Senator Charles Grassley is chiding Republicans who aren’t fully backing President Bush.

Grassley says the reason Bush’s public approval ratings dipped as low as 30 percent is because people in Bush’s own party have “unfairly” abandoned him. “What I’d like to do is disabuse you of some of those doubts so that we can pull together and we win this election,” Grassley says. “But we have to look in the mirror and ask ourselves ‘Why do we belittle maybe a little issue with this president…when on most of the things, the vast majority of things, you feel he’s doing the right thing?'”

Grassley says he’s heard too many Republican complaining or “getting down in the mouth” about things like Iraq, energy prices, the deficit and illegal immigration. “If you’re one of those who has just a little bit of disagreement (with Bush)…but you agree with him on everything else…you’ve got to suck it up and move on,” Grassley says.

Grassley is telling Republicans it’s time to unite and focus on November’s election. “The choice the American people have in this election is for us to stay on the offense in the war on terrorism…or the choice is to weaken America and admit defeat to Jihad,” Grassley says.

Grassley made his comments Saturday night at a Republican Party gathering in Polk County. Congressman Steve King, a Republican from western Iowa, spoke to the crowd, too. King touted his plan to construct a fence along the U.S./Mexican border. “The size of Santa Anna’s Army was only 6000 strong. On an average night, almost twice the size of Santa Anna’s Army comes across our border. They’re not wearing uniforms. They’re not marching under Mexican flags until they take to the streets of Los Angelos,” King said, referring to recent pro-immigrant rallies. “They don’t respect our constitution. They don’t respect our rule of law.”

King said the U.S. should quit giving automatic citizenship to babies who are born in the United States, but have an illegal immigrant as a mother. King has long called for building a concrete wall in heavily-traveled areas along the southern border, with chain-link fence elsewhere, plus cameras and sensors. “There are $65 billion worth of illegal drugs that come across our southern border in an average year,” King said. “That force is far stronger than people (who) want to come here to work in the fields or get a job in the packing plants or wherever. If we cannot stop people (who) want to come here to pick lettuce, how do we propose to stop people who are coming here to sell drugs?”

King has also proposed heavier sanctions against businesses caught hiring illegal immigrants. “There are about 69 million non-working Americans. They need a job, too,” King said. “What rational nation wouldn’t hire about one out of 10 of them instead of opening up their borders.”

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on a bill this coming week that calls for constructing a fence along seven-hundred miles of the southern border. The U.S. House has already approved a similar bill.