HIGH CRIMES: The Impeachment of Donald Trump

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Wednesday December 18, 2019 · 12:59 PM PST

2019/12/18 · 12:59

I don’t think that Donald Trump should be impeached for throwing paper towels at the devastated victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and telling them to “have a good time.”

I don’t think that Donald Trump should be impeached because the bereaved widow of a dead U.S. soldier says that Trump told her that her husband “knew what he signed up for.”

I don’t think that Donald Trump should be impeached because he has confessed that he’d like to date his daughter.

In sum, I don’t think that Donald Trump should be impeached because he is a putz – quite possibly, the worst putz ever to hold any public office in the United States. He is our Idi Amin, our own Idiot Amin, minus the cannibalism. At least as far as we know. (But is there any doubt that if Mar-a-Lago did offer human flesh on the menu, Trump would tout it as the best, the very best human flesh ever available anywhere, absolutely primo human flesh, better than even what was for sale during the Siege of Leningrad?)

BUT. I do believe that Donald Trump should be impeached -- for the numerous high crimes and misdemeanors that he has committed. Donald Trump should be impeached because, as Doonesbury once said of Richard Nixon, Trump is “Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!”

Yes, yes, I understand that it’s tempting to say that Trump should be impeached because it seems as though an Evil Clown from a Stephen King novel has wandered into the White House. It’s tempting to say that Trump should be impeached because, as President, he is the WOAT (Worst of All Time).

You don’t have to take my word for this. The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a nonpartisan organization of political scientists. After Donald Trump’s first year in office, a survey of the members of APSA named Donald J. Trump the Worst President of All Time. President Andrew Johnson, who was impeached and almost removed from office, ranked fifth-worst. President Richard Nixon, who resigned after the U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted for impeachment, ranked 12^th worst. President Bill Clinton, who was impeached by the House and then (like Andrew Johnson) won the conviction vote in the Senate and remained in office, was ranked 13^th best.

Which impeachable offenses has Donald Trump committed?

70 votes Vote Now!

Which impeachable offenses has Donald Trump committed?

Divided Loyalty

0 votes

Corruption

0 votes

Obstruction of Justice

1 vote

Abuse of Power

4 votes

Campaign Misconduct

1 vote

Sexual Misconduct

1 vote

Tax Evasion

0 votes

Conflicts of Interest

0 votes

Conducted Unbecoming an Elected Official

2 votes

ALL OF THE ABOVE

61 votes

Remembering Aaron Swartz

Alan Grayson

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Friday January 12, 2018 · 3:32 PM PST

2018/01/12 · 15:32

Yesterday marked the five year anniversary of the death of Aaron Swartz. I knew Aaron Swartz. Aaron was an internet leader and free-speech advocate who helped organize the worldwide movement to keep the internet free from censorship and corporate control. Now more than ever, we should listen to his story and what he fought for. Aaron committed suicide at the young age of 26 after downloading JSTOR articles without JSTOR’s permission. He was facing many years in prison. As we approach the five-year anniversary of his death, I hope you read my remarks at his memorial service, and learn a bit more about the man who “rocked the boat.” Here is what I said:

CONGRESSMAN GRAYSON: Aaron worked in my office as an intern. He had a quality that I found unnerving. He could come up with better things for him to do than I could come up with for him to do. Time and time again, I would give him something to do, and he’d say, “Is it okay if I also work on this other thing?” And “this other thing” turned out to be much more important than anything that I could come up with.

I learned to live with that. I learned to live with that shortcoming, which I took to be a shortcoming of my own, not one of his.

The other unnerving quality that I found in him was the fact that when he would conjure these assignments, they actually came to fruition — an unusual phenomenon here on Capitol Hill. [Laughter.] He’d give himself something to do, I would recognize that it was very worthwhile, I let him do it, and it got done! He was a remarkable human being.

Another thing that I found unnerving — but also very endearing — about Aaron was that Aaron wanted to rock the boat. Now, we all hear from a very, very young age, “Don’t rock the boat.” I would venture to say that of the 2000 languages spoken on this planet, probably every single one of them has an idiom in that language for that term: “Don’t rock the boat.” And yet Aaron wanted to rock the boat. Not just for the sake of boat-rocking, but for the sake of improving the lives of ordinary people. And that’s a beautiful, a wonderful quality.

