Finally an honest follow-up

Too bad it's not from our press corps:

"How is the privatization of Social Security going to cure the problem?" Donna McCoy of Newton asked Grassley, the Republican who leads the Senate Finance Committee and will be among those crafting legislation.

"It isn't going to, is the short answer, but since you raise this and it's such a significant issue, bear with me," Grassley said. He launched into a three-minute tour of Bush's proposal, the centerpiece of which is to let younger workers divert part of their Social Security payroll taxes to private investment accounts.

But, responded McCoy, "If it's not going to save Social Security, why are we doing it?"

It is the most logical follow-up question, isn't it?

Grassley responds:

To McCoy, the 71-year-old four-term Iowa senator said: "It's kind of a moral issue of whether Grandpa Grassley ... today drawing Social Security as I do, should I just be worried about Grandpa Grassley or should I be worried about (granddaughter) Dana Grassley ... When she retires, will she have Social Security?"

I thought for a brief moment his next sentence was going to be, "Not if Grandpa Grassley and Uncle George get their way." At least I could have admired him for his honesty.

And the point would be, and one that I haven't made in a while, is that Social Security is not secure with private accounts involved, especially when they are coupled with the cuts from Plan II.

Also I noticed Grassley won re-election in 2004 fairly easily. Which made me wonder about other Republican's out shilling the private plans. Those pushing hard, are they up for re-election soon? And did they have a wide margin of victory?

Santorum's the only other guy I know pushing hard for Bush and facing re-election. I'm not saying anyone's hiding or anything, I'm just wondering because I haven't looked into it myself.