This blogger has found a hero: Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL). The dude went to the microphone in the House earlier this week with flip charts. The blogger is sucker for flip charts; he voted for Ross Perot in '92 after getting a look at that wacko's flip charts. Then, in response to Dumbo cries of outrage and demands that he apologize, Congressman Grayson returned to the microphone and gave those fools an apology for the ages. If this is (fair & balanced) chutzpah, so be it.
[x Salon]
War Room (09/30/09, 10:40 EDT) — Representative Alan. Grayson (D-FL): GOP Wants You "To Die Quickly"
By Alex Koppelman
It's not only Republicans who can make wild, inflammatory statements about healthcare reform. Representative Alan Grayson, a first-term Democrat from Florida, proved that on the House floor Tuesday night.
Grayson came prepared for a floor statement, bringing with him a set of visual aids that documented what he said is the Republican plan for healthcare reform.
"It's a very simple plan," Grayson said, showing off his first sign. "Here it is, the Republicans' healthcare plan for America: Don't get sick.... I think the Republicans understand that that plan isn't always going to work, it's not a foolproof plan. So the Republicans have a backup plan in case you do get sick. If you get sick in America, this is what the Republicans want you to do — if you get sick, America, the Republican healthcare plan is this: Die quickly. That's right, the Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."
Republicans on the floor called for an apology; Grayson declined to make one.
There's room to criticize congressional Republicans for not proposing a plan of their own -- there are a few bills out there, but the leadership has been smart enough not to put the official GOP brand on them. But Grayson's claim doesn't even compare to that; in its own way, it's no different from all the talk from the other side of the aisle about "death panels" in the Democratic proposal.
War Room (09/30/09, 17:25 EDT) — Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) Apologizes
By Alex Koppelman
House Republicans wanted Representative. Alan Grayson (D-FL) to apologize for saying the GOP healthcare reform plan is "don't get sick," and if you do get sick, "die quickly." And Grayson did head back to the House floor on Wednesday to discuss his remarks — but the apology the congressman made is probably not what his Republican colleagues had in mind.
"I would like to apologize — I would like to apologize to the dead," Grayson said, citing a recent study that showed almost 45,000 Americans die each year in part because of a lack of health insurance. After discussing the study, he continued:
I think we should do something about that, and the Democratic healthcare plan does do something about that — it makes healthcare affordable for those who can't afford insurance, and it saves these people's lives. Let's remember that we should care about people even after they're born.
So I call upon the Democratic members of the House, I call upon the Republican members of the House, I call upon all of us to do our jobs for the sake of America, for the sake of those dying people and their families. I apologize that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.
One House Republican leader had planned to introduce a resolution condemning Grayson, but then opted to wait to see if he'd apologize. It's hard to imagine that statement will mollify them.
[Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for the online magazine Salon. He runs Salon's political blog, War Room. Formerly the media critic for another online magazine, Dragonfire, Koppelman is a contributing editor at Smith Magazine and has written for New York Magazine and the Huffington Post, among others. He has appeared on MSNBC, CNN Headline News and Fox News, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.]
Copyright © 2009 Salon Media Group, Inc.
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