Last Call For Operating In A Grayson Area

The Democratic primary in Florida next month (I know, why can't Florida just have one primary) to decide who will take on GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is between Rep. Alan Grayson and Rep. Patrick Murphy.

Or that was until today, when Politico dropped this dynamite all over the race and blew up what final shreds of respect I had for the man I once tagged as being one of the few Dems left with a spine.

Rep. Alan Grayson's ex-wife repeatedly went to police with accusations of domestic abuse over a two-decade period, according to documents she has provided to POLITICO, revelations that come as the Florida congressman enters the final weeks of his Democratic primary campaign for Senate. 

Lolita Grayson called police on her husband at least two times in Virginia and two more times in Florida, sought medical attention on at least two occasions and said that, in one instance, he had threatened to kill her, according to a police report.

The congressman, who also asserted Lolita Grayson battered him in 2014, vehemently denies he engaged in any abuse during their 25-year marriage, which ended last year in a bitter annulment that she is now appealing. 

The first reported incident described by the documents was in 1994, the final one was in 2014. She also called Orange County sheriff’s deputies in 2005 to lodge another abuse complaint, but prosecutors filed no charges in that incident or any of the others. Only the 2014 incident has been previously reported. 

“I want the people to know my story so they know what kind of man Alan Grayson really is,” Lolita Grayson, 56, said in an email to POLITICO, her first public comments on the issue. She provided police and medical records related to 1994 and 1999 incidents in Fairfax County in Virginia, and sheriff’s reports concerning 2005 and 2014 incidents in Orange County, Florida. 

“I requested the medical records and police records so people could read what doctors and police officers wrote,” she stated. “I read many of these records for the first time. These are very painful memories and horrible experiences.” 

Through his lawyer, Mark NeJame, Grayson denied ever striking or abusing Lolita Grayson. 

"Lolita is a disturbed woman. She has made one false allegation after another. Her own daughter refutes her," said NeJame, referring to a statement from the couple’s oldest child.

This story of domestic abuse in the Graysons' marriage is horrible, but if Lolita Grayson went to police multiple times over two decades in order to do something about her husband abusing her, then I have to say that not only does Lolita Grayson need to be believed and her charges examined, but that Grayson sure as hell needs to drop out of this Senate race and find a replacement for his current House seat as well.

I want Grayson gone from Congress at the very least.

Rubio In The Gray Zone

The Republican party wants to somehow avoid wresting defeat from the jaws of victory in Florida's Senate race, but now that Marco "Private Citizen" Rubio is back in the contest, the focus is now on which Democrat he will face: resume-challenged Patrick Murphy or ethics-challenged Alan Grayson.

In one dramatic day this month, the entire race — one of roughly a half-dozen on which control of the Senate rests — was turned on its head. First, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio dropped his retirement plans and announced plans to run for reelection. Within hours, the CBS affiliate in Miami aired a bombshell investigative story accusing the Democratic establishment's chosen candidate, 33-year-old Rep. Patrick Murphy, of rampant résumé inflation.

Now, Republicans smell blood in the water, and they're looking to damage Murphy so badly that Democrats are forced to spend heavily on his behalf ahead of the state's Aug. 30 primary — or abandon the race altogether. The GOP is adopting a strategy that's been used against it repeatedly in recent election cycles: Propping up a politically toxic, outside-the-mainstream candidate in the other party's primary, in this case firebrand liberal Rep. Alan Grayson. 

"I think anybody would rather run against Grayson” in the general election, said Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, a vice chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The reversal of fortunes in Florida could hardly have come at a better time for Republicans, after weeks of negative headlines about their presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and increasing concerns about a down-ballot disaster for the party. If Republicans can put the Sunshine State race out of reach, it would substantially boost their hopes of retaining the Senate. The party is clinging to a four-seat advantage, but faces an electoral map tilted decidedly in Democrats' favor. 

Florida was seen as a better-than-even Democratic pickup before Rubio changed his mind, given Trump’s lousy poll numbers in the diverse state and a slate of underfunded and little-known Republican candidates. Now, Republicans have not only a top-tier incumbent, but a major TV takedown of the leading Democrat: The CBS story, which Murphy's campaign has aggressively sought to refute, questioned his stated credentials as a CPA and other business experience. Republicans promptly launched an ad off it, backed by $45,000. It's running on cable in the D.C. area, to sow doubt among donors and operatives about whether Murphy is worth their investment.

The Murphy story is bad.  The comically stupid Rubio flip-flop mess is definitely worse, and given Trump's disastrous albatross status, it should be enough to offset Rubio's incumbency and make it an even race, which the polls show.