We’re talking about somebody here who helped to create Reddit, an important world-wide service, at the age of nineteen. Honestly, somebody who probably could have spent the rest of his life in bed, ordering pizzas, and left it at that. And yet he didn’t. He continued to strive to do good — good as he saw it. And that’s a rare quality in people. Many of us, we just have to do our best to get through the day. That’s the way it is. Many of us struggle to do just that. Very few of us actually can think big thoughts, and make them happen. But Aaron was one of those rare people.

And he was willing to take the heat for rocking the boat. Now, you know, sometimes when you rock the boat, the boat tries to rock you. That is exactly what he encountered, right up until the end.

And it’s a sad thing, that that’s the price you have to pay. For some of us who rock the boat, we end up losing our property. For some of us who rock the boat, we end up losing our freedom. For some of us who rock the boat, we end up losing our families. And in Aaron’s case, his life.

And yet, he was willing to face the facts, and to let that happen. To keep striving, to keep struggling, to keep trying to shake things up.

Aaron’s life reminded me about a different life that came to the same end. It’s the life of Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician. He lived in England, and was born one hundred years ago. Alan Turing was the greatest mathematician of the 20th Century. He not only invented the Turing Machine, which is the basis for all modern computing, but Alan Turing also broke the Nazi codes during World War II, and allowed the English and the Americans to defeat the Nazis.

You would think that someone like that would be cherished. Someone like that who, if he had managed to have a full life, might have won one, or two, or even three, Nobel Prizes. But in fact he was vilified, because he was a homosexual, which, at that point in England, in those days, was illegal. And I’m sure that at that point in England, in those days, there were people who said, “Well, the law is the law. And if you disobey the law, then you should go to prison.” Because of that, because his boyfriend turned him in, Alan Turing was convicted of perversity, and sentenced to prison.

Given the choice between spending hard time — years and years of his life — instead of doing the mathematics that he loved, or alternatively, to accept estrogen injections, well, Turing took the estrogen injection choice. And that broke not only his body, but his mind. He found that he could not do the thing he loved the most, mathematics, any longer. So after two years of this, Alan Turing committed suicide.

And who lost, out of that? Well, Alan Turing lost. But so did all of we. We lost as well. All of us who would have benefited from that first, and second, and the third Nobel Prizes that Alan Turing had in him. And that Aaron Swartz had in him.

We’re the ones who lose.

If we let our prejudices, our desires to restrain those with creativity — if we let that lead us to the point where that creativity is restrained, then going back all the way to the time of Socrates, what we engage in is human sacrifice. We sacrifice their lives, out of the misguided sense that we need to protect ourselves from them, when in fact it’s the opposite.

Our lives have meaning, our lives have greater meaning, from the things that they create. So we’re here today to remember Aaron — and also to try to learn from the experience. To understand that prosecution should not be persecution.

This morning I reached into the closet, randomly took out this tie [showing necktie], and wore it. And I have a sense that sometimes, things are connected in ways that are not exactly obvious. It happens that this tie is a painting of “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh, someone else whose life ended all too soon.

In a Don McLean song about Vincent Van Gogh, it ends this way: “They would not listen. They’re not listening still. Perhaps they never will.”

It’s time to listen.

SEE THE VIDEO

Courage,

Alan Grayson

“And when no hope was left in sight,

On that starry, starry night,

You took your life, as lovers often do.

But I could have told you, Vincent,

This world was never meant for one

As beautiful as you."

-Don McLean, "Starry, Starry Night” (1971).

Corrupt Plutocrat in Charge: Trump’s not the only one.

Alan Grayson

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Sunday October 22, 2017 · 10:26 AM PDT

2017/10/22 · 10:26

Czech billionaire and “media mogul” Andrej Babis was indicted for fraud on Oct. 9. His party won the Czech national election yesterday, winning three times as many seats as the next largest party, and all 76 electoral districts.

