Patrick Murphy is the congressman representing the district where my company is located. I have met and like him, Our corporate president is a hard right Republican, but Murphy has worked hard to support us without violating any ethical principles. He has won the respect of our entire leadership team. He has proven to be very responsive to the needs of his local constituents. Murphy seems to be the kind of congressman who would fit right in to the Senate, He is a moderate Democrat. I can understand why Reid would prefer Murphy in the Senate. He will work hard, do his job and won’t make many waves.
Grayson, on the other hand, has been the kind of fighting Democrat I find personally attractive. He has a history of making waves.
I need to hear more about the hedge fund allocations.
If we want to win the seat, Murphy has a clear advantage over Grayson. Florida is a purple state…at best (its actually pretty red at the state level). Murphy seems to be a much more electable candidate than Grayson in a statewide election.
He is the biggest Russia apologist in Congress. He basically will repeat anything RT reports. He thinks that Obama fabricated the evidence of Assad’s chemical weapons use. He thinks that we should be happy Russia annexed Crimea.
He is a firebrand. And we do need those in the House. But he is also erratic as hell. I mean I guess I can understand…clerking for both Ginsberg and Scalia would make just about anybody schizophrenic.
Republican War Criminal Allen West never took on Alan Grayson…Grayson’s first election win was over Ric Keller, and he lost 2 years later to Daniel Webster, who is still in the House. Grayson made his comeback in 2012 in a different district, but he’s never faced Allen West.
God I would love to see that though, that would be a Clash of the Trash-Talking Titans.
Interviews and the documents show that Mr. Grayson told potential investors in his hedge fund that they should contribute money to the fund to capitalize on the unrest he observed around the world, and to take particular advantage when there was “blood in the streets.”
This looks pretty icky — a congressman running a hedge fund to profit from Third World strife.
On the other hand, as the article makes clear, there were only ever four investors — himself, a family trust, and two friends whose losses he reimbursed 100% so they could pull out clean. Which means it’s really just a personal investment vehicle now. So is he using insider information from his overseas trips as a congressman to enrich himself? His own (former) Senate campaign manager said it would look bad, but Grayson declined to close the fund, saying it would “be taken, wrongly, as an admission of guilt.”
“Icky people”? Don’t be so well-reasoned and specific. Did you ever consider this is more Democratic leadership underhandedness? You can look at this long article in the NYT and then decide, after all the innuendo and smoke, whether there is more air than substance there. It’s icky’."
Grayson is a firebrand and very quick, often too quick, to shoot from the lip. Still, I will always be, to a degree, a fan after his House floor unveiling of the “Republican Healthcare Plan”: "Don’t get sick. If you do get sick, die quickly!" ~Immediate Republican outrage galore!! Outrage I say!~ rotfl
In a strange way, he’s needed for counterbalance in the loony Bagger House these days…in the Senate, a more deliberative body that needs a bit of a more refined touch for effectiveness, no. Murphy has a good chance of taking the Senate seat. Grayson should just defer and back away.
BTW: One kerfuffle Grayson caused in 2013 was delicious. In an email he sent out, he explained what the “T” in Tea Party stood for:
Afterwards…The Tea Party issued a “We Are Under Seige” screed to its members. lmao
Glad Reid put this out there. It shades some of the national exposure which Grayson has into office-related issues, etc.
Harry is an impressive man, especially given the vitriol of this post-2008 Congress. When things were starting to wind down for him I saw a clip from him (which I still have on Youtube) in which he said,
Someone’s got to stick their boot right in the GOP’s nuts once in a while, because far too many Democrats are unwilling to climb down in the mud and fistfight with them
I haven’t read enough to fully understand the situation but my gut response is this is a political hit, which however I would not have expected from Reid, so I am very confused.
I’m having a hard time finding the criminal or unethical element in this story. The NYT says “He promoted his international travels, some with congressional delegations, to solicit business”? What does that even mean? Is “promoting” travel illegal?
The NYT also says “This highly unusual dual role — a sitting House lawmaker running a hedge fund, which until recently had operations in the Cayman Islands”. Is operating a business while being a House member illegal? Are hedge funds illegal? Maybe in the Cayman Islands?
The NYT also says, “The emails also show how Mr. Grayson’s work for the hedge fund…at times interfered with his other duties.” Quick: let’s start investigating every single presidential candidate because I’m pretty sure their campaign activities are interfering with their duties.
I’m having a lot of trouble finding a there there. What’s going on?
There may not be anything illegal, but there is certainly scope for things to cross the line quickly. Here is a guy who travels the world as a congressman, then uses his personal hedge fund as an investment vehicle to profit from international unrest. More than that, he presents himself as a progressive, but the types of investments he makes are designed to benefit from Third World suffering. So, maybe not illegal, exactly but—not the type of judgment Reid would prefer in a Senate candidate in a critical state?
Hang on there eatbees. “There is certainly scope for things to cross the line” ? What kind of bullshit is that? There is always scope for everyone to cross lines – don’t be ridiculous. The Minority Leader of the Senate does not carry out a political assassination because there is “scope” to cross the line.
And, from my quick read, Grayson isn’t profiting by CAUSING international unrest. It sounds like he is using his knowledge of world affairs to make money in the stock market. So fucking what?
