Saturday, October 17, 2009

If only all democrats were like Alan Grayson

Economics and politics go hand in hand. On October 16 night, Alan Grayson was Bill Maher's guest. I was amazed at how Alan's sense of humor eclipsed Bill's for a few minutes. When Bill asked Alan about his unusual for politician directness, Alan said that he's been in Washington only for 9 months and he's new at that. I thought, I'll follow Alan in the press. Here' are pieces from blogs.tampabay.com (Oct 2-16, the most recent first):

Democrat Alan Grayson turns on his own party

Rep. Alan Grayson spent the past few weeks attacking Republicans over health care and now he's going after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Grayson, through his re-election campaign, has started an online petition "demanding he pass real health care reform now!"

The petition accuses Reid, D-Nevada, of trying to placate Republican Sen. Olympia Snow, the lone Republican to vote for the Finance Committee bill. "Olympia Snowe was not elected President last year. Olympia Snowe has no veto power in the Senate. Olympia Snowe represents a state with one half of one percent of America's population."

On Wednesday, Grayson delivered about 90,000 petitions to Reid's office, a bold move but one that delighted advocates of a public option and liberal bloggers. Best headline was on Daily Kos: Alan Grayson Sticks a Pitchfork In Harry Reid's A--.

Alan Grayson, newest Dem rock star

About 3,000 Democratic activists are at Disney World for the Florida Democrats' annual convention. Quick observations: Bill Nelson can't go anwhere without heckler shouting "Public Option!" or "Health Care Now!"

And maybe even more than Alex Sink, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson is the party's newest superstar. He was greeted this morning with roars and declared there is a simple difference between Democrats and Republicans: "We have a conscience. Every one in this room with a conscience, get on your feet!" And they did. (more on Grayson here)

Grayson: Who cares about Olympia Snowe?

Rep. Alan Grayson just wrapped up a floor speech where he said Democrats are too worried about trying to gain support of moderate counterparts like Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine.

Snow0620 "I want to remind us all Olympia Snowe was not elected president last year," the Orlando Democrat said. "Olympia Snowe has no veto power in the Senate. Olympia Snowe represents a state with one half of one percent of America's population. What America wants is health care reform. America doesn't care if it gets 51 votes in the Senate or 60 votes in the Senate or 83 votes."

Grayson has already said he will not apologize for bashing Republicans last week but for good measure, and looking directly into the C-SPAN camera, he said it again. "I will not apologize for a simple reason: America doesn't care about your feelings. ... But America does care about health care. If you're against it, then get out of the way. Just get out of the way. ...

"America understands that there's one party in the country that's in favor of health care reform and one party that's against it. And they know why. They understand that if Barack Obama were somehow able to cure hunger in the world, the Republicans would blame him for overpopulation. They understand that if Barack Obama could somehow bring about world peace, they would blame him for destroying the defense industry. In fact, they understand that if Barack Obama has a BLT sandwich tomorrow for lunch, they will try to ban bacon."

Grayson 'regrets' using Holocaust image in health care speech

Graysonletter U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the man of the hour, says he regrets comparing deaths of uninsured Americans to a holocaust. In a letter today to the Florida Anti-Defamation League, he writes:

"I am Jewish and have relatives who died in the Holocaust. In no way did I mean to minimize the Holocaust. I regret the choice of words, and I will not repeat it. I am a staunch supporter of Israel and on numerous occasions, I have said that Iran must be restrained to avoid another Holocaust. I personally support the Anti-Defamation League and its work."

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