Moe Lane

(Via @davidhauptmann) Regarding Alan Grayson’s latest, predictable attempts at outrage, I offer a prayer:

Dear Lord,

Please never let me be in a situation where I need to do things like this in order to achieve an erection.

Love,

Moe Lane

PS: Mere mortals can always contribute here.

Let me put it this way: below (in no particular order) is my Top Ten List of Democratic Members of the 111th Congress Whose Presence There Personally Offends My Sense of Civics.

David Obey
Jack Murtha
Alan Mollohan
Eric Massa
Charlie Rangel
Russ Carnahan
Carol Shea-Porter
Alan Grayson
Jim Moran
Patrick Kennedy

It’s going great. Thanks for asking!

Moe Lane

This is via That’s My Congress, which is about to become very confused about why it’s getting traffic from a VRWC site. Here’s the list:

Lois Capps
Michael Capuano
Ben Cardin
Diana DeGette
Eliot Engel
Barney Frank
Alan Grayson
Carolyn McCarthy
Bill Pascrell
Adam Schiff
Allyson Schwartz
Heath Shuler

…and they have two things in common. First, they’re all Democrats. Second, they all have email addresses with Erickson & Company. And what is Erickson & Company? As That’s My Congress puts it:

Erickson & Company is not a lobbying firm. Instead, it helps set up events like the Heath Shuler’s BBQ, at which lobbyists and other people seeking special favors can come, check in hand, to pay for access to elected officials and their aides.

In other words, it’s a legal [and Democratic-aligned] money-laundering facility for lobbyists. Need to toss Heath Shuler some cash, but you’re a dirty lobbyist? Well, go to Shuler’s little BBQ (run by a go-between), drop a grand for a plate of food, and say hi! No fuss, no muss, no need for disclosure. Shuler’s happy: he’s getting his cut of your entry fee. The go-between is happy: it’s getting its cut of your entry fee. And you’re happy: this is a lot cheaper than a maximum campaign contribution would be.

So remember this, the next time anybody on that list – or, honestly, any Democrat – talks about the evil of lobbying: the sound you hear isn’t scorn towards those who would try to pay for influence.  Nope.  It’s scorn towards the rubes who don’t know how to tell when a Democrat is gaming the system.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

In a previous post I wrote some unkind (note: not ‘inaccurate’) words about Jon Corzine, and how he’s not being especially brave this election cycle. Of course, given that this guy (Rep. Alan Grayson, D-FL) is held up as a standard for speaking-truth-to-power among the Left, maybe that’s not so surprising:

That was taken from a larger clip done by O’Reilly and improved with several stills showing politicians from both parties doing precisely what Alan Grayson is whining that nobody expects him to do: answer questions in the hallway, just as if he was a regular human being and everything. You’d think that a guy who’s trying to make a buck off of his supposed tough-guy image would be eager to appear on a show like O’Reilly and take the fight to Fox; then again, that would assume that you believed that said tough-guy image was actually true to begin with.

No wonder that Central Floridan activists have already created a site dedicated to getting rid of him next year (H/T: the Orlando Sentinel).  Normally, this sort of thing waits until there’s an actual candidate for opposition to coalesce around; then again, normally sitting Congressmen don’t call female civil servants ‘K Street whores.’

Moe Lane

PS: You know, Grayson: you weren’t the only person in the universe who was always picked last for dodgeball. It’s just that the rest of us mostly got over it in college.

Crossposted to RedState.

Talk about timing:

President Obama offered him some warm words at a Miami fundraiser for the Democratic congressional campaign committees last night.

Obama, in introducing the members of Congress in attendance, called Grayson – along with Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Kendrick Meek – as “outstanding members of Congress.”

This would be the same day that it came out that Alan Grayson went on the Alex Jones show last month – the Alex Jones Show – and called a Treasury staffer a “K Street whore.” This is actually angering more than a few Democrats right now – and if you’re wondering why this resonated when other nastiness didn’t, it may be because K Street in DC is also known for being a hangout for actual prostitutes, which certainly puts a somewhat different complexion on the attack*. Now Grayson’s behavior, I understand: he’s a darling of the progressive antiwar Left, which means that his casual misogyny is a unexceptional rhetorical flourish to that sort**. He’ll just scream louder and louder until he gets smacked for it. But what’s the President’s excuse?

Letting the Teleprompter do his thinking for him again, perhaps?

Moe Lane

*Although Rep. Weiner – who originally declared Grayson to be a ‘one fry short of a Happy Meal’ – has since changed his tune.

**See here (via Instapundit) for how more and more feminists are reacting to such indulgences.

Crossposted to RedState.

And if you take a look at his Necronomicon*, you’ll see that people are already treating it with all the respect that such a grandstanding act deserves.

Needless to say, I’ve already gotten the screen shot. Silly man.

Moe Lane

*Somebody should have told him what “book of the names of the dead” means in Latin. And note that I’m not assuming that he meant this all along; Grayson’s not that imaginative.

Crossposted to RedState.

