[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Web-site parody spurs Rep Grayson (D) to seek jail for foe WASHINGTON — Not everyone thinks imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In fact, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D) of Orlando took such offense at a parody Web site aimed at unseating him that the freshman Democrat asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the Lake County activist who started it. In his four-page complaint, Grayson accuses Republican Angie Langley of lying to federal elections officials. In particular, he writes, the Clermont resident lives outside his district but still uses the term "my" in her Web site, mycongressmanisnuts.com. The name mocks a Web site started by Grayson, congressmanwithguts.com. "Ms. Langley has deliberately masqueraded as a constituent of mine, in order to try to create the false appearance that she speaks for constituents who don't support me," writes Grayson. "[She] has chosen a name for her committee that is utterly tasteless and juvenile." Grayson's office confirmed he wrote the letter — including the request that Langley be fined and "imprisoned for five years" — and released a statement from Grayson saying, "Everyone has to obey the law, even rude, right-wing cranks." Langley, a former top Republican official in Lake County, said the letter initially "scared the heck out" of her but that she got angry after an attorney friend — who is acting as legal adviser — told her that the accusations were "groundless." "This man is nothing but a bully and an intimidator," she said. She launched her Web site this fall after Grayson infuriated Republicans by saying the GOP's health-care plan was for sick patients to "die quickly." More recently, during a television interview, he used an acronym for an offcolor colloquialism — four words that begin with shut and end with up — to say that Vice President Dick Cheney should stop criticizing President Barack Obama. Grayson also called a lobbyist-turned- Federal Reserve official a "K Street whore." "You tell me who is juvenile," said Langley. She had hoped for a major fundraising "money bomb" Dec. 16, but the Web site shows that only 92 donors had given $3,725 as of Friday afternoon. Grayson's complaint to the attorney general was dated Dec. 15 — one day before the planned fundraising event. The Grayson letter also took issue with how Langley set up her fundraising committee. In documents filed with the Federal Election Commission in October, she wrote that the committee's intent was to support or oppose "more than one Federal candidate." "The Web site, however, clearly shows that the committee opposes only me," wrote Grayson, a Harvard-educated attorney. Langley said the committee was intended to target multiple lawmakers and that her First Amendment freedom of speech gives her the right to criticize Grayson, even though he is not her congressman.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
[Register]
|
||