After Returning Keys To GOP, Democrats Asked For Gas Money

Story by Mitch McCann 

| Published Nov 23, 2010

The intense discourse between both sides of the aisle in Congress has been building and swelling since Democrats clenched majority in both houses back in 2008. What the Democrats and Republicans hadn’t counted on was how much worse relations would sour when President Obama urged all members of Congress to car pool to Washington for the mid-term elections, reportedly in one final attempt to bridge the gap between parties, and “reach across the aisle.”

Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin has always been a glass half-full kinda guy. But when he found out he had to share a 1989 Ford Tempo with fellow Iowan and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, he was less than pleased.

“His window is always down, he is constantly talking over my stories and I find his complete disregard for ‘shotty no J’ utterly disrespectful,” Grassley said. “I knew democrats were all Socialist hippies, but wearing flip-flops while driving is beyond contemptible.”

“He bitched to you about ‘shotty no J’ didn’t he?” replied Harkin when reached for comment. “Look, it’s my car, and we have the majority. So I drive, nuff said.”

After the mid-term election results were announced, and Democrats lost majority in the House of Representatives, Grassley requested the keys to the Ford Tempo from Harkin. “It was the most humiliating experience of my life” Harkin said. “He made me hand them to him like the Japanese presented Tom Cruise with his sword in ‘The Last Samurai.’ Talk about ego.”

Grassley responded, “Well, [Last Samurai] was always my favorite movie, it only seemed appropriate”