But Alan Grayson's ethics problems are lethal, and Republicans are hoping to pick their opponent, one so bad even Rubio can win.  The optimal answer is for Grayson to drop out, but we all know that's not going to happen.

Hillary Clinton can relate, you know?

Last Call For Crossing The Rubio Con, Con't

It's official, Sen. Marco Rubio really is going to run for re-election after his disastrous presidential run.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will seek reelection to a second term, sources familiar with the decision said Wednesday, a complete reversal from his earlier plans that gives the GOP a significant boost in its efforts to block a Democratic takeover of the Senate. 

Rubio becomes the immediate frontrunner in a battleground race that Democrats had been slightly favored to win, though he faces a primary and a potentially tough general election to secure a second term.

Indeed, the first Quinnipiac poll measuring Rubio getting back in the race after his heavily rumored return last week finds Rubio coasting to an easy win over both his potential Democratic opponents.

In Florida, Sen. Rubio leads U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy 47 - 40 percent and tops U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson 48 - 40 percent. Murphy and Grayson are ahead of several largely unknown Republican contenders.

That's somewhat surprising, but we'll see how long this lasts once Rubio comes under attack.

"With Republican national leaders worried about keeping control of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio might ride to their rescue if he decides to reverse field and seek re-election," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

"This Quinnipiac University poll finds Sen. Marco Rubio in good shape when matched against his two potential Democratic opponents," Brown added.

"None of the other Republican candidates for Sen. Rubio's seat has a lead over either of the two Democrats, Congressmen Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson. But if Rubio's last-minute decision is to seek re-election, he could be in the driver's seat."

Until he crashes the car.  We'll see.

That Big Grayson Area, Con't

With all the newfound scrutiny on offshore hedge funds and tax havens thanks to the Panama Papers, it wasn't going to be long before the fallout started hitting US politicians, and the obvious choice to get roasted over this in a fit of pique is Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson.

There is “a substantial reason to believe” that U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson broke federal law and House ethics rules in connection with his offshore hedge fund and other actions in office, according to an investigative report released Tuesday.

But the House Committee on Ethics, which received the report, said the probe into Grayson requires “further review,” so it did not announce any final decision about his fate.

Investigators were initially looking into whether Grayson, D-Orlando, used his position in Congress to solicit investors to the Grayson Fund, partially based in the Cayman Islands. But the report also found possible ethical and federal law violations in his work as a lawyer, investments and the use of his office and staff.

Grayson issued a detailed rebuttal to the House Office of Congressional Ethics report in which he denied any wrongdoing. He called it “utterly frivolous” and “replete with amorphous catch-phrases like ‘reason to believe.’ It does not identify any instance where the OCE actually found an ethics violation, or any violation of law.”

Grayson, locked in heated Democratic primary campaign for the U.S. Senate, said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that the only investors in his hedge fund were longtime friends “who were not persuaded to join the fund because I was a member of Congress.” 

 
Five gets you six that the "further review" has to do with the Panama Papers.  The Republicans despise Grayson and this is a good vehicle to go on the attack against him.

We'll see where this goes.  I know I've been critical of Grayson in the past, but any ethics committee in a US House run by the GOP is only going to be used for witch hunts against Democrats.  For this to come out 24 hours after the Panama Papers were released?  That's a hell of a coincidence.

That Big Grayson Area

It's been a while since we've checked in with Rep. Alan Grayson, back in the House and running for Marco Rubio's seat in the Senate.  As the New York Times notes, Grayson has an interesting day job outside of being in Congress: that of hedge fund manager. And the House Ethics Committee apparently has a few questions for him.

This highly unusual dual role — a sitting House lawmaker running a hedge fund, which until recently had operations in the Cayman Islands — has led to an investigation of Mr. Grayson by the House Committee on Ethics.

The inquiry has become public, but emails and marketing documents obtained by The New York Times show the extent to which Mr. Grayson’s roles as a hedge fund manager and a member of Congress were intertwined, and how he promoted his international travels, some with congressional delegations, to solicit business.

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.” 

The emails also show how Mr. Grayson’s work for the hedge fund, which had $16.4 million in assets as of October, at times interfered with his other duties. In August 2015, after Mr. Grayson introduced legislation calling for larger annual increases in Social Security benefits, he signed off on a plan to highlight the proposal at an event in Tampa, Fla., emails obtained by The Times show. But the plan was scuttled, two former aides said, when economic turmoil in China sent stock markets tumbling globally and Mr. Grayson had to turn his attention to the fund. 