As Kurt Vonnegut would say, “and so it goes . . . .”

Babis’s party is called ANO, which means “yes” in Czech. (I keep waiting for “no” to win an election. It’s bound to happen sooner or later – law of averages.) ANO is an acronym in Czech for “Action of Dissatisfied Citizens,” which sounds more like “no” than “yes,” but the Czechs evidently don’t see it that way. ANO supposedly is an anti-corruption, pro-change party, but Babis, its founder and leader conned the European Union out of $2 million in subsidies by posing as a small businessman.

Whoops!

Babis’s company, Agrofert, is big in agriculture and fertilizer, as the name suggests. When the Communist system broke down, Agrofert somehow ended up with very valuable government assets. But a few years ago, Babis decided that Agrofert needed to get into media, and soon enough, Agrofert owned 23 Czech newspapers and magazines (including a free daily newspaper, because the Czechs apparently aren’t so imprudent as to pay for propaganda, but they will snap it up when it’s free), three Czech TV stations (free), and the Czech radio station with the largest audience (free). Which media – surprise, surprise – turned out to be an excellent platform to launch Babis into national politics.

By the way, there is a rumor that Babis used to work for the KGB.

So Babis was in the news, wall-to-wall, head-to-toe, morning-till-night during the campaign. The other candidates could have won the national beer-drinking contest (beer is a BIG thing in the Czech Republic), and they still wouldn’t have made the news.

Results:

ANO came in first, with 30% of the vote and 39% of the seats, because who can resist voting for an anti-corruption party whose leader was just indicted for fraud?
ODS, the conservative party, won 11% of the vote.
The “Pirate Party” also won 11% of the vote. Its leader, Ivan Bartos, braids his hair like a pirate would. The platform of the Pirate Party is that all intellectual property should be free, since the greatest challenge facing society today is the need to pay $8 a month to Hulu.
The racist party, the SPD, also won 11% of the vote. It is run by the founder of Beer Magazine. (I told you that beer is big in the Czech Republic.) He encourages Czechs to adopt pigs as pets and walk them near mosques, and he has urged a boycott against kebobs. Oh, and the leader of this anti-immigrant party happens to have been born in Tokyo, and he is half-Japanese.
The Communist Party came in fifth, with 8% of the vote. That is, the Communist Party that reduced the Czech Republic to servitude for half a century, and invited in the Red Army to squelch the progressive “Prague Spring” of 1968. That Communist Party.

This is what passes for democracy these days.

So if you wake up at 3 am one morning, wondering how we could have elected such a heinous fool to be President of the United States, realize this:

We’re not the only ones to screw up this badly. We’re just the only ones to screw up this badly with nuclear weapons.

The Party's Over

Alan Grayson

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Sunday June 05, 2016 · 5:06 PM PDT

2016/06/05 · 17:06

For the past few months, I’ve been attacked for coming out against the corruption that I see in our party, starting with “Please-Ignore-the-Fact-That-I’m-Under-Criminal-Investigation” Sen. Harry Reid. But despite what the Lie Factory at the top may want you to believe, I love the Democratic Party. I just hate what these Mafia accountants with Napoleonic complexes have done to it. In fact, it’s because I love the party that I so much hate what they have done.

I have listened to so many Democratic activists, as you have reached out to express your anger, your frustration, and your worries. You have felt ignored, belittled, and betrayed. So have I.

The disenfranchisement of Democratic voters in choosing our candidates has been largely ignored by the complicit national media. Leaders have been replaced or squelched by corporate bag men. We have been directed to sit down, shut up, and do what we are told. Or, as Archie Bunker used to say to Edith, “Stifle!”

Up for grabs, right now, is the very notion that candidates matter, that programs matter, that government matters, and that democracy even exists. Any candidate who shows the slightest commitment to Democratic principles is condemned by the party overlords and their media stenographers as “unelectable,” or “ideological,” or “unrealistic.” In fact, the one last thing that the Democratic Politburo is good at is defeating progressive Democratic candidates. Lord knows that they don’t have a clue about how to beat Republicans. In Florida, a very purple state, party bosses have delivered the nomination in statewide races to right-wing Democrats virtually every time this century. And we have lost 14 of those 15 races.

