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My operative theory at this point is no longer that the senator suffers from mental illness, but rather that Grassley is undergoing the Jack/Tyler Durden condition of having multiple consciousnesses operate at different times, as seen in Fight Club. Sometimes, he's like Ed Norton, nice and conciliatory. And other times, he's like Brad Pitt, brutal and acerbic. You never know what you're going to get with old Chuck, but I think at this point Democrats should probably just not bother with the unpredictability.