Pelosi: Don't Single Out Alan Grayson

(AP)  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says anyone using harsh rhetoric to raise fears about health care reform should apologize and get on with writing policy, but said there's no reason to single out a Florida Democrat who said Republicans want sick Americans to "die quickly."

"If anybody's going to apologize, everybody should apologize," she said when asked Thursday about Rep. Alan Grayson's comments on the House floor earlier this week.

Pelosi's response reflects what Democratic aides have said privately since Grayson's remarks sparked an uproar: that Republicans have routinely said with impunity that Democrats want to "pull the plug on grandma" or create "death panels" to decide who deserves care and who doesn't.

"Apparently Republicans are holding Democrats to a higher level than they are holding their own members," Pelosi, D-Calif., said of Republican calls for Grayson to rescind his comments.

But she also cautioned against inflammatory rhetoric, saying it shouldn't get in the way of the complex job of overhauling the health care system.

Republicans said they would continue withholding a resolution putting the House on record as disapproving of Grayson's remarks in hopes that Grayson will apologize.

"It is the job of the speaker to ensure the House runs with proper decorum," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican who drafted the resolution this week. "Any future decision on a resolution will rest on the ability of the speaker to control her members."

Grayson, a first term congressman from Orlando, has stood firmly behind his remarks, saying his speech Tuesday night was an accurate description of how Republican health care proposals would treat thousands of Americans who go without care because they don't have insurance. He has cited a study showing that nearly 45,000 people die each year for lack of insurance.

He has mocked Republican calls for an apology, calling the GOP "foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals" and saying he violated no House rules. He said Democratic leaders have not asked him to apologize.

With the Grayson uproar, Republicans are seeking payback from a Democratic-led reprimand of Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who last month shouted "You lie!" at President Barack Obama during his speech to a joint session of Congress.

More Grayson coverage:

Alan Grayson: People Like a Democrat with Guts

Alan Grayson "Die Quickly" Comment Prompts Uproar

Alan Grayson Apologizes to the Dead, not Republicans

[quidam56]

NEVER apologise for speaking the truth, ( click link for more info )

http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62

I thank him for speaking up for my father.

[6591Hou]

The partisan extremists on both sides love this story. The republican partisans are 'outraged' that someone made an inflammatory statement on the floor of Congress and 'demanding an apology', and the democrat partisans are gleefully supporting Grayson's broadside and saying that the uncivility of the republican partisans excuse Grayson from having to apologize.

Republicans cannot claim that this is the first time that overgeneralized and nonspecific statements have been used to slur the opposition on the floor of Congress or Senate, Democrats cannot prove that the other side has a 'plan' of stay healthy or die quickly...... it's a ridiculous distraction and a completely unproductive sideshow to the healthcare debate. Both sides need to grow up and prove that they deserve to hold their offices.

[tafhdyd]

I think there is a version of the golden rule that is if you can't say something good, don't say anything at all. The republicans can't even get that right. They have nothing good to say so they lie.

[drsam8]

Speaker Pelosi is right! Congressman Wilson behaviorbroke the rule of the House and was more outrageous, and hasn't apologized in Congress. Overall, we must listen to the wise evaluation of Sen. Lindsey Graham referring to the extreme and false language of "birthers" and the likes of Glenn Beck. ALL MEN AND WOMEN OF GOODWILL who mean well for America and its cherished institutions of government must applaud Sen. Graham's statement! He shows he is a true patriot--a man of integrity, fearless in his conviction and determined to do what is right in the interent of America he loves. Personally, I worry about what all these radical politics and extreme words are doing to the whole idea of the responsible self. How are are young people taking it? Are we still going to be teaching them to respect our institutions and those in authority with any credibility? I believe we must push back in this country against violent and untruthful tendencies, violent words and violent behavior. Again, Sen. Graham deserves all of our collective thanks for speaking out and doing the right thing, unlike many leaders in the Republican Party who would casually sacrifice truth, integrity and patriotism for polical opportunism!!! In this regard, Michael Steele is the meanest joker of them all.

[calcal55]

I find it incredible that right after Ms. Pelosi's heart-felt speech about 'toning down the retoric' that this guy Grayson spews this vile name-calling. Of course Ms. Pelosi didn't call Grayson out on his 'harsh retoric', that would be the fair and honorable thing to do. Seems quite obvious to me that her words to Congress were only directed to one side of the aisle, not hers. I would have had much more respect for her if she had said something, but she remained silent...Hypocritical? I'd say so.

[stuart-johns1]

I just watched Grayson with Chris Matthews. I LIKE this guy. He has a very impressive background. He is extremely wealthy, a graduate of Harvard, a former clerk to a couple of Supreme court Justices, a lawyer, a businessman who incidently ran a stock brokerage firm and made millions.

