifth term. Elected in 1984, Harkin is now the sixth most senior senator, and the most senior junior senator–a 21st-century Fritz Hollings. Iowa’s senior senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, was elected in 1980 and won a sixth term in 2010. At age 80, he’s the second oldest member of Congress’s upper chamber, after California’s Dianne Feinstein.
Most observers believe Democrats are likelier than not to hold the Harkin seat. Vulpine prognosticator Nate Silver put the odds at 75%, meaning “lean Democratic but with a plausible GOP pick-up.” While Republicans face a crowded primary in June, the Democratic field is clear for Rep. Bruce Braley. But the other day Braley went to Texas and made a little unintentional news.
As National Journal reports, Braley was speaking to a group of lawyers at a “closed-door fundraiser.” He presumably didn’t realize that before the doors closed, somebody had brought in a camera, which was rolling. He warned the lawyers of the dire consequences of a Republican majority in the Senate (the odds of which Silver puts at 60%).
“You might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Braley said. “Because if Democrats lose the majority, Chuck Grassley will be the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” Grassley is currently the committee’s ranking Republican. (Harkin has a law degree but has never served on Judiciary.)
Braley’s self-description is more substantively revealing than his disparagement of Grassley. As National Journal describes it: “Braley, who practiced law before joining the House, told the crowd he would be someone on the Senate Judiciary Committee with ‘your background, your experience, your voice, someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years.’ ” (As an aside, you’d think trial lawyers would come up with a more derogatory framing than “tort reform,” which sounds like a good-government measure and is meant to.)
The identity of the videographer hasn’t been revealed, but the 38-second video was posted to YouTube by America Rising, a conservative political action committee. The visual is a treat, too: On the table alongside Braley are liquor bottles and tumblers. So there he is at a cocktail party, disparaging farmers and promising to serve the trial lawyers. About the only thing that could have made it worse would be if it took place in New York or Beverly Hills rather than Texas.
Well, good thing they don’t have many farmers in Iowa, anyway.