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Rep. Alan Grayson a freshman Democrat representing
Florida's 8th Congressional District, has gotten a fair amount of attention for his bid to become the
Democrats' answer to occasionally rambunctious GOP Rep. Joe Wilson.
First Grayson sucker-punched his colleagues with
an unhinged floor speech built on the grotesque charge that Republican Members of Congress want Americans dead.
The next day, he doubled down with
a speech that compounded his offense
against decency with an even grosser offense against decency calling the current health care system in the United States a "holocaust." For
this, he is being hailed as a conquering hero in the more
rabid denizens of the
lefty blogosphere.
Last night, in the supportive environment of the Rachel Maddow show,
the hard-left hostess tried to stage an intervention, confronting him with a blast of common decency:
"Holocaust: Always a bad choice of words unless you're talking about the actual Holocaust."
Grayson pressed on with a response that some are portraying as an apology but that most will find rather empty of contrition:
"Rachel, it may not have been the best choice of words. But I will say
this -- my words don't matter. That's not what's important here. What's
important is we do what we need to do."
From Grayson's home state, we heard today from State House Majority Leader (and RJC member) Adam Hasner:
Regardless of one’s position on the issue of healthcare reform,
comparing the American healthcare system to the systematic murdering of
over six million Jews is totally outrageous and unfit for someone
holding public office. Congressman Grayson should apologize to the
Jewish community and the families of those whose loved ones were
brutally executed. I’d also encourage Mr. Grayson to take a walk
tomorrow afternoon to the U.S. Holocaust Museum so he can witness for
himself just how offensive and inappropriate his statement is.
In addition, RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks told the Jewish news agency
JTA that Grayson's remarks were "inexcusable" and "beyond the pale."
So far, we've yet to hear from the National Jewish Democratic Coalition - "the national voice of Jewish Democrats" -
about Rep. Grayson's appalling public conduct. This is somewhat
surprising. That organization made
a noisy trip to the barricades to
accuse private citizen Rush Limbaugh of "Nazi rhetoric" based on
remarks he made after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
charged recklessly and baselessly that Swastika displays were typical fare at "tea party"
rallies.
Rep. Grayson is Jewish, so the absurdity of NJDC's smear phrase "Nazi
rhetoric" is readily apparent in this instance, but it certainly puts
NJDC in an awkward spot if they defend Grayson after sparing no effort
to lambaste El Rushbo. Over the years, they've gone to great lengths to
make it clear that
they abhor hypocrisy.