Ken Scudder, a spokesman for Mr. Grayson, disputed that account. “There has never been any time when Representative Grayson’s investment activities have disrupted any of his work, whether official or campaign-related,” he said. 

Mr. Grayson says he has done nothing wrong. “Here is something that is not true: that I somehow traded on my membership as a U.S. congressman to get clients for this fund,” Mr. Grayson said in an interview. He added that in the last year he had refunded the full original investments put in by his two outside investors in a fund that had faced steep losses — leaving only Mr. Grayson and a family trust invested in the fund.

Look, Grayson would make an infinitely better US Senator than Marco Rubio and I hope he wins, but...the guy is literally a Wall Street hedge fund manager.  Let's not pretend he's some sort of scrappy outsider here who doesn't play the game.  There's a reason Congress is filled by the rich elite in both parties, and Grayson's one of them.

He has a spine.  He also has a hedge fund.  They are not mutually exclusive.

Black, White And Grayson Areas

National Journal conservative pundit Josh Kraushaar is convinced that Alan Grayson will cost the Dems taking back the Senate the way Republican Todd Akin did for the GOP in 2010: by opening his mouth one too many times and becoming a national sound bite punch line.

The list of Grayson's greatest hits is long—and contains equal-opportunity vitriol against Republicans, Democrats, and reporters alike. He reportedly called Murphy a "piece of shit" when recently meeting with DSCC Chairman Jon Tester. In the run-up to a 2010 landslide loss against GOP Rep. Daniel Webster, he aired an ad labeling his opponent as "Taliban Dan" and, without basis, accused him of wanting to outlaw divorce for abused women. Grayson called a Federal Reserve adviser a "K Street whore" and told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that Dick Cheney has blood "dripping from his teeth" when talking. He threatened a conservative constituent with five years of prison time for launching a website titled mycongressmanisnuts.com. Most recently, he asked Tampa Bay Times political reporter Adam Smith whether he was some kind of "shitting robot" when confronted with questions surrounding his offshore investments. 

Grayson also is enmeshed in an ugly divorce battle with his wife of 24 years, who has accused him of domestic abuse. He's vigorously denied the allegations, and has accused her ofengaging in bigamy and being a "gold digger."

"On a professional level, before he went to Congress he was a wealthy trial lawyer looking for fights to make a living. That's what he had to do. In 2010 [when he lost his first reelection], Alan Grayson proved to me that when the going got tough, he completely lost control," said Florida-based Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who led President Obama's campaigns in the state. "My gut says Grayson's looking for a fight. This is a guy whose entire career has been based on looking for a bully to hit. If he says he's probably going to run for the Senate, he's probably going to run for the Senate."
The tricky calculus for the DSCC, which endorsed Murphy early in a bid to dissuade Grayson from running, is that Grayson is so unpredictable that it's hard to plot a strategy designed to limit his destructiveness. Most Senate candidates wouldn't want to give up a cushy lifetime Congressional job to make a long-shot bid at higher office. But Grayson is independently wealthy—the 17th-richest member of Congress, with assets of around $25 million—and derives his prestige through provocation. 

Democrats normally have many tools to marginalize a weak candidate, but few of the traditional rules apply to Grayson. He's unlikely to be swayed by promises of subcommittee chairmanships or increased funding in his Orlando-area district. Attacking him as unelectable will only raise his profile further, and amp up the already-explosive rhetoric between the two sides. Schale argued that the DSCC's move endorsing Murphy to unify the party against Grayson is likely to backfire, and raise the odds he jumps in the race. 

Making the strategy even more complicated is that Murphy is vulnerable to a challenge on his left. Representing a swing district that voted for Mitt Romney, Murphy has voting record that is one of the most conservative in his caucus. He boasts an 86 percent lifetime vote score with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a better tally than many House Republicans. He's still unknown to most Florida Democrats, given that he represents only a small slice of the expansive state. In fact, Quinnipiac's April survey found Grayson somewhat better-known than Murphy, and despite the controversies, holding a net positive favorability rating.

Kraushaar's obvious concern trolling aside, Alan Grayson vs Patrick Murphy really is the perfect microcosm of the "more Democrats versus better Democrats" debate.  Murphy is a safe candidate, but absolutely a Southern Blue Dog, where a loss of Blue Dogs in the South and retirements in the Mountain West cost Dems the Senate big time last year.

Having said that, anything that would piss Josh Kraushaar off is usually a good idea worth doing, and Alan Grayson running for Senate would certainly qualify.  There's no question that Patrick Murphy represents the corporate wing of the Dems, but then again, Kirsten Gillibrand was notoriously conservative in her upstate New York House district before becoming a very liberal Senator, so it's not like Murphy can't start leaning more to the left in a statewide race.

