There was a time when virtually every mention of Florida Democratic congressman Alan Grayson on this blog came with the descriptor "hot liberal mess who is not apologizing for it." But something funny has happened. After a term-long absence, Grayson returned to the United State House six months ago and has managed to not be a hot liberal mess.
During Grayson's first term, he was noted for telling Dick Cheney to "STFU," calling a Federal Reserve advisor a "K-street whore," suggesting Republicans wanted us to "die quickly," and defending bacon. Basically, if you heard that a Democrat had said some crazy thing, there was a one-out-of-two chance that it was Grayson.
Then he lost his reelection. Badly. Fans of crazy congressmen from Florida named "Allen/Alan" turned their attention to Allen West (who surely did not disappoint).
But Grayson made his triumphant return to congress in a new district created near Orlando, and we have not had a single chance to call him a hot liberal mess since.
"The situation has changed, so I have changed," said Grayson told The Tampa Bay Times. "I'm honestly happier to be able to concentrate on the public service elements of this job as opposed to the self-service elements."
The biggest change: he's now in a strongly Democratic district, which means he doesn't feel the pressure to draw attention to himself in order to raise campaign cash. That's not quite an apology for his past behavior, but at least he realized he was a giant attention whore before.
Sadly, he only managed to say one semi-bombastic thing during the interview:
"I don't think I've pulled any punches," he said, suggesting that a reporter who Googled the words "Republicans and callous bigoted tools" would find an "extraordinary number of hits in the past few months."
Well, at least it's something.
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