For one brief but glorious term Orlando-area Congressman Alan Grayson was Florida's most entertainingly loudmouthed congressman. Now he's out of office and replaced in that role by ideological opposite Allen West (who never even bothers to be intentionality funny), but Politco discovers that even when no one is listening to him Grayson is as loudmouthed as ever.
Despite being defeated after a single term in the last election, Grayson is still furiously firing off Tweets, making TV appearances and dispatching Facebook notes. He's still out there bitching about George W. Bush and has found a new target in Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
He recently updated an appearance on MSNBC in which he takes on Scott's plan to drug test welfare recipients:
Even when he's not being partisan, he still has a way with words, apparently drawing a Martha Stewart quote into a post about his thoughts on the death on Bin Laden.
So is Grayson planning on running for political office in Florida again?
"I think he's trying to stay in the political scene," said Jim Kitchens, a Florida-based pollster who worked for Grayson and who remains in his inner circle. "He enjoyed being in Congress, he really did."We kind of just assumed Grayson would have cashed in by now with a career as a fulltime pundit, MSNBC host, or maybe a book or two.
The Florida Democrat himself acknowledges that he's interested in a return engagement. Asked whether he's (thought) of running another campaign, he responded simply: "Yes."
But he insists his stream of email blasts, TV appearances, and Facebook and Twitter posts simply reflect an effort to stay in touch with the liberal following he amassed during his two years in Congress.
Though, a return to politics seems to be on the horizon. The Orlando-area may very well have a new congressional seat created soon, one that Grayson could seem interested in. Really though, we'd like to see him wait until 2016. That's when Marco Rubio is up for re-election to the Senate, and who doesn't want to see Grayson rip into Rubio for two years straight?
Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
