‘Die quickly’ U.S. rep hosts health care event
TAVARES (AP) – Rep. Alan Grayson tried to make sure a health care town hall meeting he hosted Monday night didn’t turn into a debate about his recent remarks that Republicans want sick people to “die quickly,” and he mostly succeeded.
When the House floor speech that’s given him national attention came up almost immediately, Grayson dismissed the subject, saying, “My time is limited tonight and I’m not going to debate politics, I’m going to debate health care.”
He then answered a string of questions from people opposed to health care reform, supporters and the undecided. Absent was the over-the-top rhetoric that has made him a YouTube sensation. And the crowd was mostly civil and supportive of the congressman that Republicans accuse of incivility.
But then the subject came up again, and he gave in and explained why two weeks ago he said, “If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly. That’s right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick.”
Grayson said he was trying to be tongue-in-cheek, but the point he was making was that health care reform is needed to save lives and Republicans aren’t offering solutions that save lives. He said health care isn’t about being liberal or conservative.
“This bill not only saves huge numbers of American lives, not only saves money, but also brings a certain, I don’t know – what’s the right word? … civility to the way we deal with each other,” Grayson said. “We’ve known now for over 3,000 years that a just society is one that shelters the homeless, that feeds the hungry and that heals the sick.”
Grayson has always had a reputation for being brash, but few outside his district knew who he was until now. Hardcore Democrats are rallying around him. Republicans are just getting sick of him, and they’re hoping the attention dies quickly.
“He’s not addressing the serious business of the nation, he’s simply grandstanding and becoming a clown,” said Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer. “When you have someone like Grayson, the initial reaction is ‘There he goes again,’ but after so many times of saying, ‘There he goes again,’ you say, ‘He has to go.'”
Grayson defeated Republican incumbent Ric Keller last year in the district that stretches from Orlando to Ocala. He placed third in the Democratic primary two years earlier. During the election he lost, voters saw the Grayson that America is seeing now.
“He was a bit of a flame-thrower,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. “He ran as a bomb-throwing, liberal Democrat. It seems more and more that outspoken liberal Democrat is coming out.”
Last year, Grayson, a wealthy lawyer who has built a reputation of fighting corrupt government contractors, was successful with a message that was strongly focused on stopping the government from needlessly wasting money in Iraq.
He spent $2.6 million of his own money and used much of it on attention-getting TV ads, like one where he appears in an airplane hangar with a briefcase he says holds $1 million in cash. The hangar, he says, could be filled with the money being lost to fraud in the war.
Keller broke a promise to only serve eight years when he sought re-election. Keller also was a victim of the anti-Republican mood in a district that’s very evenly divided between the parties.
Grayson hasn’t let up since his “die quickly” comments. He’s called Republicans knuckle-dragging Neanderthals and suggested that Republicans change their name to The Selfish Party. He’s even stolen the line William Safire wrote for Spiro Agnew, calling Republicans “nattering nabobs of negativism.”
How that will play out when Grayson runs for re-election next year is questionable.
“I don’t care. I really don’t care,” Grayson said when asked after the meeting if he’s become more vulnerable to defeat. “What I care about is saving lives and saving money. If that’s good enough for the people of this district, if that’s what they want in a congressman, that’s fine. If they don’t, God bless them.”
Barbara Fabian, a 64-year-old Republican from Tavares, said she voted for Grayson last year and was happy with him after he took office in January. On Monday, she was among about 60 people holding signs and protesting Grayson. Hers read, “We’re just dying to throw you out of office in 2010 Mr. Grayson. Are you listening?”
“At first I thought he was OK,” Fabian said. “I really don’t think he’s using his brain power. I was wrong.”
But Larry Gosnell, 44 of Eustis, praised Grayson for fighting back against misleading Republican rhetoric about health care.
“I haven’t had insurance for seven years and it’s not because I’m not working,” said Gosnell, an electrician. “What Alan Grayson did was expose the problem.”