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Let’s just get this out of the way: Riptide is the last place you’ll read any criticism of Alan Grayson, the U.S. representative from Orlando, for his raging political Tourette’s syndrome.
We wish more politicians would jump on the Grayson crazy train.
What’s better than hearing your local rep of accusing opponents of wanting hospital patients to “die quickly”? Or listening to him call a federal official a “K-Street whore” on national radio?
Or possibly our favorite Grayson quote, talking about his deep loathing for Dick Cheney:
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I have trouble listening to what he says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth when he’s talking.
Boom! You say, “lowering the national dialogue,” we say pure political comedy gold.
Well, if you missed it this weekend, the New York Times “Week in Review” weighed in on the Grayson phenomenon and came up with a novel theory on the freshman rep: He might just be the first liberal wing nut.
In case you slept through the past six months of rampant tea-bagging and Limbaugh histrionics, trust us on this: The conservative movement has no shortage of wing nuts. It might just be their most consistent contribution to American society these days.
Liberals, however, are usually far too busy buying soy lattes and enjoying calm afternoons of Prairie Home Companion in their Priuses to sling wing-nut-style dirt around, at least according to the Times.
So here’s what the Times has to say about Grayson’s unique perch in our national conversation:
Mr. Grayson could be the latest incarnation of what in the American political idiom is known as a wing nut — a loud darling of cable television and talk radio whose remarks are outrageous but often serious enough not to be dismissed entirely. Mr. Grayson is the more notable because he hurls his nuts from the left in a winger world long associated with the right.
Frankly, we don’t care how you label Orlando’s finest political mind.
As long as he keeps calling Dick Cheney a vampire, we’re on board.
