so you're saying a democrat shouldn't hit back against republican critics? or should he do the alan colmes/droopy dawg thing (the link is down, but "family guy" did a brutal parody of the hanniy/colmes show, in which colmes was played by Droopy)? i mean, she started it by coming to

as for grayson's aggressive punches, they'll sell fine. grayson comes off looking like he's got balls, which is more than i can say for most of the meek widdle democwats.

seriously, what would you have him do? treat her with respect and legitimize her? ignore the attacks? how'd that work out for kerry in 2004?


John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??

I don't know how it plays elsewhere, but I'm really starting to dig Alan Grayson.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

Her tactics and dishonesty and ignorance deserve Grayson's relatively mild and sarcastic jokes.  Who do you think she is?  She doesn't have honesty or integrity.  

Why do you think she deserves any more respect than any other whorish politician and entertainer?  She's the lady gaga of politics at the present.  Wait a few years until her phermones deplete and there will be another just like her either male or female will come along.

alohapolitics.com

Wow. I still haven't really figured out how I feel about Grayson's style: my heart tends towards Obama's "our better angels" approach, but I admit that my Dubyaesque gut finds Grayson's rhetoric somewhat thrilling. However, I don't know that the latter is any more or less politcally productive than the former.

I'm just not sure - you are right, it will be interesting to see how Grayson does in November. Has anyone seen any polls on him? I can only find the one his campaign put out that said he was "leading" the GOP and Dem primaries.

I am a fan of treating public morons with the amount of respect they deserve, no matter the political effect.

jammni

Last I saw, Grayson would win right now in the REPUBLICAN primary.
http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2010/3/4/182213/8548/Diary/Democrat-Alan-Grayson-Leading-in-Repub lican-Primary

Suggests people of all stripes like someone who can back up their talk.

This is comedy gold. He could do a stand-up routine with these lines. I like him; we could use a few more Dems who aren't afraid to call out dummies and liars when they see them. I'm also hoping Al Franken soon starts letting some zingers fly.

I think he's filling the "attack dog" void in the Democratic Party.

I want him to be my sensei.

Kudos to Grayson!

Oh, there you are, Perry. -Phineas -SLB-

Hmm-I wish we could clone Alan Grayson. He says what needs to be said!

I wonder if in an earlier life he was a writer for 'Seinfeld.' I read that Seinfeld's writers were disabused Harvard law students.  That would certainly fit Grayson, and he has the style.

Knut

President Grayson

i like it

I wasn't going to comment, because what a Florida congressman and a former Alaska governor say when sniping at each other isn't that important to me.

However, I'm always a little skeptical of unanimous votes...or threads...so here's what is troubling to me about Grayson's comments:

1.  Lack of focus:  Taking the time to work up a statement like that when the House is preparing to take the most consequential vote for American social policy in 40 years indicates Grayson likes to pick fights---even when the fight is a distraction.  (Especially when he's just launched a Medicare-for-all bill.)

2.  Intellectual bullying:  Yes, we know Grayson is better educated than Palin, knows policy better than Palin, can think on his feet better than Palin.  However there's something to be said for not picking a fight with an unarmed opponent.  Over time, most people don't like bullies.  (Most people also don't like large men who pick on smaller women; to the extent politics is a visual sport, Grayson should be smart enough to know the optics of this aren't in his favor.)

3.  As is the case any time a politician gratuitously attacks, I start to wonder what (if anything) is behind the attack---and is there something in that politician's past or current life that is driving his/her behavior.  I certainly don't know of anything (because I know almost nothing about Grayson), but I wonder.

I agree with Booman and the commenters who said it'll be interesting to see how this kind of behavior sells in November.  What's more important for "the progressive project" in the US is whether this kind of behavior helps or hurts in the long run---over the next 10, 20, 30 years.  

Conservatives love and hold onto Reagan because he's the one who launched them into power, and launched the country on a "long march" to the right.  Now that everyone can see the wreckage, conservatives are frantic to blame someone else.  

Progressives are left to clean up the mess, while trying to avoid getting blamed for causing it.  That's one reason (of many) why we need to be disciplined fighters on what Bruce Springsteen in a recent song called the "long walk home" to the big-hearted country we love.

Grayson's a great talent, and we need political leaders like him, just as we need leaders like Obama.  That's why I'd hate to lose him, particularly over small things like how he talks to Sarah Palin.

Grayson is great. Obama has a different approach - and needs it. But what's best about Grayson is that he does not pretend the Republix are patriots, well-intentioned, sensible, or need to have their policy ideas taken seriously. The heavy sarcasm, I can take or leave, but the refusal to go along with the fraud that the Republix are anything but a party of charlatans and crazies is wonderful.