Alan Grayson’s gaffe

Already controversial for saying a GOP health care plan would amount to telling sick people to "die quickly," freshman Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) has created yet another stir by referring to Fed adviser Linda Robertson as a "K Street whore." He has apologized, but how bad was the damage to his reputation?

Alan Grayson is now officially a nut: Democrats may have chuckled at Grayson’s previous antics, says Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic, but he crossed a line with the remark about Linda Robertson. "This one will probably stick."

"Grayson Says Something Offensive ... For Real This Time"

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He was irresponsible -- even if he was making a legitimate point: It’s important to remember that Grayson was appearing on "wack-job conspiracy theorist" radio show, says Gabriel Winant in Salon. So even if Grayson did have a "kernel of a point" in saying that "the Fed is in hock to the business lobby," he needed to be much more circumspect in his language. "Making the point in such red-meat language, to such an audience, encourages paranoid, and often scary, ideas."

"Rep. Alan Grayson goes a comment too far"

Kudos to Grayson for speaking an uncomfortable truth: The congressman from Florida "hit the nail on the head," says Howie Klein in The Huffington Post. After all, Robertson "shills for whoever pays her." The reason there’s such a furor is that "the characterization is a little too close for comfort" for many of Grayson’s Congressional colleagues.

"Alan Grayson Calls a Whore a Whore"