Rep. Alan Grayson comes out swinging

Yesterday, on the floor of the House of Representatives, an elected Democratic member of Congress came out of the shadows and landed a few Rocky Balboa left hooks in defense of health care reform and finally took the fight to the Republicans.  Alan Mark Grayson, a congressman representing Florida’s 8th district since 2008, had simply had enough. He was weary of the lies about members of his party wanting to kill Grandma. He was fed up with the silly talk of death panels and the heartless blatter of who should be covered and who should be left on the street to die.

And he was tired of waiting for a Republican Health Plan that will never see the light of day because it simply does not exist. So Rep. Alan Mark Grayson of Flordia, by way of the Bronx, New York, rolled up his sleeves, put on the gloves and went at the liars and fear-mongers on the other side of the aisle. And he went in heavy. He broke down the Republican Health Plan like only a true son of the tough Bronx streets would have the cubes to do. Here it is: “Don’t get sick. But if you do, die quickly.”

These comments, of course, sent the National Republican Congressional Committe into a red-faced frenzy. They demanded an apology. And Rep. Grayson quickly gave them one. “I would like to apologize to the dead and their families,” he said. He cited the number of Americans who will die this year due to a lack of health care at 44,000 (a figure that comes from a Harvard Study that was released last month). I imagine this is not the apology the Southern gentlemen of the NRCC were expecting to hear.

If the Republicans are looking for a fight, eager to go 12 hard rounds on this health care dance of theirs, they have picked the wrong guy to get in the ring with. Grayson is an in-your-face congressman and he does not hide behind a TV network or radio hosts or bloggers or insurance money men. He comes at you straight up and be prepared when he does because he’s not shy about fighting back.

This is a man who knows the law and makes it work for the people he represents and the country at large. In his short time in the House, he has taken on military contractors who sold defective parachutes to the government. He has co-sponsored a bill that requires any bonus paid by companies who received government funds to be based on performance. He has even taken on the real head of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh himself. Earlier this year, when Limbaugh made his now famous “I hope he fails” comment about President Obama, Rep. Grayson said, “If America ever did one percent of what Limbaugh wanted us to do, we’d all be on pain killers.”

After Republican National Committe Chairman Michael S. Steele (the man who foolishly thinks he is the head of the party) got on bended knee and spit out an apology to Limbaugh for critical comments El Rusbo thought he had made, Rep. Grayson felt he should apologize as well. ”I’m sorry Limbaugh called for harsh sentences for drug addicts while he was a drug addict ,” he said.

That’s the Bronx talking there. And don’t for one second write off Rep. Grayson as a soft as jelly liberal. This guy was a law clerk for both Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg AND Justice Antonin Scalia. You play in those rooms, you better know what the game is and how to win at it.

It was interesting to note that the NRCC was outraged by comments made by a fellow member of the House while they were in session. They were not outraged when another member called the President of the United States a liar and has yet to apologize in front of the full House. They got an apology out of Rep. Grayson that same day, maybe not one they wanted to hear, but he did say he was sorry to the sorry lot surrounding him.

The NRCC has not expressed outrage over the lies being spread by members of their own party–from death panels to Grandma being gassed. No, that doesn’t bother them. Here is the latest fly buzzing up their nose–President Obama taking 18 hours out of his life to make a case for the Olympics finding a home in Chicago. This has them twittering like speed freaks. Forget for a minute the number of jobs that would bring to Illinois practically overnight. They don’t care about that. They want this President to fail at everything. I didn’t hear them say a word when President Bush went to China for four days just to watch the Olympics. Maybe they thought he would come back with some crucial tips for our women’s volleyball team. And how many times have we had to hear that one of Mitt Romney’s greatest accomplishments was his work running the Salt Lake City Olympics? Must have been brutal for a Mormon to get the job done in Utah.

But the Olympics in Chicago while we’re fighting two wars? That’s not Presidential. And health care reform? Not on our watch. Not now, not ever.

That is why we need to rally around Rep. Alan Mark Grayson. He heard enough of their empty talk and called them out. The Republicans will come at him with full force and in a covert way, through their TV network and their web sites and their radio mouthpieces. They have bullied the Democrats and been allowed to do so by a party that holds all the cards but still refuses to use them. They have frightened a country into thinking health care reform this year means no guns next year and a Marxist state the next.

They are cowards and liars and need to be taken on head on. Until yesterday, there seemed to be no one out there willing to put on the gloves and go to work. Then up stepped Alan Mark Grayson, from Florida’s 8th District.

One man. One voice. Speaking the truth on the last day of September.

He’ll start to take his hits today. Rush will go at him as will Sean and O’Reilly and Beck and the rest of the GOP mouths that roar. They will throw every lie they can come up with against him, charge him with everything from showboating to treason, ignoring the simple fact that all he spoke was the truth. They will wait for him to wilt and buckle. He won’t get much help from the other members of his team who shudder when they should be swinging.

He will be in this fight alone and that’s good enough for me.

Take the odds and lay your money on the Florida Congressman from the Bronx in this one.

On the streets where he comes from they learn early on how to fight and how to win.

And they are at their best against bullies.