Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, until now one of the more respectable conservative Republicans, has just shot himself in the foot, as far as his reputation is concerned.   At a Town Hall meeting today in his home state, he perpetuated the myth that the health care bill includes the concept of “death panels”, therefore helping to promote more hysteria and manipulation of the public, in order to promote the interests of the health care insurance industry.
When a talk show host acts irresponsibly, that is despicable, but for a United States Senator to promote a myth so destructive as the one initiated by Sarah Palin, is much worse.
In a moment of great upset at Grassley’s irresponsibility, it is therefore refreshing that Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, certainly one of a small band of Republican senators that one can have some respect for, spoke up later today and denounced anyone spreading myths and lies about “death panels” when it is not in the health care legislation being considered by Congress.  In so doing, she was obviously being critical of her own former Governor, Sarah Palin, Senator Grassley, but also John Boehner, Newt Gingrich and other GOP leaders who have been exploiting this issue in a disgraceful way.
I say Kudos to Senator Murkowski! Keep up the good work of spreading the TRUTH, rather than lies and deception!