He entered politics as a democrat for the simple joy of helping Americans (in spite of his wealth). What a class act. I want this guy for President!

[jxknowles]

Agreed, I love this guy. The political talking heads at CNN rolled over and played dead when he was on Wolf Blitzer. Let him loose on FOX News. This guy has a huge career ahead of him. I think he's going to be a SNL skit very soon.

[starleo146]

Are the Republicans serious about anything? The nerve after the planned August town hall meetings, death panels comments, socialist Obama comments, bringing guns to the meetings, Hitler comments. I just felt so good for this representative to call out these republicans, and the truth hurt didn't it. He done a good deed, now maybe they will see who they are, and what they stand for. They have voted NO on every occasion a vote was needed. To want our President to fail, and to say this health care reform if defeated will be Obama's Waterloo. What he said is the truth, a NO vote is a vote for more people with no health care to die, they do not care about the people, and Grayson deserves a medal for pointing out what the truth is in the republican party. If a few more would speak out on the democrat side they look like they are scared to death, It is about time and we need more Graysons in the Congress that want to get things done and are blocked by these republicans every time.

[stuart-johns1]

It's amazing the arrogance of the republican party.

On these boards since before Obama was even elected, they have called him a terrorist, a commie sympathizer, a fascist?, a Marxist, a socialist, a Muslim extremist, Kenyan-in-Chief, Commie-in-Chief, loser, enemy of America, and have even called him a nig and a slew of other insults I have on file.

The republican extremists have threatened Obamas life, threatened violence at americans who support Obama, they bring guns to town hall meetings which was just another veiled threat to Obama, they have insulted the appearance of Michelle Obama saying she looks like an ape, they have attacked his children, they have spread fear to little old ladies and attempted to do the same with veterans but that did'nt work, they bought into this massive insurance funded mis-information campaign, they insult, deride, abase, manipulate, twist other posters words, and presented these boards with an element of extremist lies on every subject.

But they find it "dusgusting" that some of us call them out on all of this?????? What arrogance! What gaul! Whatever abuses you get my extremist friends, you brought on yourselves. We act like that because you treat us like that. All of you! You guys drew first blood and now you want to complain because you are not treated as you would like to be treated????

Please. Quit your lies, renounce extremism, seek out your God or a psychiatrist for some help and come back here in a more civilised manner and you will be treated better by other posters. It's really that simple. Quit your whining about everything under the sun. Admit when you are wrong. Be real men instead of the girly cowardly man you so aptly represent. Do this first and you may re-earn some marginal respect from America.

It is just audacious arrogance that any of you complain about anything or anyone getting on your cases.

And now, after Grayson, they pompously proclaim that Grayson's behavior was wrong and that lawmakers need to be civilized????? Well thay can START with themselves and all the little trolls that support those idiots on these boards.

[retiredgustav]

by Waymonds October 1, 2009 6:34 PM EDT
Who gives a flying flip what Alan Grayson said. He has NO FACTS to back up his claims...

Where as repubicans have a TON of facts that back up every statement they've made about Obamacare....

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Show us where there are "death panels" or someone is going to "kill your grandmother" that appears anywhere in any of the bills. You've been on these boards all day spewing lies and when called out to back them up with proof you disappear.
========================================================================I can't show where our Presidents health plan is going to kill the elderlybut, George Bush as Gov. of Texas along with his consevatice cronies did create a death panel. Follow this link.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0322-03.htm

[stuart-johns1]

I can easily believe the blatant hypocrisy of the fanatical republican extremists. How DARE they even say ONE WORD about Grayson when they have been spewing racist comments, lies and general disrespect for all Americans and have made a mockery of our political system.

Do they ever listen to themselves...to Michelle Bachman for instance?

[maistir]

The difference is that the historical record shows that DEMs coined the slogan "Duty to Die" in the 1980's. In fact, it was three-term DEM Governor, Richard Lamm of Colorado, who told the elderly to die in order to save Social Security and other programs.

Lamm's intellectual heirs abound among the DEMs. I know because I was active in the DEM party until Clinton's second term. Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel is the latest of the government-rationed, end-of-life care advocates among the DEMs. He is a White House advisor on health and the brother of Pres. Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel.

Luckily, this is all on the record, so you need not believe me. It is a sad reflection of the state of the news media that they will not make the effort to provide this kind of background.

[jxknowles]

maistir, you lost the argument, and credibility, when you started throwing government-rationed and end-of-life around in the same sentence. Taking loosely tied facts and turning them into scary, fabricated, assertions against the fight for healthcare reform is a laughable. Go look for a fake birth certificate.

I voted Republican until George Bush and Dickless Cheney ran this country into the ground. So I guess you and I off-set each other.