Alan Grayson, the liberals' problem child

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/weekinreview/01herszenhorn.html?hpwAlan Grayson, the Liberals? Problem Child

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By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: October 31, 2009

WASHINGTON ? On paper, Representative Alan Grayson, a freshman Democrat from Florida, seems a bit stiff: degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law; a r?sum? that includes clerking for the United States Court of Appeals under Judges Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Robert Bork; an advocate for the aging.




But in recent weeks, Mr. Grayson has catapulted himself to national renown for outlandish rhetoric and a pugilistic political style that makes him seem less staid lawmaker than a character on the lam from one of his Orlando district?s theme parks.

First it was his comment, ?If you get sick, America, the Republicans? health care plan is this: Die quickly.? Then, appearing on MSNBC, he said of former Vice President Dick Cheney: ?I have trouble listening to what he says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he?s talking.? Finally, a radio interview surfaced in which he had called a female adviser to the Federal Reserve chairman ?a K Street whore? ? a reference to her former job as a Washington lobbyist. That one forced him to make a formal apology.......he was correct in his characterization of the fed consultant