1: Conservative public figure makes flatly ignorant/blatantly wrong public statement
2: Wingnuts nationwide scrabble desperately to find some shred of justification for the error
3: ?????
4: Profit!

I think he was just referencing the revolution's of 1989 ie China's Tiananmen Square and the fall of communism across eastern Europe.. China squashed those protests and now, with Russia, vetoes UN Resolutions to do something about Syria attempting to crush their own revolution.

@mattb17 you are saying he should have tweeted a paragraph? Haha. Yeah right. His point was clearly made with what he tweeted. It wasn't an error. China & Russia blocked the UN resolution on Syria with vetoes.. Therefore they support the countries actions which is where u get Red China & Soviet Russia

And this fear mongering about “Red China” is equally disingenuous, if not equally retarded. The right wing trolls about “socialism” here, but the Chamber of Commerce sends lobbyists to China to advocate against stronger human rights laws to preserve American corporations' low-wage manufacturing base. As much as they claim to hate China's politics, they certainly love their business practices.

@dwaynep No that's not it. Stop trying to justify a clear error. Using Soviet Russia and Red China together is reflective of a person who still thinks of both nations in a Cold War context.  Now if the Senator had said something like “I applaud the position of the ambassador regarding Russia's position..blah, blah…who appear to be acting more in a manner akin to their predecessor the Soviet Union” then I'd given it to him. But he didn't This quote by a Senator who clearly perceives the world in a context that hasn't existed for over 20 years. If he was trying to make a insult towards the Russians, he did it in a very very odd way.

Ha. Right.

Grassley, like most conservatives, hasn't reassessed the world since Reagan was in office. I say this not as snark, but rather as an honest assessment of why the GOP is so fucked up these days.

You forgot that Vladimir Putin is unpopularly attempting to run for a third presidential term causing mass protests to this very day. Medvedev was Putin's protege and was practically assured the win. While he was “president,” Putin was the Prime Minister and Medvedev was essentially Putin's puppet. China is a strange combination of capitalism and communism and certainly cannot be called democratic. The wall came down in Russia and China has opened up relations with the West but relations with both are tense and unrest among their people about the way each country is governed is plainly evident. It would be inappropriate for Ambassador Rice to refer to them as Soviet Russia and Red China. The situation in both countries is far too complicated for anyone to place them in a tidy category.

@dwaynep I totally understood the point. You are the one who clearly doesn't understand the parody.

@Andrew.. That is irrelevant. Using the term “soviet” was an obvious slam at Russia for their actions as of late and at the UN regarding Syria. You are totally missing the point.

Ok, it's not Soviet Russia anymore, it's a Russian dictatorship.  Wow, you blew Grassley out of the water that must smart, you are so astute.

Grassley's tweets are never in complete sentences or coherent English. This one definitely stands out for it's naivety, but the fact that it's incomprehensible is nothing new.

@dwaynep Circumventing the constitution doesn't make someone a communist. Communism is an economic and political system. What you are referring to is a dictatorship.

I guess the poster missed the fact that Putin is circumventing their constitution by running for a third term as president. Also he hasnt exactly been a “democratic” leader.. Which is what the Senator is referring to. Do your homework before jumping the gun.

In Soviet Russia, stupidity tweets you!