We'll see.  My gut says that betting on Grayson is risky, but would pay out big time if successful.

Voice Of Iron, Feet Of Clay

Never forget that your heroes will always have very mortal flaws.

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the outspoken, populist Democrat who thunders against Wall Street fat cats,and used to to joke about Mitt Romney's low tax bill, incorporated a couple hedge funds in the Cayman Islands so investors could avoid taxes. 

Grayson Fund Ltd. and Grayson Master Fund were incorporated in 2011 in the Cayman Islands, a well known tax Haven that Romney used as well, records show.. That was the same year he wrote in the Huffington Post that the IRS should audit every Fortune 500 company because so many appear to be "evading taxes through transfer pricing and offshore tax havens." 

In a phone interview Wednesday, Grayson said the funds were incorporated in Grand Cayman at the advice of an attorney he declined to name. It was a vehicle for foreign investors to invest in his funds while limiting their tax liabilities, he said, but no money had been invested in them yet. 

"There are no investors in those funds or that fund as the case may be," said Grayson, who said he thought only one fund was incorporated in the Caymans. 

"When I set up my investment funds I set it up like everyone else," Grayson said, complaining about the Tampa Bay Times looking for "some stupid, bull---- story. ... You want to write sh-- about it, and you can't because not a single dollar of taxes has been avoided," he snapped. 

Grayson's financial disclosure statements indicate he has between $5-million and $25-million invested in the Grayson fund, and he lists no income from it.

Sure Alan.  Not a single dollar.

Grayson's Got To Go If This Is True

If these allegations of domestic violence are true, then there's no place for Rep. Alan Grayson in the Democratic Party of 2014.

A judge has granted a temporary protective injunction against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson after his wife filed paperwork accusing the Orlando congressman of shoving and injuring her during an incident this past weekend.

Lolita Grayson's petition for the injunction, dated Monday, says her husband pushed her against a door, causing her to fall to the ground, during a confrontation Saturday at their home on Oak Park Road near Windermere.

In a statement, Alan Grayson's press secretary, Lauren Doney, wrote that the allegations "are absolutely false, completely unfounded, and clearly designed to vilify and harm Congressman Grayson."

"Congressman Grayson firmly denies Ms. Grayson's frivolous accusations," the statement said.

The incident comes just less than two months after Lolita Grayson filed a divorce petition stating that their marriage of nearly 24 years was "irretrievably broken."

Grayson denies the allegations and says a staffer there was a witness.

Juan Lopez, the congressman's director of constituent services, told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday that he was present at the Grayson home Saturday and watched the incident from about 15 feet away.

Lopez said Alan Grayson never shoved or struck his wife: "Absolutely not .... It's just unfortunate that this is happening and that she would say something like this."

I understand divorces are messy, emotional, and wrenching experiences.  That's no excuse.  If Grayson did this to his wife, he's lost the privilege of representing anyone in public office, period.  Grayson has every right to fight this in court, but he knows if this is true or not.

Either way, he owes his constituents an explanation, so let's hear it.

Alan Grayson Goes Full Tinfoil On Syria

I've had problems with Alan Grayson in the past, but this is pretty much deep into Kucinich/Nader  territory and makes me think maybe not all the Obama-hating lunatics in the House have R's after their names.

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who is aggressively lobbying against a military strike on Syria, says the Obama administration has manipulated intelligence to push its case for U.S. involvement in the country's two-year civil war.

Grayson made the accusation in an interview published Wednesday by The Atlantic and offered more detail in a Thursday discussion with U.S. News. He says members of Congress are being given intelligence briefings without any evidence to support administration claims that Syrian leader Bashar Assad ordered the use of chemical weapons.

Grayson said he cannot discuss the classified briefings, but noted details in the administration's public, non-classified report are being contested.

Really?   President Obama has pulled a Cheney?  We've cooking intel now?  Seriously?  Not only is the guy openly backing Putin's play that the rebels are murdering their own citizens to draw the US into war but that now the Obama administration is going along with it, knowingly?

What's your proof, Alan?

He points to an article published by The Daily Caller that alleges the communications actually showed Syrian officers were surprised by the alleged chemical weapon attack. The communications, according to unnamed sources paraphrased in article, were intercepted by Israeli intelligence and "doctored so that it leads a reader to just the opposite conclusion."

"What they say in The Daily Caller is that [intercepted communications] would lead one to the opposite conclusion," Grayson said. "I don't know if it's right or wrong, [but] there's a very simple way to find out, that's for the administration to show me and other members of Congress" translated transcripts of the intercepts, he said.

