A new poll shows Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson 7 points behind Republican challenger Dan Webster. This development warrants a little review of Grayson's, uh, colorful history.
Last September, Grayson said that the Republican health care plan was for people to “die quickly.” In April, he barged into a Florida Perkins restaurant, uninvited, where a group of conservative activists were organizing against ObamaCare. There, he yelled at the activists to “take a walk” while waving his hands aggressively in their direction.
A campaign advertisement at the end of August features children chanting, children-of-the-corn-style, that “Alan Grayson saved our schools,” an ad that went down in the record books as one of the creepiest political spots ever.
Grayson’s advertisement just yesterday characterizes Webster as a member of the Taliban. That’s right: a devoutly-Christian, 62-year-old father of six has suddenly donned a turban and started carrying out brazen acts of terrorism.
Why? Because Webster once gave a speech on how Bible passages help guide his life. That’s right. At a men’s Christian gathering, Webster told a group of believers that certain Bible passages allow him to connect his marriage with God, which in Grayson’s world, means that Webster is a terrorist.
According to the advertisement, “Taliban Dan” Webster is trying to take away Americans' freedoms, because "extremist" religious followers like Webster -- just like extremist Islamic followers in Afghanistan -- want to grab away Floridians' freedom. Specifically, Grayson attacked Webster's mention of the Bible’s directive that women submit to their husbands. Webster specifically told the men not to follow that specific passage.
“Don't pick the ones that say, ‘she should submit to me,’” said Webster, at the time. “That's in the Bible, but pick ones that you're supposed to do. “
It’s the kind of message which you can only misconstrue if you are Alan Grayson, who's ad only contains the following words from Webster’s mouth: “…wives submit yourself to your own husband.”
This advertisement may not have been so problematic if Alan Grayson’s advertisement was directed at, say, himself. This is a guy who went on Bill Maher’s late-night cable show and said that President Obama was turning the other cheek on health care “like any good Muslim,” –- clearly a joke, but one that nonetheless illustrates the lengths to which this charlatan will go to make himself noticed. Daniel Webster, on the other hand, goes to great lengths not to get himself noticed. He’s a pretty quiet guy. His statement rebutting Grayson’s egregiously mis-construed quote was straightforward:
“While I don’t yet have the financial resources to match Alan Grayson and fight back against his despicable distortions, I do have the truth on my side. That is what will lead us to victory in November so we can begin restoring honor to Central Florida and conservative principles to Washington.”
Fortunately, the Sunshine State News poll showing Webster ahead by seven was taken before the mind-numbing "Taliban Dan" ad distortion -- an ad that has been getting so much attention that is has forced Grayson to do a round of television hits defending it. On MSNBC, Grayson claimed Webster trying to “impose his bizarre religious views on the rest of us,” and quickly deflected the anchor’s counter-points by broadly declaring that Webster had a “terrible” record on women’s issues. Why? Because Webster is anti-abortion.
It's more than likely Webster's lead will grow after the incident, especially after he flies to New York this weekend for a round of interview to discuss it.
Justin Sayfie, the wizard behind the influential Florida blog “Sayfie Report,” said that comparing Dan Webster to the Taliban was “both despicable and desperate, and in doing so, Alan Grayson has permanently destroyed whatever credibility he may have had with fair-minded voters in District 8.”
Leave it to Grayson to “destroy credibility” that voters didn’t even know existed.