Chuck Grassley, the Republican Senator from Iowa has been around for a long time. A very long time. He was born in 1933, and was first elected to the House in 1975 and the Senate in 1981. Even though he’s a spry 91 years of age, he is, quite clearly, 91 years of age. His career in the Senate, and particularly on the Judiciary Committee, has been notable, both for his occasional support for criminal law reforms as well as being the champion of whistleblowers.

Why, then, has Chuck Grassley chosen to drop to his knees and become a Trump acolyte?

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, has been known for decades as a champion of whistle-blowers. But critics say he has retreated from his signature issue, smoothing a path for a Trump loyalist who was confirmed on Tuesday to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench.

The battle over Emil Bove III, the Trump ally and a top official at the Justice Department, some argue, has chilled the very efforts that Mr. Grassley, 91, has spent more than 40 years fostering.

There is no chance that Grassley doesn’t realize how grossly unfit Bove is for judicial appointment. He may be old, but he’s hardly foolish. Worse still, the evidence comes from the very source that Grassley spent his career championing, and then more whisleblowers came forward to confirm and validate the background from Bove’s time at the Southern District of New York, where he was despised by colleagues and adversaries alike and thought unworthy of the power he wielded as prosecutor. And all this was well before Bove latched onto the Trump teat.

But then came the “whistleblowers,” taking Bove’s depth of unfitness to its nadir. And what did Chuck have to say about this?

Mr. Grassley’s reaction was striking, particularly given that he has long trumpeted whistle-blower claims by law enforcement officials.

“The timing alone indicates that this was a coordinated political strike and there are other reasons to be skeptical” of Mr. Reuveni’s claims, Mr. Grassley said at the outset of Mr. Bove’s hearing.

The notion that Reuveni, a long time AUSA, was involved in a “coordinated political strike” was ludicrous. Grassley knew that too, as did everyone in the room hearing Chuck’s pathetic pre-emptive excuses for a nominee who, having “served” as one of Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyers along with Todd Blanche, Alina Habba, et al., was nominated for the express purpose of reliably doing Trump’s bidding on the court.

Did Grassley bend over because of some warm feelings toward Trump? Hardly. Trump treated him like he treats everyone he uses.

“Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the “Blue Slip” problem we are having with respect to the appointment of Highly Qualified Judges and U.S. Attorneys, with a mere flick of the pen,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday. “Democrats like Schumer, Warner, Kaine, Booker, Schiff, and others, SLEAZEBAGS ALL, have an ironclad stoppage of Great Republican Candidates.”

By a lot? In 2022, Grassley won his eighth term in the Senate. The next week, he filed for his ninth term. In 2028, he would be 95, and he would be 101 when his term was completed.

Late in the evening, by 50-49 vote, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Emil Bove III as a judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Only two Republicans voted against Bove, Murkowski of Alaska and Collins of Maine. Senator Thom Tillis, who won’t be running for re-election, voted for Bove. Former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voted yea. So did Grassley, both in committee and the final vote.

It’s one thing to believe, against one’s better judgment, that the president is entitled to have a cabinet of his choosing, even if his secretaries are laughably unqualified or flaming nutjobs. After all, he is the president, for better or worse, and elections have consequences. But the appointment of a judge is for life (upon good behavior), and while the nominations are still the president’s to make, subject to the historic blue slip from the Senators of a state such that even presidents don’t go completely off the rails, there are minimum qualifications to consider before consent. Fealty to Trump is not one of them.

Chuck Grassley did a great many good things during his lengthy tenure in the Senate. Sure, he could have done more and better, but he could have done less and worse as well. Yet, he will not be remembered for the more than four decades he served Iowa honorably, but for dropping to his knees to become a sniveling Trump sycophant at 91 years of age by confirming the likes of Emil Bove. And for what? A ninth term? What a disgrace.