The Daily Caller?  Tucker Carlson's version of Drudge Report?  Have a seat, Grayson, and shut it.  If I wasn't convinced you were an Obama-hating jackass before, I'm sold now.  That's not proof, that's a Breitbart article.

So sad to see such a potentially good liberal voice in Congress fall to the wingnut side, too.  You have a spine, Alan...but not much in the brains department, if you're being fooled by this.

Last Days Of The Wild Wild West

Allen West, the last guy in America to figure out that Allen West lost his bid for reelection, has finally admitted that he lost his bid for reelection.

After two weeks of battle with St. Lucie County elections officials — and a recount of early votes that wound up extending Murphy’s lead — West acknowledged that he couldn’t surmount his 1,904-vote, or 0.58 percent, deficit. That difference was just outside the 0.5 percent threshold to automatically trigger a recount of all votes.

So the brash conservative opted to bow out rather than wage a long and costly court battle he was unlikely to win.

“For two weeks since Election Day, we have been working to ensure every vote is counted accurately and fairly. We have made progress towards that goal, thanks to the dedication of our supporters and their unrelenting efforts to protect the integrity of the democratic process,” West said in a statement to POLITICO. “While many questions remain unanswered, today I am announcing that I will take no further action to contest the outcome of this election.”

West congratulated Murphy, saying, “I pray he will serve his constituents with honor and integrity, and put the interests of our nation before his own.”

Oh, I fully expect Allen West to be the first person to sign up for Murphy's job in 2014.  He's not done, folks, not by a long shot...just ask Alan Grayson what it means to be an unapologetic partisan House member from Florida voted out of a job, only to come roaring back two years later.

We'll see, but for now, I expect West to end up on FOX or some other wingnut welfare operation until he can get back to running to make Florida safe from socialist Kenyan Muslim Marxist everythings, or whatever he does.

Something tells me I'm going to continue to get use out of the tag as I will Grayson's (which is still true, guy has a spine, he paid for it, he came back.)

Last Call

I may have my problems with Alan Grayson's effectiveness as a member of Congress, but when his Republican opponent in Florida's newly hatched 27th district is using bizarre ads depicting President Obama as the captain of a slave ship, I hope the guy stomps his GOP opponent into the ground.

Featuring the "USS Obamaboat," the animated ad urges voters to “turn this ship around” and criticizes Obama's levels of government spending, including bank bailouts, healthcare and a loan to the failed solar company Solyndra.

Children rowing the USS Obamaboat are told to “Earn! Earn! Earn! Don’t you care about the banks? Don’t you care about the 99 percent?”

A woman in a bathtub on deck says, “This ship stimulated my husband’s solar company” and is then handed money by a man in an adjacent bathtub.

Screw this asshole.  Alan Grayson, you need to win.

Real Money Even By Helicopter Ben Standards

How bad off were the banks in 2008?  The Fed's overnight loan window provided...get this now...nine trillion dollars in loans to banks during the financial crisis.

The loans were made through a special loan program set up by the Fed in the wake of the Bear Stearns collapse in March 2008 to keep the nation's bond markets trading normally.

The amount of cash being pumped out to the financial giants was not previously disclosed. All the loans were backed by collateral and all were paid back with a very low interest rate to the Fed -- an annual rate of between 0.5% to 3.5%.

Still, the total amount was a surprise, even to some who had followed the Fed's rescue efforts closely.

"That's a real number, even for the Fed," said FusionIQ's Barry Ritholtz, author of the book "Bailout Nation." While the fact that the markets were in trouble was already well known, he said the amount of help they needed is still surprising.

"It makes it very clear this was a very serious, very unusual situation," he said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who had authored the provision of the financial reform law that required Wednesday's disclosure, called the data that was released incredible and jaw-dropping.

"The $700 billion Wall Street bailout turned out to be pocket change compared to trillions and trillions of dollars in near zero interest loans and other financial arrangements that the Federal Reserve doled out to every major financial institution," Sanders said.

Granted, the banks paid these loans back, but the collateral they put up to back these loans were again, worthless paper.

Tyler Durden -- and Rep. Alan Grayson -- noticed this missing $9 trillion back last year. Makes you wonder just why Grayson was successfully zapped as the "GOP's Number One Target" in the House.  A whole lot of money from outside Orlando went into that race to get a win for Daniel Webster.  Here's what the banks got, by the way:




Some two trillion a piece for Merill, Citigroup, and Morgan.   Nearly one trillion in a losing effort to save Bear Stearns.  The Fed was the only liquidity game in town on the bond side for months.  And in return, what did the taxpayer get?

