Best News Of The Day: Alan Grayson Crushes Reactionary Hacks In Orlando

Today Florida had its congressional primaries and with about 93% of the vote counted it's looking like Donna Edwards may soon have a strong progressive with a reform-minded agenda working with her in Congress. (Oh, there's still the general election in November... but Keller barely managed to hold onto his party's nomination against Todd Long who's getting 47% of the Republican vote.) AP has called the race for Grayson but says it's too close to call on the GOP side. (UPDATE: Keller was finally declared the winner late last night. But he is now seen a really damaged goods.)

Alan Grayson... 48.4%
Charlie Stuart... 27.5%
Mike Smith... 17.3%
Quoc Ba Van... 3.7%
Alexander Fry... 3.1%

Which ad do you think will be most effective in the general election?



or this?



And, think about donating to Alan's general election fund at our Blue America ActBlue page so he can keep running the ads. This is what red-to-blue is really about, not some more Inside the Beltway Stalinism.

The Grayson campaign paid for weeks of the above TV spots and Orlando's Democratic voters overwhelmingly backed him. Yesterday, according to The Hill Rep. Dennis Kucinich tried saying something similar at the Convention and it was editted out of his speech:

"They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20."

BLUE AMERICA IS BACK IN ACTION-- WITH ALAN GRAYSON (FL-08)

Meet Alan live at FDL today at 2 PM (EST)

It's been over two months since Blue America has endorsed a new candidate (Gretchen Clearwater in Indiana's 9th CD against reactionary Blue Dog Baron Hill). In the interim we've been urging progressives to donate to the progressives in early primary battles, particularly Donna Edwards (MD-04), John Laesch (IL-14), Mark Pera (IL-03), and Vic Wulsin (OH-02). Today we've invited a truly exceptional candidate on for a chat, someone who has already accomplished a great deal outside of government and who wants to run against corrupt Republican rubber stamp Ric Keller in central Florida. Before we get into just how Alan Grayson has been working on our behalf as a private citizen, let's take a look at the district and the race as it's shaping up.

Keller has been a rubber stamp backbencher from FL-08 (Orlando area) since 2000 and has accrued an unremarkable, albeit abysmal, voting record across the board, supporting the far right line on everything-- from choice (anti) to gay rights (anti) to Bush's ill-advised war and occupation of Iraq (pro). The district, which has seen a huge influx of new residents-- something like 150,000-- many of whom are from Puerto Rico, has been trending blue. Since 2002, Keller's majorities have shrunk down from 65% to 61% to 53%. The more people get to know him, the less they like him.

Last year he ran against a reactionary old-line Democrat, Charlie Stuart, part of the Central Florida establishment-- at least by marriage-- with no personal accomplishments whatsoever (a kind of mini-Bush in that respect) and with policy positions that should ring alarm bells... loudly: anti-choice, pro-corporation, unwilling to speak out against the Iraq fiasco. He wants to run again this year. Fortunately, Alan Grayson can prevent Florida voters being stuck with a choice between a horrible Republican and a nearly as bad Democrat.

Last Sunday DWT carried a story, The Crime of the Century: A Scandal of Epic Proportions That Will Haunt the Legacy of the Bush Regime. In many ways that-- and the Vanity Fair expose it's based on-- is the perfect introduction to Alan Grayson and what makes him the perfect progressive candidate, and someone Beltway Insiders, and especially everyone inside the Bush Regime, needs to be very, very afraid of. Alan knows exactly where all the bodies are buried-- and he can't wait to get to Congress so the judicial gag order he's under won't apply. And it goes beyond "just" Halliburton, KBR and the usual war profiteer suspects. You know all the crime always being alluded to in regard to members of Congress and defense contractors? They better pray with all their might that Grayson doesn't wind up with "Representative" in front of his name. When I asked him, for example, about Duncan Hunter, Duke Cunningham and Jerry Lewis he replied "I wish I could tell you about that actually, but the rule about sealed cases is such that I'd get locked up if I did." But not on the floor of the House. Instead he was able to speak in generalities:

I think what the Republicans, particularly the ones in California and the Southwest in general have recognized is that you can make an awful lot of money from government contracting. In regard to Iraq, I've described those people as 'war-whores.' But it's not limited to Iraq, and in Southern California-- particularly in the area around San Diego [this is Duncan Hunter/Duke Cunningham-Brian Bilbray/Jerry Lewis/Darrell Issa/Dana Rohrabacher/Ken Calvert territory; sound familiar?]-- there's an awful lot of companies that exist, basically, to rip off the government. And I think that's one reason why the U.S. Attorney in San Diego was replaced [by the Alberto Gonzales Justice Dept.]... concerns that there would be legitimate investigations into that whole scene. Government contracting generates a huge amount of profit-- some of it legitimate, some of it illegitimate-- that is doled out to people in accordance with a very subjective process that's subject to all sorts of favoritism and manipulation. Sometimes the people who are in a position to dole out this money are influenced by the people who end up receiving it. And that's what we call in general terms 'corruption.' ... The only part of the Defense Department that's actually been cut since Bush took over has been the auditing staff.

Alan Grayson has been investigating and prosecuting corruption and, particularly war profiteering cases, for quite some time. Few people-- other than someone like Dick Cheney, of course-- know as much about it as he does. We need this man in Congress... now.

For those who haven't had a chance to read it yet, let me quote from the end of the Vanity Fair article:

In the more distant future, a Democratic administration might open up the vaults and expose the American public to the scale of what has been looted. "What we have seen up to now is the worst of the worst in terms of a deliberate cover-up," Grayson says. But if and when it comes to an end, he thinks it's entirely possible that Congress will appoint a special prosecutor-- one whose targets might one day reach "an extremely high level."

