Alan Grayson, Light and Dark

Just when Alan Grayson's delighted takedowns of vicious repugs approach self-parody, he reminds us that he remains laser-focused on the business of restoring the nation to democracy.

First, the light:

During an appearance yesterday on Hardball, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) jokingly suggested that former Vice President Dick Cheney is a vampire.

Chris Matthews asked Grayson what he thinks of Cheney's attacks on President Obama for "dithering" on Afghanistan.

"Well, my response is -- and by the way, I have trouble listening to what he says sometimes, because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he's talking," said Grayson. "But my response is this: He's just angry because the president doesn't shoot old men in the face. But by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?"

Even Matthews, no Cheney fan himself, was shocked: "Oh God -- we got to keep a level here. Let me ask you this: Don't you have any Republican friends?"

Grayson laughed, and said that some of his best friends are Republicans. Check out the exchange at the 5:25 mark here:

When a commenter called Grayson "ballsy" for saying such things while representing a republican district, I responded:

Being ballsy is the only thing that will SAVE his seat.

Alan Grayson is absolutely the only living Democrat who understands that the way to win ANY election is to stand up on your hind legs and say, "This is what I stand for and anybody who doesn't agree can fuck off and die."

That's the way repugs have been winning for 30 years. It's the way dems used to win for the 50 years before that.

And it's the ONLY way dems are going to hang on to Congress and the White House - by emulating Alan Grayson.

But Alan Grayson doesn't need me or anyone else to defend him; he's busy in Congress defending the Constitution from ravaging repugs:

You might expect a man who graduated from Harvard Law School with honors, and was later a law clerk in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (1984-85) under Robert Bork, Ruth Ginsburg, and Antonin Scalia to know his stuff concerning the Constitution. And with that kind of background you might also reasonably assume such a man would not suffer fools gladly when presented with an alternate view of reality on U.S. Constitutional matters. Grayson uses the words of William Rehnquist and James Madison to destroy a rather hapless Paul Broun.

This is Rep. Alan Grayson and Rep. Paul Broun discussing a bill to deny funds to one specific named organization in a Science and Technology markup. Such a bill is known as 'a bill of attainder'.

Grayson: "Thank you. I'd like to ask the gentleman from Georgia a few questions, and I'll yield to him for the purpose of having answers to these questions. Um, does the gentleman from Georgia know what a Bill of Attainder is?"

SNIP (Lots of Grayson demanding Broun justify his unconstitutional attack on ACORN and the repug flailing around, until ....)

Grayson: "Uh, listen, we, we are trampling on people's Constitutional rights. And I think it's unfortunate that the mania that exists on the other side of the aisle regarding this one organization, and we know why that mania exists, it's because they've registered an awful lot of Democrats, continues to distort and waste the time of this committee and many other committees here in Congress. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I yield my remaining 5 seconds."

Read the whole transcript here.

Nothing can make up for 30 years of horrific damage to the nation and world of Democrats cowering in corners while repugs wreaked havoc, but Alan Grayson is coming damn close.