Record profits for banks.

Now you know why.  While America was worried about the stimulus bill, the real show was going on behind the scenes at the Fed.  The only reason we even have these major banks is due to these near zero-interest loans based on worthless collateral.  Nine trillion bucks worth.  And these guys think they deserve bonuses this year, while the rest of us are told we must tighten our belts.

That's fair, right?  Washington seems to think so.  Both parties.  Any who object, well, ask Alan Grayson what happens.

How You Know Grayson Is Driving Them Insane

Democrats are supposed to lie down and surrender to Republicans.  They are supposed to fold under the slightest pressure, they are supposed to give in whenever possible, and above all Democrats are never, ever, ever allowed to fight back.

Given the outright bigotry, staggering ignorance, blithe racism, horrible fearmongering and virulent rancor out there by the Tea Party, you'd think someone would notice.  Alas, for the unforgivable, intolerable crime of being Democrat With A Spine, Newsweek's George Will has named Alan Grayson the worst politician in America.

There are hundreds of plausible nominees for the title of America’s Second-Smarmiest Politician, but surely the top spot is un-contested. Americans of all political persuasions can come together in affirming one proposition: Public life would be improved by scrubbing Rep. Alan Grayson from it. This act of civic hygiene probably will be performed Nov. 2 by voters of Florida’s Eighth Congressional District. Polls indicate that a majority of them plan to deny Grayson, 52, a second term by electing his resonantly named opponent, Daniel Webster.

Nice piece of eliminationist rhetoric too:  Grayson must be "scrubbed out of public life."  No, you see, Grayson ran ads attacking Webster as "Taliban Dan" and that's so far beyond the pale of anything Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Tom Tancredo, Joe Miller, or Christine O' Donnell has done that he is the one who must be "scrubbed" out.

Everything you need to know about George Will, the Village, and the vicious double standard that Democrats are held to is summed up by Will's hack piece here, including the fact that Grayson is so despised for standing up that Will declares he must be taken out of politics for good.  The Wingers are lining up to let everyone know what they mean by "scrubbed" too, Ed Driscoll hoping it's Grayson's "epitaph" and Jeff Dunetz calling him "stupid and nasty, a deadly combination."

This is what a Democrat who refuses to buckle under must endure.  And for that, he is History's Greatest Monster of the moment.  Help Alan raise his million dollars.  He's extremely close right now.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Hey, congressional Dems worried about motivating the base?

Take a cue from Rep. Alan Grayson here and his tough stance on the robo-signers and the foreclosure mills.

While you're at it, clean up the damn Chamber of Commerce, too.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter, Part 12

That's how fast this story's moving folks, I have to write multiple posts on the issue a day.  Congressional Dems are now calling for that national moratorium on foreclosures as predicted. On the House Dem side, the battle is being led by Alan Grayson, who launched another broadside against the banks today.  His letter to the Obama economic team:

"So far, banks are claiming that the many forged documents uncovered by courts and attorneys represent a simple 'technical problem' with foreclosure processes.  This is not true.  What is happening is fraud to cover up fraud... The banks didn't keep good records, and there is good reason to believe in many if not virtually all cases during this period, failed to transfer the notes, which is the borrower IOUs in accordance with the requirements of their own pooling and servicing agreements. As a result, the notes may be put out of eligibility for the trust under New York law, which governs these securitizations. Potential cures for the note may, according to certain legal experts, be contrary to IRS rules governing REMICs. As a result, loan servicers and trusts simply lack standing to foreclose. The remedy has been foreclosure fraud, including the widespread fabrication of documents.  There are now trillions of dollars of securitizations of these loans in the hands of investors. The trusts holding these loans are in a legal gray area, as the mortgage titles were never officially transferred to the trusts... The liability here for the major banks is potentially enormous, and can lead to a systemic risk." 

Grayson pulls no punches here.   Notice he summons the magical attention-getting words "systemic risk".  He knows how to speak banker, does our Alan.  But look at what he says elsewhere:  "forged documents",  "fraud to cover up fraud", "lack standing to foreclose", and my favorite, "trillions of dollars of securitizations" which should make any long-time reader here reach for your hard liquor of choice.

In a very real sense we're right back in virtually the same boat we were in October 2008.  In a lot of ways it's worse, too.  Grayson knows this, and wants Helicopter Ben and Timmy to know he knows this, and is anybody still wondering why Larry Summers and Christina Romer put in their notice?

