Novel Experiment

by digby

TNR apparently assigned one of it's "young people" to profile the blogosphere's favorite congressman Alan Grayson with appropriate youthful snark and attitude. But it doesn't actually come off as badly as she may have hoped (even with the utterly predictable and tiresome use of silly online handles as a punchline.) But there are some fairly dumb passages, like this one:

His brief tenure in Congress is a novel experiment. Other members of Congress have shared the liberal blogosphere's ideological predispositions. But Grayson is the first member to bring the blogosphere's in-your-face style to Capitol Hill. It has made for one of the more, well, interesting clashes of cultures in recent congressional history.

The blogosphere is the medium of the outsider--the self-consciously rambunctious truth-teller holding the dissembling establishment to account. That's the very essence of Alan Grayson, the way he tells it

Actually that's one of the fondest American political archetypes there is -- the ousider, frontiersman coming to to the capital to truth tell and hold the effete elites accountable. I'm pretty sure it goes all the way back to thevery beginning. In fact, we've had quite few presidents run for office on that very image.

That's not to say that Grayson isn't the authentic article --- he is. But he's not some creation of the blogosphere. We just happen to appreciate him for what he is.

Grayson is a bigger than life fellow, in more ways than one, and he's perfectly sincere in his passion on the issues. And he's making a difference:

He has relished providing tongue-lashings to the likes of Timothy Geithner or Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit. His grilling of Federal Reserve Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman was watched more than one million times on YouTube.

And, to his credit, his argument has taken hold--a Federal Reserve audit bill, once relegated to the margins of the Ron Paul fanatics, now has about 100 Democratic co-sponsors in the House. According to Politico, Barney Frank is now working with the sponsors of the bill to achieve more openness in the Fed. It's a development that pretty clearly wouldn't have happened without Grayson.


The blogosphere's embarrassing support for Grayson aside, that sounds like a pretty effective freshman congressman to me.

He's doing something very interesting on the ACORN business that you should read about and help out with if you can. No money, just a little time required. He'll also be appearing on Crooks and Liars to talk about Afghanistan, another issue on which he is showing strong leadership, on Thursday, so get your questions ready.


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