Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Right Honorable Alan Grayson (D. Fla.), the Congressman From Acorn

Congressman Joe Wilson spontaneously yelled out at President Obama during his health care address to Congress “You lie.” The President probably was misstating the truth, or perhaps engaged in hyperbolic rhetoric during his presentation, but no more nor less than his predecessors.

The Democrats thought Congressman Wilson’s outburst was beneath the dignity of Congress and censured him for breaching the House rules of civility. The censure became a badge of honor for the Congressman, who has since raised millions of dollars from supporters around the country.

Hardly had the furor over Congressman Wilson’s lack of decorum settled down than a freshman Democrat from Orlando, by way of the Bronx, brought poster boards into the House and explained the Republican health care plan to elders as “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.” In short he projected the democratic plan onto the Republicans.

The next day he stated on the floor of Congress: “I would like to apologize; I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”

The Republicans were outrage by his lack of decorum on the floor of the House. They demanded censure, but instead, the Congressman became a hero to liberals and his campaign contributions started flowing in. Congressman Grayson's remarks were premeditated and malicious compared to the spontaneity of Congressman Wilson's.

The Congressman sounded like a dim witted loud mouth from Da Bronx, but first impressions can be deceiving. He graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Harvard, received his law degree from Harvard law, and a masters from the Kennedy School of Government. Loud yes, stupid no.

Shortly after his election last November against the incumbent in a slightly Republican District, both he and a staffer stated Grayson “was the Congressman from Acorn.”

Coincidentally, Orlando is one of the cities Acorn was caught in voter registration fraud.

He became Acorn’s strongest supporter in Congress in the recent legislation to bar Acorn from receiving government funds. Even his fellow Democrats were appalled at the videos showing Acorn workers counseling an “an underage prostitute and pimp” on how to evade taxes.

Congressman Grayson, the brilliant lawyer, skewered a Republican on the constitutional bar against Bills of Attainder, eventhough he had to know that the bill was written in the time honored Congressional language of not specifically naming the proscribed company or individual, but using generic language that only applied to the one.

He referred to Republicans as “knuckle-dragging Neanderthals” in TV appearances.

Democrats remained happy because now they seemingly had a wingnut of their own to counter the Republicans Joe Wilson, Michelle Bachmann, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh.

A distinction exists, the subtly of which escapes the strident New Yorker. His career has been spent telling truth to power, but his Republican opposites have simply been telling the truth.

His Democratic colleagues are learning they have a loose canyon on their hands, one who is suffering from diarrhea of the mouth. He referred to Linda Robertson, an aide to Fed Chair Ben Bernancke, as a “K Street whore.”

The Congressman’s office initially defended the statement, stating that Linda Robertson was a career lobbyist who “advocates for whatever she gets paid to promote.”

The National Organization of Women was outraged by the Congressman’s remarks.

A fellow Democrat, Congressman Anthony Wiener of New York, apologized for saying Grayson was “one fry short of a happy meal.”

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