On the Senate side, the state hardest-hit by foreclosures in the last three years is finally weighing in:  Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada.  He too is calling for a foreclosure moratorium, and given Nevada's massive foreclosure rate that leads the nation, the fact he's Senate majority leader, and his own tight race for re-election, Reid had no choice in the matter.

"It is only fair to Nevada home owners, consequently, that you also suspend foreclosures in our state until you complete a review of your processes that ensures a home owner’s loan documents are being adequately analyzed to properly determine the best, individualized loss-mitigation solution. It is my belief and hope that once such a system is in place, more Nevadans will avoid foreclosure and remain in their homes. This is the goal of the Obama Administration’s various Making Home Affordable programs, and should be the goal of a servicer acting as a fiduciary to investors."

The number of AG's and members of Congress asking for state and now a national foreclosure moratorium is reaching critical mass.  Democrats see an issue here that they have no choice but to pursue.  Notice that Republicans in Congress -- even the ones in hard-hit states like Florida and Nevada -- have been virtually silent on this.  I don't expect that to continue for much longer.

I expect that national moratorium by next week at the latest.  meanwhile, Jim Cramer says the housing market is better than you think, which is how I know we are truly screwed.

Last Call

Alan Grayson may have taken a hit for his Taliban Dan ad (and after reading Steve M.'s analysis I do have to agree he went to a Republican level of dirty tricks there and he's paying for it) but he's not backing own from this fight, and has his eyes on a larger target:






I still like the guy. I'm sorry. He just needs to not stoop to Wingnut levels of lying to beat an ass like Daniel Webster. He can beat him fair and square.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter, Part 4

Things are moving fast on the Ally/JPMorgan mortgage fraud story now.  Sen. Al Franken has joined the fray, sending out a letter to among other people Helicopter Ben insisting that this issue needs to be investigated for possible criminal charges.  ZH:

The biggest financial story which continues to get absolutely no mention on CNBC just got its latest multi-step escalation: Senator Al Franken has just blasted a letter to Tim Geithner, Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Eric Holder, John Walsh, Controller of the Currency, Sheila Bair, and, drumroll, Ben Bernanke, telling the recipients that "each of your agencies has an important role to play in addressing this egregious situation and holding all appropriate actors fully accountable. As such, I respectfully request that you collaborate to conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged misconduct. As part of this investigation, it is crucial that Ally and its employees are held fully accountable for any criminal misconduct."

Since if this pervasive mortgage fraud is more than just alleged, the stink will reach to the very top of places like JP Morgan, Ally, and possibly every single bank that has been in the mortgage origination business, something tells us that Ben Bernanke, whose job is precisely to protect the banks' interests will not rush into any investigation for the duration of FASB's existence. It gets better: "Additionally, all homeowners who may have experienced illegitimate foreclosure sales, those who have been forced to defend against illegitimate foreclosure actions, and those who have been harmed must be identified. These individuals must received proper restitution and compensation, as provided for under the law." And the punchline: "It is critical to confirm that no loans provided through the FHA or in conjunction with the HAMP program were associated with Ally's misconduct." Yes, oddly enough the government is about to lose even more credibility once it is discovered that it worked in collaboration with the biggest mortgage fraud scheme in history.

Somebody in the Village may actually notice that underneath all this smoke there's actual flames, especially with Alan Grayson and Al Franken's names attached to the story.  This one is beginning to accelerate at a rapid pace, folks.

I'll keep an eye on it.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter, Part 3

More on the whole mortgage foreclosure scam that is falling apart in Florida and across the country from Yves at NakedCap, who has been running this story down for months now and posts this recap of the situation.  Who has the note to the mortgage?  Nobody knows, least of all the banks foreclosing on people anyway.

One of my colleagues had a long conversation with the CEO of a major subprime lender that was later acquired by a larger bank that was a major residential mortgage player. This buddy went through his explanation of why he thought mortgage trusts were in trouble if more people wised up to how they had messed up with making sure they got the note. The former CEO was initially resistant, arguing that they had gotten opinions from top law firms. My contact was very familiar with those opinions, and told him how qualified they were, and did not cover the little problem of not complying with the terms of the pooling and servicing agreement. He also rebutted other objections of the CEO. They guy then laughed nervously and said, “Well, if you’re right, we’re fucked. We never transferred the paper. No one in the industry transferred the paper.”

