Alan Grayson is awesome.

[Vympel]

Video link

Finally, a Democratic Congressman telling it like it is, literally. You'll have to sit through about 2 minutes of mindless middle moron crap until he shows up.

What started this is Grayson's comment on the floor saying the Republican health care plan was 'don't get sick' and 'die quickly'. The Republican started their big faux outrage machine as is their usual way - and Grayson told them to go fuck themselves, with an 'apology' all right - to the dead. More of this please.

The reaction to him is just priceless - it's just so impolite! So uncouth! How dare he!

And he tells them to go fuck themselves. Over and over. They constantly try and imply he's the same as Republicans like Joe Wilson, or Sarah Palin - and his response is simple - "the difference between me and them is that they're full of shit, and what I'm saying is true. Suck it."

[Raesene]

I have to remember the phrase 'nattering nabob of negativism' for further use.

[Serafina]

Wait, a politican actually saying what (intelligent) people think?

Ok, that really IS awsome

Oh, and he is actually arguing science!

[Azazal]

I have to remember the phrase 'nattering nabob of negativism' for further use.

Fair warning, you'll be quoting Spiro T. Agnew, written for him by William Safire.


As for the OP, finally some with the balls to stand up and say what has been needed from day 1.

[Thanas]

It looks like Emmanuel Rahm is firing up the troops now. This is exactly his style - I am willing to bet good money that this was orchestrated by him.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Matt Taibbi reminisces about an encounter he had with Alan Grayson before the man was a representative:

I have personal experience with… well, let’s call it the unique personality of Alan Grayson. In his capacity as an attorney he once basically threatened to have me dismembered and have my body parts dumped in a tin canister and fired into the center of a burning supernova. And that’s actually underselling the real language he used. We were having a disagreement about the use of information given to me by a certain source in a story about military contracting, and in the middle of what had been a normal contentious argument between two sane adults, dude suddenly assumed this crazy monster-voice and just went medieval on me. He was roaring into the telephone about how he was going to crush me, how I was going to wish I had never messed with him, how I didn’t know who the hell I was dealing with, and so on. One phrase I remember in particular was, “I am going to strip the bark off of you!” It came totally out of the blue and it was like being on the telephone with a metamorphosing werewolf — the whole performance genuinely freaked me out. I may even have peed a little, I can’t remember.

The one thing that I could have used more of in the situation room is Grayson calling out Wolf Blitzer and CNN for selling the story that he's the one who's out of control when Republicans have been talking up blatant lies about death panels and socialism for weeks and months, or throwing that back in the Republican's faces. The Republican Congressman who they brought on to be his counterpoint was totally useless and basically came off as a thin white blur whining ineffectually about what Grayson was saying; CNN's other talking heads tried to rescue the meme that Grayson was out of line, but I think in the end they don't matter and the viewer has to decide based on Grayson himself whether he's crazy or not.

[Thanas]

Well, James Carville sounded sane as well.

[Mr Bean]

It looks like Emmanuel Rahm is firing up the troops now. This is exactly his style - I am willing to bet good money that this was orchestrated by him.

Rahm has always been a backdoor behind the scenes kind of guy. He has been accurately portrayed as the Democrats Karl Rove, in that both are ruthless behind the scenes strong-arms meant to try and beat the opposition into shape. The difference being of course that Kare was oh so much better at it because he's far more ruthless. And Rahm is much more independent(Thus less useful because his ideas can be different from what you want him to do, so he fights for himself first) than Karl.

Keep in mind all this time Rahm and the White House has refused to draw any lines in the sand for the public option and to be honest has spent his time the last few months running damage control over and over again for whatever insane right wing lie comes down the pipe next. That and trying to shut down Progressive efforts to target Snow and the other Republicans he still thinks he can win.

[Formless]

Its good to see a politician finally put their money where their mouth is on this subject. After all the bullshit attacks about Grayson being politically incorrect subside I hope this actually gets this discussion on the move again.

[Superboy]

As I watched that clip, I kept thinking "this guys talks like a republican" but I wasn't sure why. Then it hit me. He's making his point loudly and in a way that might just be effective. If more democrats can get riled up and loud like this guy, they may actually be able to accomplish something. Normally I don't like that style of rhetoric, but when your facing the republicans it might be the only thing that works.

[His Divine Shadow]

This guy is awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSRFMj9KD5M

[Alyrium Denryle]

What I find especially pleasing is that he is well educated, and uses that education to make good decisions. He has a BS in economics, masters in Government, and a JD. His legal career prior to entering politics consisted in large part of prosecuting Iraq contractor fraud and he is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. One of US.

[Lagmonster]

The one thing I'd love to see in America is the rise of their own personal version of Trudeau; a politician who generally has it in mind to protect and better his country, even if it means flipping off the opposition party, goofing off when the Queen isn't looking, and telling off journalists.

[Bellator]

Grayson is a dick for comparing the health care situation with the holocaust though.

[His Divine Shadow]

Really? I saw that but didn't really see what's so dickish about that, I didn't really even register it as particularly noteworthy part of the debate until now.

[Garibaldi]

Grayson is a dick for comparing the health care situation with the holocaust though.

He said the healthcare situation was "a holocaust", he didn't say it was like the Holocaust. There's some pretty significant nuance there.