I cannot with good conscience stand by and watch our party abandon the progressive principles and grassroots activists who have built the party we know and love today. I cannot stand by and watch our party recruit and promote candidates who betray the very people our party is supposed to serve, by eschewing the progressive values that working families so desperately need.

Once upon a time, our party was about so much more than the color blue. This party was about recognizing that many working families and seniors are struggling, and about making things better for them. It was about recognizing the injustice and inequality in our society, and then DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

When I was growing up, my parents were Democrats, not because it was trendy, but because they counted on the Democratic Party to improve their lives. They counted on the Democrats to fight for the healthcare benefits I needed to stay alive as a sick child. They counted on the Democrats to fight for the public housing we lived in, instead of the slum my father grew up in. They counted on the Democrats to protect their right to organize, and fair compensation to them as public employees.

What our corrupt, decrepit, and power-mad Democratic Establishment seems to have forgotten is the people like my parents today, the people who would like to vote for Democrats, feel that way because they need our help. Every time our self-appointed “leaders” ram through the nomination of a sellout corporate Democrat, another angel in heaven dies, and (perhaps more importantly) another 100,000 more Democrats flee the un-Democratic Party. Yes, the lobbyists are pleased, and they will keep those PAC checks coming, but our soul is gone. As Walt Kelly used to say in Pogo, “we have met the enemy, and he is us.”

I’m trying to change that. I’m trying to remind our party that we don’t have to be Republican to beat a Republican – that never works -- and that we can still be champions for the People. But there’s only so much I can do alone.

Despite what our party Politburo may think, there’s a lot more at stake this year than which party gets to kowtow best to the 1 percent. This election season, we will decide what kind of party we want to be from here on out. We're fighting for the soul of the Democratic Party. I hope you’ll join us.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

My mom wanted to be a doctor

Alan Grayson

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Sunday May 08, 2016 · 9:07 AM PDT

2016/05/08 · 09:07

I found out last year that my Mom always wanted to be a doctor. And she never had the chance.

That’s sad. Not just for her, but for all of us.

She is 82 years old. She grew up in Montreal, Canada.

Her brother is an OBGYN. He’s in his nineties, still practicing medicine four days a week. There are families in Montreal where my uncle has delivered three generations of women: grandmother, mother and daughter.

That’s the life that my mother wanted. She would have opened a clinic with my uncle, and they would have practiced medicine side by side – for half a century.

That didn’t happen, because she’s a woman. And in the time and place when/where she grew up, her gender disqualified her from being a doctor.

Her life certainly wasn’t wasted; she became an excellent kindergarten teacher. But she wanted to be a doctor, and she would have been very good at it, just like her brother.

So, who lost out? Well, she did, because she didn’t get to do the kind of work that would have been her highest and best use, thanks to discrimination against women.

But we all lost out. When individuals are chained and thwarted by discrimination – or poor education, or poor health, or addiction, or poverty, or hunger, or any other artificial barrier – we all lose out.

And the converse is true. When everyone can be all that he or she can be, we all win. When we are all better off individually, we are all better off collectively. We fulfill our dreams, and we touch the sky.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. It’s too late for you to be a doctor, but not too late for your granddaughter Star, and lots of other bright, talented girls and boys. I’ll do my best to make sure that every one of them can be all that they can be.

That’s my dream.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

“You may say I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one.”

John Lennon, “Imagine” (1971)

Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. Talk to me about it.

Alan Grayson

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Thursday February 18, 2016 · 6:37 AM PST

2016/02/18 · 06:37

I’m a “superdelegate”; I want to listen to you. You decide: Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. The choice is, literally, yours. Go vote now.

Bernie or Hillary? You tell me.

I’m a “superdelegate.” In July, at the Democratic Convention, I will be voting for one or the other. I’d like to know which one you think I should vote for, and why.

Unlike “some people,” I will not be making this decision based on who can host the best fundraiser for me. I will not be making this decision based on what my fat-cat donors tell me, in part because I don’t have any.

