The Hill News

Add chocolate to marathon running, University of Northern Iowa sports and tweeting on the list of things that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) enjoys.

"Today is National Chocolate Day. So I'm celebrating," he told his 22,000-some followers on Thursday.

Spokeswoman Beth Pellett Levine elaborated.

"He celebrated by having chocolate, of course! It was a Dove chocolate bar because it was the only chocolate bar we could find in downtown Webster City, Iowa!"

She added, "Generally, the chocolate of choice are Hershey's Nuggets, although he isn't picky!"

Grassley held a meeting with supporters alongside Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) in Webster City, where he plugged the political benefits of social media.

"Whether you do social networking or e-mailing or not, you probably know a lot of people who do. I believe that the person who mastered this is now the president of the United States," he said. "If he hadn't mastered this tool of social network, he wouldn't be president now. It helped elect him and raised millions of dollars."

"We aren't asking you to raise any money," he continued. "But we are asking you to use this social networking, this Internet, this e-mail to tell all the people you can why there needs to be changes in Washington."

He we! nt on to describe what he sees as the danger of the opposing party.

"I carry with me what I call a Democrat fork. You can eat your meal with it," he said, holding up a fork with telescoping handle. "They eat their own meal with it, and then they eat your meal with it."

Grassley is leading Democratic challenger Roxanne Colin by a wide margin.