RUTHFULLY YOURS

Always the first to hop onto the most negative campaigning possible, Congressman Alan Grayson decided to hop on that “outside source” conspiracy theory being pushed by the White House.  In an OpEd posted on the Hill and the Huffington Post the incumbent from the 8th district of Florida made the case that unlike the Republicans, his vote is not for sale.

(A) “Conservative outside groups” have now spent more than $9 million “slamming vulnerable House Democrats,” and (B) the total against me will reach “at least $1.7 million by the end of next week.”

….This is my first term in Congress. I have no seniority. I don’t sit on the most powerful committees, like the Appropriations Committee or the Ways and Means Committee. I’m not a member of the Democratic Leadership. So why would these right-wing groups spend nearly 20 percent of their entire national budget to try to defeat me?

Because I can’t be bought. I won’t do what they tell me to do. And I won’t back down.

There are 12,000 registered federal lobbyists. That’s more than 20 for every member of Congress. From Election Night onward, they try to buy you. And if they can’t buy you, then they try to bury you. Which is what is happening now.

My vote is not for sale….

There is only one problem with Grayson’s little blog post….its a lie.  Grayson is purchased and owned by special interests. For example, Open Secrets.com has compiled the source of all of Grayson’s political donations through August.  Almost $852 thousand of those donations came from organizations in specific industries, 23% of those dollars come from labor unions.

Not included in those Union dollars is the AFL-CIO effort recently exposed by Politico.

The AFL-CIO is dropping 3.5 million mail pieces into 66 races this week, including 15 Senate contests, 11 gubernatorial campaigns and 40 congressional campaigns. Every mailer will be sandwiched with two calls, one before the mail piece hits and one after, for a total of seven million phone calls. Key hits include the Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Connecticut Senate races (“Don’t let Linda McMahon put the smack down on Connecticut workers”), as well as the swiftly emerging West Virginia Senate race (“After the deadliest mining disaster in 40 years, one candidate wants to ‘unshackle’ management from safety regulations”). Mailers will also hit the California and Ohio gubernatorial races, among others, and Florida Rep. Alan Grayson’s district.

Grayson also gets lots of money (7%) from lawyers and lobbyists, which is probably why Grayson opposed Tort Reform.

Another $66 thousand dollars of Grayson’s donations came from Act Blue. This group bills itself as “the online clearinghouse for Democratic action.” As a federally registered political action committee, it serves as a conduit for online contributions to Democratic candidates and committees. That is, ActBlue bundles and transmits earmarked contributions from individuals raised on their website to specific candidates.In other words, it is sort of political money laundering. Now, using the criteria established by President Obama and David Axelrod this past weekend while talking about the Chamber of Commerce, those dollars by definition are evil.

The mean-spirited Congressman from Florida’s 8th district, Alan Grayson can protest all he wants, but the truth is he’s owned by special interests.