I’ll be making this decision based on what you and your friends tell me. I’m inviting you to vote on this, and give your reasons. Democracy – what a concept!

Click here to tell me whom you support for President – and invite your friends to do the same >>

Look, I’d be perfectly happy if our nominee were chosen exclusively in the primaries. But 15% of the delegates to the Democratic Convention are chosen because of who they are, not whom they support. And I happen to be one of them. I wrestled with that responsibility for a while, until I realized that I don’t have to decide – I can let you decide.

My official title is “Representative.” Isn’t that sort of what “Representatives” are supposed to do? Represent the wishes of others?

So tell me: Bernie or Hillary? And why:

If you want me to endorse Bernie Sanders, then you can vote for me to support Bernie. If you want me to endorse Hillary Clinton, then you can vote for me to support Hillary. If you want me to switch to the Republican party and vote for one of those lunatics, then why are you even reading this? You can expect that to happen when the Atlantic Ocean freezes over. Oh, and Hell, too.

Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton? The choice is yours. Go here to vote right now, and get lots of others to do the same.

Don’t wait too long on this one. The Florida Presidential Primary is just four weeks away, and I’m going to make my decision – excuse me, our decision – long before that. If this works, then maybe other “superdelegates” will follow suit, and netroots activism can turn one of the least democratic elements of the UnDemocratic Party into something really special – a decision Of the People, By the People and For the People.

So what are you waiting for? Go vote. Like now. Stop reading this, and go vote.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

What do you mean, “I couldn’t be the president of the United States of America”? Tell me something, it’s still “We the people”, right?

-Megadeth, “Peace Sells” (1986).

The Gun Show Loophole: Common Sense vs. Nonsense

Alan Grayson

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Wednesday January 06, 2016 · 11:16 AM PST

2016/01/06 · 11:16

I support the President’s executive action to close the gun show loophole. And, frankly, I don’t understand why Congressional Republicans are complaining about it. To me, their arguments seem like nonsense.

When you try to buy a gun in a gun shop, you go through a background check. If it turns out that you are prohibited from owning a gun – for instance, a convicted felon – then you don’t get it.

But if you buy a gun at a “gun show” or online, even from a gun dealer, then there is no background check. Therefore, one can buy it even if one is a felon, a fugitive, a drug addict, undocumented, dishonorably discharged, committed to a mental institution, etc.

Excuse me, but why would we, The American People, want to establish a system of “universal” background checks for would-be gun owners, and then exclude gun dealers selling at gun shows (or online) from that universe? Why? What’s the point? I just don’t get it.

Here is an interesting poll from two weeks ago. Question: “Would you support or oppose a law requiring background checks on people buying guns at gun shows or online?”

Democrats: 95% yes, 5% no. Republicans: 87% yes, 12% no.

The same poll, last summer, found that 92% of all gun owners support universal background checks at gun shows and online.

Jus’ plain folks understand this. Why don’t the Republicans in Congress?

So the President has taken executive action to extend the background check requirement to everyone who is in the business of selling guns, even if the transaction takes place at a gun show or over the internet. Here are the consequences:

Good: it will be much more difficult for felons, drug addicts and the criminally insane to buy weapons that can kill.

Bad: ???

Enough with the ideology, already. Seriously. If we’re going to have laws, then they should be practical laws that actually work.

B-b-b-but what about the “slippery slope”?? Ah, yes, the slippery slope. Yes, I confess, preventing felons from buying guns sends us hurtling – no, careening – down that slippery slope, toward … .

Personal safety.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

Christmas - "Jesus had no place to lay his head"

Alan Grayson

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Thursday December 24, 2015 · 2:20 PM PST

2015/12/24 · 14:20

In Matthew, chapter 8, a “teacher of the law” offers to follow Jesus wherever he goes. A simple suggestion, but one that poses a dilemma, because … Jesus has no home. Or as verse 20 puts it, more poetically: “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Jesus was a refugee. A homeless refugee.

And Jesus consciously set in train a long line of refugees, a line that has stretched through two millennia. In Matthew 10:23, Jesus predicts neither wealth nor power nor even happiness for his followers, but rather persecution: “You will be hated by all because of My name.” But Jesus offers this solution to that problem: “Whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next.” (Matthew 10:24). In other words, become a refugee.