This creates a lot of problems. If the originator is bankrupt (New Century, IndyMac), the bankruptcy trustee is supposed to approve any assets leaving the BK’d estate. I’m told bankruptcy judges who have been asked were not happy to hear this sort of thing might be taking place, which strongly suggests this activity is going on without the requisite approvals. And who from the BK’d entity can endorse it over? It doesn’t have any more officers or employees. Similarly, a lot of the intermediary entities (the B and C in the A-B-C-D chain earlier) are long dead. How do you obtain their endorsements?

Now you understand why everyone is resorting to fabricated documents and bogus affidavits. There is no simple way to fix this mess. The cure for the mortgage documents puts the loan out of eligibility for the trust. In order to cure, on a current basis, they have to argue that the loan goes retroactively back into the trust. This is the cure that the banks have been unwilling to do, because it is a big problem for the MBS.

The former subprime lender CEO still refused this to consider this a problem: “Oh, Congress will pass a law.” My colleague pointed out that this was a state law matter, Congress had no authority, and even the Supine Court was unlikely to intervene in well settled real estate law. The arguments from the CEO were distressingly familiar, bank industry incumbents seem to resort to the same script: any borrower friendly solution will wreck the economy, the banks will have to get another bailout to get themselves out of this mess.

So here we are back to 2007-8. If you and I make a serious mistake at our jobs, we get fired, and if we make a really serious error, our company could perish. But when bankers screw up, and leave a lot of collateral damage in their wake, they are confident that their sugar daddies in DC will clean up the mess for them.

And the worse is they might even be correct if we let them get away with it this time. 

Since turning mortgages into investments meant all these middlemen, the question of who owned the actual mortgage itself became a complete mystery.  The big mortgage lenders decided that anything that they could have touched, they in fact owned, and started foreclosing as the best way to sweep the mess under the rug.  Because there were so many foreclosures and they had to be processed fast, nobody bothered to check the particulars, or they faked it (literally, faked it).

Judges took their word on it and made the foreclosure happen.  Only now, some two years after the financial meltdown, we're now finding out that a lot of these foreclosures are literal robbery, theft of property by banks that don't own the mortgage.  GMAC/Ally Bank is one, and yesterday JPMorgan Chase also went into "review" of foreclosures.  More banks will follow, and soon.

And do you know which member of Congress has been out front on this?

Alan Grayson.  His Orlando, Florida district is right in the heart of this foreclosure nightmare.

No wonder the Republicans are so eager to destroy him.  He's about to to seriously wreck the banks.

The Alan Grayson Project

Alan Grayson's full-on attack mode is beginning to score points.





A Democrat taking the fight to their Tea Party opponent instead of sliding to the right and capitulating is apparently so rare, it's national news. Meanwhile, Grayson's Republican opponent Daniel Webster doesn't want to talk about the fact he would force women to have children conceived in rape or incest by denying them abortions.

I can't imagine why he doesn't want to talk about that, can you?

Oh...and Webster is far from the only Republican running in this election who believes that.

[UPDATE] Digby notes Daniel Webster is making his wife do the talking.

Mrs Webster knows very well that it is a sin to lie so she cleverly accuses Grayson of being untruthful without refuting the irrefutable:

In her statement, Sandy Webster said: "Alan Grayson's latest attack on my husband is shameful. Mr. Grayson seems to have a problem telling the truth and no problem misleading the public. Dan has been an amazing husband and father, and the finest man I have ever known. Mr. Grayson should be ashamed of his nasty smears against my husband."

The Village is having a full blown hissy fit about the ad, although I notice that it seems to be quite a bit less offensive to women than men. I wonder why? 

 Funny how that works out.

Alan Grayson Goes All In On "Taliban Dan" Ad

Friday I talked about Rep. Alan Grayson's opponent, Daniel Webster, and his crazy fundamentalist spew. Alan Grayson is apparently not backing down from Webster either as he opens this can of whoopass on Webster:

"Religious fanatics are trying to take away our freedom in Afghanistan, in Iraq and right here in central Florida," declares a female voice-over.

The ad focuses on Daniel Webster, Grayson's Republican opponent in this year's mid-term election and a former state legislator.

"Daniel Webster wants to impose his radical fundamentalism on us," the ad asserts. "Webster tried to deny battered women medical care and the right to divorce their abusers. He wants to force raped women to bear the child. Taliban Dan Webster. Hands off our bodies, and our laws."

Grayson certainly isn't pulling any punches.  I'm not sure if I agree with the extent of this attack but if Grayson can win re-election, he really will affect 2012.  Same goes if Daniel Webster wins, however.

Fighting the Republicans on their own turf is ballsy, but the unapologetic Grayson is going for it.  Outside of Nancy Pelosi, I can't think of any House Democrat that the Republicans want gone more than Grayson.  That should tell you something.