Mastering Politics (updated)

I have a new hero; Democrat Alan Grayson of Florida who said today that,

The Republican health care plan is “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”

Republicans are aghast, outraged and horrified, and are demanding an apology, which is hilarious given their proclivity for describing Democratic health care plans as having “death panels," “pulling the plug on Grandma” and “having seniors put to death.”

For decades the Democrats have been fighting using Queensbury rules while the Republicans were biting, gouging eyeballs and kicking below the belt. Democrats not only didn’t fight back in kind, they never even so much as complained about the foul methods that Republicans have been using in their campaigns.

Now Alan Grayson steps up and throws a quick knee to the Republican crotch, and quite elegantly so, and Republicans go completely ballistic; getting in the referee’s face and jumping up and down screaming hysterically for a flag to be thrown. Pathetic.

For the six years that Republicans were in control of Congress they were not content with preventing Democratic amendments to bills, but literally locked Democrats out of the committee rooms. Now they are adding 430+ amendments to the health care bills and crying poor mouth because the Democrats are voting those amendments down, claiming that the Democrats are “not letting us participate in the process.”

Republicans today remind me of nothing so much as a couple of preteens in the back seat of a car, whining, “Mom, he’s touching me.”

Update: Thursday, 9:30am
Alan Grayson grows in my esteem by leaps and bounds. He went on CNN's Situation Room and, under attack by both Republicans and the CNN staff, did not back down one single inch, maintaining a highly admirable degree of aplomb and good humor. He stayed with his central point and refused to be diverted. He is smart and has tremendous courage.

Wolf Blitzer asked how this "controversy" affected his chance at reelection, somewhat indirectly by inquiring about the nature of his district, and Grayson replied, "That's not the point." Listen to that; a freshman Representative saying that reelection "is not the point." Wow.