After Jane sent me this I called Alan and read it to him on the phone and asked him if he'd be advocating impeachment for Bush and Cheney now if he were in Congress. He didn't hesitate or hum or haw. He just said, "Absolutely. The right wing's worst nightmare would be Alan Grayson with subpoena power. Gag order and the threat of criminal contempt have kept me and my clients quiet up until this point but if I get elected to the House of Representatives that's all gone. The speech and debate clause protects me entirely. At that point I can tell everybody everything that I know and, on top of that I'll have the ability to actually hold hearings, launch investigations, assign staff and subpoena people... Just on the basis of what I know of government contracting alone I think that there are strong arguments in favor of impeachment."

I'm eager for Congressman Grayson's first tete a tete with Madam Speaker. If you want to see that too-- and to see a progressive leader and fighter from central Florida, someone who believes with his whole being that "you don't beat Republicans by imitating Republicans," please consider 2008's first Blue America plea. Let's help this guy get the Democratic nomination and then beat the Republican rubber stamp.

Yesterday Alan put together a special little video clip for Crooks and Liars and I suggest you take a look.

DOES THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAVE A CANDIDATE FOR THE MOST COMPETITIVE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT IN FLORIDA?

Ric Keller-- very vulnerable

Republican Ric Keller is the congressman from Disneyland and I've noticed that the DCCC says they're targeting his district this year. Makes sense; the 8th CD has been trending bluer and bluer, his steady pattern and ethical misbehavior is finally catching up with him and the Orlando-area district is definitely ripe for a Democratic takeover. But there's a problem. In 2006 the Democratic candidate, Charlie Stuart, took 46% of the vote. He wants to run against Keller again this year. And the problem? Stuart is a reactionary Dixiecrat whose attitudes are more in line with the GOP than with what actual Democrats are looking for. For starters, he's been against a woman's right to choice and he's been in favor of, or at best ambivalent about, Bush's irresponsible occupation of Iraq. He's a supremely flawed candidate who thinks campaigning against gay equality is a winning issue and, looking at where he stands, he should probably be challenging Keller in a Republican primary rather than trying to run as a Democrat.

He's failed at everything he's ever put his hand to, except marrying the daughter of an extremely wealthy-- albeit corrupt-- farmer (owner of the Larson Dairy, best known for illegally selling cows stuffed with massive doses of antibiotics). He calls himself a "marketing consultant" and a "successful small businessman" but, in fact, like Bush, he's a nothing at all-- just someone who lucked into a great deal of money and is now looking for something to do. His brother, a prominent-- and reactionary-- Orlando Republican and the head of that city's Chamber of Commerce, was a major contributor to his last campaign. Oy.

The question of whether or not Stuart is actually a Democrat is not just based on his family connections or even his positions on issues. When he ran last time he promised voters he would not vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker, not because she had taken impeachment off the table but because he felt she was "too liberal."

Yeah, the DCCC says they're targeting FL-08. Yeah, Ric Keller is a corrupt car-wreck of an incumbent with scandals coming out of every inch of his career, but unless the Democratic Party comes up with a serious candidate, this will be another wasted opportunity.

Last summer, when I was investigating Republican Congressman Lil' Patrick McHenry's involvement in a spectacular triple gay Republican homicide/[suicide?] in Orlando, I got to know some of the reporters at the Orlando Sentinel. I got back in touch with them to ask why there has been virtually no in depth reporting on such a hot congressional race and why both Keller and Stuart get such an easy ride from the paper. "Well, Keller... he's a Republican. They get easy rides [giggles]... And Stuart... well, Jane Healy is the editorial page editor and she's got a lot of say-so and they say she went to school with Stuart and makes sure the paper goes easy on him." Wow! And oops.

Is there any alternative? My reporter pals told me to expect a couple of primary challengers for Keller-- wing-nuts Todd Long and Bob Hering, neither of whom has much of a chance. They thought I would like the environmental activist running as a Democrat, Corbett Kroehler and suggested I also look into an attorney/activist they think is the sleeper for the Democrats, the only one who could actually defeat Stuart and then Keller, Alan Grayson. Jane over at FDL suggested I read the recent Vanity Fair article about how Grayson is going after Halliburton and other contractors and war-profiteers who are ripping off tax-payers in Iraq.

Grayson spends most of his days and many of his evenings on a lonely legal campaign to redress colossal frauds against American taxpayers by private contractors operating in Iraq. He calls it "the crime of the century."

His obvious adversaries are the contracting corporations themselves-- especially Halliburton, the giant oil-services conglomerate where Vice President Dick Cheney spent the latter half of the 1990s as C.E.O., and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, now known simply as KBR. But he says his efforts to take on those organizations have earned him another enemy: the United States Department of Justice.

Over the past 16 years, Grayson has litigated dozens of cases of contractor fraud. In many of these, he has found the Justice Department to be an ally in exposing wrongdoing. But in cases that involve the Iraq war, the D.O.J. has taken extraordinary steps to stand in his way. Behind its machinations, he believes, is a scandal of epic proportions-- one that may come to haunt the legacy of the Bush administration long after it is gone.

Maybe we need to invite this guy over for a Blue America q&a. He sounds like a real Democrat issues-wise. He's not pandering to the Republican-lite crowd at all and as for being a fighter... well hit that Vanity Fair link and read the story if you want to know if he's a fighter or not. Let me look into this some more and we'll see how far we want to take it.