“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” For once, I’m going to take the advice of George W. Bush, who famously mangled the old saying but got his point across anyway, and I’m going to decide not to believe Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. Not again. Not this time. He’s fed us this same line before. Now he’s saying the same thing about Jared Kushner. And I’m not buying it.

I gave Chuck Grassley the benefit of the doubt back in August when he told a town hall attendee that he would help facilitate the release of the Trump Russia dossier testimony transcript. Four and a half months later, Grassley was still blocking its release behind the scenes. Finally, his Democratic counterpart Dianne Feinstein decided to simply publish them behind Grassley’s back. That prompted Grassley to whine about how Feinstein was somehow trying to sabotage the Trump Russia investigation. Fast forward to today, and Grassley is now making promises when it comes to Kushner.

Grassley appeared at yet another town hall meeting today, and he was predictably asked if his Senate Judiciary Committee is still going to interview Kushner about the Trump Russia scandal. Grassley said yes. But then he added “We’re getting some more documents, and that’s not done.” (link) When pressed for a timeframe, he said “Uh, it takes a long time.”

This has strong echoes of when Chuck Grassley claimed last summer that he would try to help get the Trump Russia dossier transcript released, but then claimed it could take a long time for the testimony to be transcribed, and that it could take even longer for the witness to sign off on the transcript. Those were lame excuses back then, and now we know he was lying about it. He’s making lame excuses about Jared Kushner testifying now. I’ll believe it when I see it. No wonder Dianne Feinstein has had enough of Grassley’s antics.