Jesus also foresaw that the holy temples in Judea would be occupied and desecrated, presumably by foreign invaders. His answer was not to rebel, nor wage war. His answer was to walk away – far away. Specifically, he suggested that “those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” (Matthew 24:16). In other words, become refugees.

In Jesus’s time, there were no borders, or border patrols. There were neither passports nor visas. There was no Customs and Immigration Service. If you were persecuted or in danger, then you would just tie your belongings to your donkey, and you would leave. And wherever you went, no one would even think of turning you away or hurting you, simply because you were from somewhere else. That’s what the people of Sodom did to Lot (Genesis, chapter 19), and look at what happened to them.

It’s now 2000 years later. We have refugees in our time, too. Have our moral standards improved since then? Have they?

Don’t ask Donald Trump.

Happy Holidays.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

My Grandma used to lose at checkers

Alan Grayson

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Sunday November 22, 2015 · 11:34 AM PST

2015/11/22 · 11:34

My mother was born in Canada. There’s no shame in that. If you don’t believe me, then just ask Ted Cruz’s two children.

There is a reason why my Mom was born in Canada. Her parents, my grandparents, were refugees from Eastern Europe. And America wouldn’t let them in. So they took a right turn, and ended up in Canada.

My Grandma had four siblings who were less fortunate. They had to stay where they were. They died in the Holocaust.

I’m sure that there were right-wingers in America in 1929 (they called them “nativists” back then) who said, “Don’t let the Sabins in – they might be terrorists. Or criminals. Or rapists.”

My Grandma was not a terrorist. She just needed somewhere to go, when it wasn’t safe for her to stay in Eastern Europe any more.

When I was a small boy, my Grandma taught me how to play checkers. And then she lost to me, over and over again, to show me the thrill of winning.

She was a good person. So was my Grandpa. But if Canada had turned them away, like the United States did, then they both would have died in the concentration camps, and I never would have been born.

Every one of those refugees from Syria is somebody’s daughter, somebody’s son. And if Life smiles on them, they might one day be somebody’s grandma, somebody’s grandpa. But only if they have a safe place to live. Otherwise, for them, it will be just ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The only question is whether there would be anyone left alive, to say whatever their version of Kaddish (the Jewish prayer for mourning) is for them.

I didn’t fret, brood, fuss or perseverate over that nasty anti-refugee vote last week. That one was as clear as day. You’d have to have a hard, hard heart to know that you have the power of life and death over thousands and thousands of people, and then consign them to death.

As the President noted, a three-year-old orphan is no threat to us. And – who knows? – maybe one day that orphan will have a grandchild who serves in Congress, and that Member of Congress will cast his vote in favor of compassion and peace.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

“May there be abundant peace from Heaven,
And good life,
Satisfaction, help, comfort, REFUGE,
Healing, redemption, forgiveness, atonement,
Relief and salvation,
For us and for all His people.”

- The Kaddish Prayer

End the New McCarthyism: The Benghazi Witch-Hunt Must Stop Now

Alan Grayson

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Monday October 19, 2015 · 8:36 AM PDT

2015/10/19 · 08:36

Over the past three years, Republicans in the House have threatened to shut down the federal government over the debt ceiling, funding for Planned Parenthood, the sequester, and the Affordable Care Act. They are willing to stop all the good work the government does, just to prove a bad point.

But there is one part of the federal government they can, and should, shut down immediately. It is time to cease the operations of the Special Committee on Benghazi. This taxpayer-sponsored witch-hunt must come to an end now.

On Wednesday, I sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), charging Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. “Trey” Gowdy with violating “federal law and House rules by using official funds appropriated to the Select Committee on Benghazi to pay political or campaign-related expenses.” Specifically, I asked OCE to investigate how they misused $4.5 million of taxpayer money in an unscrupulous attempt to torpedo Secretary Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President.

