Good for Grayson

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), one of the very, very few true liberals (or progressives, if you prefer that term) in Congress, pissed off a whole slew of Republicans last night when he declared on the floor of the House that "Republicans want you to die." Here's the video:

As usual, Republicans in Congress can't handle the truth. The bottom line is that Republicans have no plan for health care reform; their only tactic is to delay and obfuscate and demonize ... pretty much everything they've done for the last decade or two, at least.

And Rep. Grayson was exactly right. Since the GOP (and their sycophantic boot-licking colleagues from the other side of the aisle -- I'm looking at you, Max Baucus and Bill Nelson, among others) essentially feels that the status quo, with insurance companies making health care decisions and condemning people to die, is just fine and dandy with them, it follows that they would want sick people to die more quickly, thereby saving their insurance company supporters a lot of money ... which they then can contribute to the campaigns of those legislators whose selfish and irresponsible actions saved them the money in the first place. Talk about a vicious circle ...

Of course, the GOP is outraged!!!one!11!!! at Rep. Grayson's statement, and they're pulling out all the stops to vilify him. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-Va.), about whose ties to an apparent gay Republican murder-suicide in Florida it would be irresponsible not to speculate, tweeted his consternation this morning using the customary strawman/false equivalency "logic" of the Right: "Will Pelosi hold vote to reprimand #Grayson? http://bit.ly/4pGUWN Or was JWilson reprimand just partisan politics after all?" Yeah, Pat, way to compare a member of Congress calling the president a liar in a joint session of Congress (when, by the way, the president wasn't lying) with the kind of political speechifying that happens every single day in Congress, on both sides of the aisle (and which is also truthful, at least in this case). McHenry is a tool, though, so at least we don't have to pay him much attention.

No, there won't be any reprimand for Grayson. If anything, he should be celebrated. At a time when too many Democrats think it's chic to roll over meekly and let the Republican minority have its way with them (no, McHenry, I don't mean that way), it's good to see that one congresscritter is willing to tell it like it is.

Much ado about nothing

Mike Rogers' announcement was a bit anticlimactic.

He's not alleging that Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is gay. He's just noting that McHenry owns a house in D.C. with another man, and he (McHenry) claimed a homestead deduction in D.C. (thereby affirming that the D.C. home is the principal residence) along with his partner lover co-owner while being registered to vote in North Carolina.

Ah, but it would be irresponsible not to speculate ...

Another gay Republican scandal?

Mike Rogers, the investigative journalist from BlogActive who reported on the homosexuality of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), has another possible scoop, according to the Brad Blog.

"A United States Congressman who, while he was living in one place and claiming a tax break for that fact was registered and was voting in an entirely different state," he told us.

"The person owned the house with another man," Rogers teased, adding "the man that he owned it with, when you found out what he did, it almost makes this Congressman look like an angel."

While trying to determine if the crime we're looking at here is voter fraud or tax fraud (despite expensive GOP propaganda to the contrary, it's usually the Republicans, not the Dems, involved in voter fraud --- just ask Ann Coulter!), Rogers laughed, "It's voter fraud in one place and tax fraud in another!"

He offered us a few clues to the Congressman's identity, which he promises to reveal [Friday] morning. "This is not his first touch on voter fraud," he reported. "I'm not gonna say who...you may be able to guess...but there's a lot of voter fraud connected to this guy all over the place."

According to Brad Friedman, that congressman quite likely is Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.).

Rogers reported in May:

CBS News reported today that Michael Aaron Lay, an aide to (the unmarried) Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), was arrested on voter fraud charges.

There is more to the story than you're reading in the CBS news item. LOTS MORE.

[...]

The funny thing about McHenry is this: I've received tons of tips from across the state, including one from an elected official who told me, "I can tell you Patrick McHenry is gay. I've known him long enough to know."

Now, I'm not saying he is gay, but he does seem to like engaging with Barney Frank. If you have not seen the video of their exchange, it's priceless.

And on Thursday, McHenry refers to Congresswoman Ellen Taucher as a man. It seems clear to me that Patrick has some serious gender identity issues.

Stay tuned. Mike promises a scoop on BlogActive this morning ...