Just a quick survey:

1. CA-10 (D+11): David Harmer isn’t quitting this particular special election, and he’s having a bit of fun with the… well, I don’t know what John Garamandi was trying to do here:
   
   …but I hope that he does it again. A lot.
2. FL-08 (R+2): Alan Grayson opened his mouth again; apparently he’s under the impression that there are no such things as recording devices.  Or that his constituents like being lied to, in a stupid fashion.
   
   The challenger for this seat is still up in the air (a lot of people want the shot), but the NRCC is happy to spotlight it anyway.  Nominee donation fund here.
3. VA-05 (R+5): We have a candidate to go up against Tom Perriello!  Virginia state senator Robert Hurt. Perriello is – like Grayson, and oh, about sixty other or Democratic legislators – just a bit too liberal for his seat, and the GOP intends to bring that up. A lot.

So, as you can see: the machine is functional.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I’m not sure which would be worse.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D, FL-08) has finally found a line beyond which he is personally not prepared to cross.  While the Congressman may be prepared to lie about Republican intentions on health care, he at least knows enough to realize when he’s gone too far, as his respectful letter describing his ‘regrets’ to the Anti-Defamation League indicates.  Via FoxNews:

Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, who has drawn fire for saying Republicans want Americans to “die quickly” if they get sick, expressed regret Friday for comparing the health care crisis to a “holocaust.”

Grayson vowed not to use the term again in a letter he sent Friday to the Andrew Rosenkranz, Florida regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish organization that fights anti-Semitism.

[snip]

“In no way did I mean to minimize the Holocaust,” Grayson wrote in the letter obtained by FOXNews.com. “I regret the choice of words, and I will not repeat it.”

Again: note how respectful Grayson is being towards the ADL, there.  That’s because he has staff to handle being disrespectful to them. (more…)

…from your last campaign, relax: the Online Left is a soft touch for that sort of thing. Happened with Bob Miller (remember him?); and now it’s happening for Rep. Alan Grayson.  I heartily agree with my colleague Brian Faughnan on this one:

I heartily endorse the idea of Democratic donors giving generously to Grayson’s Congressional campaign. It might enable Grayson to repay some of the $2.6 million he loaned his campaign last cycle. And as Grayson’s personal net worth is somewhere north of $31 million, it’s not likely to make a dime’s worth of difference in how much Grayson spends next year, nor on whether he wins or loses. It will however, sop up some donations that might have made a difference in other targeted races.

Tells you something when a candidate doesn’t need an opponent* to get an opposition website, complete with donation page. Tells you something more when Cook upgrades your seat from “Leans Dem” to “Toss-up.”

Moe Lane

PS:

*Keep watching the skies on that one, by the way.

Crossposted to RedState.

How professionally embarrassing:

Freshman Rep. Grayson Taken to Cleaners in Ponzi Scheme

Freshman Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) lost $3 million in a stock swindle between 2000 and 2005, a Florida television station reported this week.

According to Orlando’s Local 6, Grayson was an investor in a Ponzi scheme run by the company Derivium Capital.

The usual too-good-to-be-true-and-it-was kind of situation; not to imply anything about the Congressman’s mental prowess, of course.  Or judgment.  Or even native good sense.  Still, good thing that he’s no longer in a position where he’s obliged to play with money, huh?

[Grayson] is a member of the Financial Services Committee.

…Never mind.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers. Have you seen the latest from Grassley on the IG firings?

He has difficulty keeping his hands to himself.

Literally.

I’ve read the Constitution several times, but I’ve never seen the part that says that elected officials are allowed to physically assault people who’d like to ask questions. Like, say, about his questionable earmark habits:

Congressman Alan Grayson has had a close relationship with the civil rights group for which he tried to get hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. As WDBO first reported, the freshman Representative requested $350,000 for the Florida Civil Rights Association, despite its history of controversy, and being run by a man the state says is not trustworthy enough to be a bail bondsman.
(H/T: the NRCC)

Finding the constraints demanded by the dignity of the office too much to bear, Rep. Grayson? Because that’s easily fixed.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

And I want a pony.

The moral of this story?

Rep. Alan Grayson was standing in the middle of Disney World when it hit him: What Americans really need is a week of paid vacation.

So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation Act — legislation that would be the first to make paid vacation time a requirement under federal law.

Don’t let Congressmen go to Disney World. As Allahpundit put it, “One fun ride on the teacups and they’re ready to lay down a mandate for 300 million people.”  Particularly when we’re in the middle of an economic downturn and a rising unemployment rate – and if you don’t get why either’s important in this context, I suggest that you give Rep. Grayson’s office a call; he may be hiring.

Moe Lane

PS: You know how you know when you’ve said something dumb in this business?  When even a reliably Democrat-friendly media entity like Politico can’t help but snark.  From later on:

So far, no group has come out in opposition of the bill. Nor has anyone announced opposition to roller coaster rides, cookouts on the beach or salt-water taffy on the boardwalk.

You can almost see the Politico ruffling Grayson’s hair and telling him what a big Congressman he’s getting to be, there.

Crossposted to RedState.