As I said in my letter to the OCE, “Federal law requires that appropriated funds may only be used for the purposes for which they were appropriated. House Administration Committee regulations implement this law by requiring that ‘Committee funds may only be used to support the conduct of official business of the committee. Committee funds may not be used to defray any personal, political or campaign-related expenses . . . .’”

Compare this to Rep. McCarthy’s Sept. 29 admission on Fox News’s The Sean Hannity Show: “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable right? We put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? ‘Cause she is untrustable. But no one would’ve known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen."

Rep. McCarthy has paid for this confession to this abuse of power. He removed himself from the race for House Speaker the day after I filed the ethics complaint. Now it’s time to remove the commission itself.

The Benghazi Committee has been a political dog-and-pony show for its entire 17-month history. For a period longer than Congress investigated Watergate, the Republican Majority has subpoenaed State Department employees and others close to Secretary Clinton, solely to generate anti-Clinton propaganda. Indeed, this inquisition has been perpetuated for so long precisely so that it would coincide with the Democratic Presidential Primary race. The Committee hasn’t held a single hearing since January. It has been clear even to casual observers that the purpose of the committee was never to investigate the tragic death of four Americans in a terrorist attack; it was to attack Hillary Clinton. It is a textbook example of what Secretary Clinton’s husband aptly labeled “the politics of personal destruction.”

The fact is, there is no “there” there. As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I have read every email, every brief, and every classified memo about the tragic events in Benghazi. There is not one scintilla of evidence that anyone in the State Department, from entry-level employees to Secretary Clinton herself, took any action that unnecessarily put lives at risk, or covered up anything. The Ambassador, solely on his own authority and with good intentions, went to a place that was not safe. That is a mistake, not a scandal. As I said at a Foreign Affairs hearing, this is “the scandal that never was.” Yet the Republicans on the committee have wasted their time, and our money, trying to generate enough smoke so that someone might think that there is a fire.

We’ve seen this before. Sixty years ago, another McCarthy in Congress held politically motivated hearings, in an attempt to smear the good names of loyal Americans. Sen. Joe McCarthy’s persecutions of those whom he accused of “Communist sympathies” also wasted huge amounts of money, and ruined innocent lives. Attorney Joe Welch’s indignant response to Sen. McCarthy -- “Have you no sense of decency?” -- ended that shameful period. But today, with the Benghazi Commission, we are witnessing the New McCarthyism.

Secretary Clinton is scheduled to testify before the Select Committee on Benghazi on October 22. While I know that she will – once again -- expertly explain the circumstances of that tragic day, the Special Committee on Anti-Hillary Agitprop should be shut down before then. It is long past time that we put an end to this shameful and politically motivated witch hunt.

What I Taught Fox News Business About Government Shutdowns

Alan Grayson

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Monday October 05, 2015 · 7:50 AM PDT

2015/10/05 · 07:50

Last week, I taught Fox News Business about government shutdowns. Watch here or read below:

Trish Regan: Joining me right now with a plan to stop government shutdowns from happening all together is Alan Grayson, Congressman from Florida, now running for U.S. Senate. Congressman, welcome.

Rep. Alan M. Grayson: Thank you. Thank you very much.

TR: Tell me how this plan, this bill of yours, would work?

AMG: The Shutdown the Shutdown Act, very simply, substitutes level funding for the plunge in funding that we’d be seeing the day after tomorrow [Oct. 1]. It says that whenever we have a gap in funding we simply continue with the existing funding level, instead of dropping down to zero. It’s just common sense.

TR: Let me ask you, Congressman, though, isn't part of our democratic process the ability, giving our representatives to ability to act, to do what they think is right and, some would tell you, that these shutdowns, as miserable as they are, they're actually an important part of our political process. You want to take that away?

AMG: I don't know anybody who feels that way. I’m not even sure you feel that way, as you're saying those words. That doesn't make any sense to me.

TR: Oh I absolutely do. I mean, there are moments when you need to stand your ground. I mean nobody wants a shutdown, I give you that. Nobody wants that. But, if this is what it comes to, isn't that part of the democratic process? This is what it comes to? If you supersede that, what’s the alternative?

