Washington – Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, traded sandwiches in the Capitol cafeteria today, according to several people present at the time of the trade.
The two have worked together in the past, and are currently hard at work on fashioning critical health care legislation as leaders of the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Baucus is the committee chairman and Sen. Grassley the ranking Republican.
According to witnesses who were in the cafeteria at the time of the sandwich trade, it was Grassley who made the generous overture when he saw a need on the part of his Democratic colleague.
“Senator Grassley had ordered a tuna melt,” a senator also in the cafeteria at the time of the trade, said. The senator spoke on condition of anonymity. “And Senator Baucus looked over when he sat down and said, ‘Wow, that looks good. I should have gotten that.’ I think he had a turkey club or something. And Grassley looked over and smiled, and pushed his plate towards Baucus, and took Baucus’s plate for himself.”
The senator said that Sen. Baucus at first didn’t accept Sen. Grassley’s offering, but then relented.
“First he was like, ‘No, no, I couldn’t possibly,’” the senator said. “But after about three seconds of looking at that tuna melt, he gave in and grabbed the thing like his life depended on it.”
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