AMG: The alternative is called constitutional government. And I invite everyone to familiarize themselves with it. The way we change funding levels in this country is very simple. The House passes a law. The Senate passes a law. Then the President either signs it, or we overcome his veto. That’s the way the Founding Fathers wanted it. The Founding Fathers didn't have shutdowns. Why should we?

TR: What do you think the economic toll is of a shutdown?

AMG: Well, we know what it is. The last time, the three-week shutdown (less than three weeks), ended up costing us the better part of 1% of our gross national product. It cost us well over $20 billion. We had export/import licenses that weren't issued. We had tax refunds that weren't sent. We had all sorts of economic chaos. And it served no purpose whatsoever.

TR: That said, Congressman, most people would point to the fact that that is all temporary, and while it’s painful in the here and now, as economist Steve Moore just said on this program the other day….

AMG: Well, cancer is temporary too, isn't it?

TR: Congressman, eventually some of that pent-up demand that wasn't met during that time actually does get fulfilled.

AMG: What pent-up demand?

TR: And those licenses do get issued.

AMG: Not according to Standard & Poor's.

TR: Anyway we're going to continue watching your bill.

AMG: Standard & Poor’s disagrees with you.

TR: Good luck in your Senate race. Mark Serrano, Chris Hahn, still with me. Thank you, representative.

AMG: Thank you.

My Bill Will Shut Down the Shutdowns

Alan Grayson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday September 28, 2015 · 12:01 PM PDT

2015/09/28 · 12:01

This week, I taped a video explaining how my bill will shut down government shutdowns for good. Watch it here or read the transcript below.

" Hello. I'm Congressman Alan Grayson.

"With a federal budget deadline looming, we are still facing the threat of another destructive government shutdown.

"And it's because a small faction of Republicans want to choke off federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

"Planned Parenthood received roughly half a billion dollars in federal grants to help pay for critical medical services that the organization provides to poor women across the country last year.

"The federal government spends approximately $3 trillion a year.

"So Republicans want to shut down the entire federal government over a concern regarding about one-sixtieth of 1% of federal spending.

"If Republicans shut the government down, health and safety inspections will be halted. Federal loans and import/export licenses will be put on hold.

"The National Institutes of Health will stop accepting patients. And more than 800,000 federal workers care likely to be sent home.

"But this isn't the first time Republicans have shut down the federal government over partisan concerns.

"So that's why I've filed a bill that could make it the last time the government gets shutdown because of politics.

"Two years ago, Congressional Republicans knew that all of their efforts to amend or repeal the Affordable Care Act by Constitutional means had failed, and Obamacare had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

"The linchpin of that act, the "affordability credits" that have helped more than 10 million Americans obtain coverage, were about to go into effect. So Republicans forced a shutdown.

"It was embarrassing, costly and pointless.

"Standard & Poor's estimated that the 16-day federal shutdown in 2013 cost us $24 billion, and reduced fourth quarter 2013 Gross National Product growth by about 0.6%. This from the self-proclaimed "fiscally responsible" party. The G.O.P.

"It was also political self-mutilation by the GOP; its support in the polls dropped by 10%.

"In April, I proposed a simple solution. My bill, the Shut Down the Shutdowns Act, eliminates this danger entirely by applying existing budget levels to all federal agencies until a new law is passed creating new ones. My bill, H.R. 1776, is our declaration of independence from the tyranny of government shutdowns, both actual and threatened.

"Existing law prohibits shutdowns regarding Social Security and Medicare benefits. Shouldn't we be consistent? Why should the default for federal spending be no budget, instead of just the same budget? And why should we ever allow a fraction of a faction in the body politic to threaten the whole and hold all of us hostage?

"I have served in Congress for almost five years. I am genuinely puzzled as to why we keep finding ourselves peering over a fiscal cliff every Sept. 30, wondering whether to jump. Just because we have done something every year for centuries doesn't mean that we have to keep doing it--just ask the swallows who used to come to San Juan Capistrano.

"Let's end this dangerous and self-destructive political ritual; let's shut down the shutdowns. It's common sense, and it's what the American people deserve.

"I'm Congressman Alan Grayson. Thank you."

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