U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, is using the latest threat against him to solicit contributions, making reference to a phone-in death threat made last week to one of his interns. The provocation comes just days after Dan Gainor, vice president of the right-wing think tank Media Research Center, challenged his followers via a Twitter message — “I’ll give $100 to first Rep. who punches smary [sic] idiot Alan Grayson in nose.”
From Grayson’s blog at the Huffington Post:
One day, a Republican operative offers $100 to anyone who’ll punch me in the nose.
The next day, I get a death threat.
After Fox News spewed its usual clownish hatred about me yesterday, my office received a call. The caller told our receptionist — a young intern — that “10 people are going to kill the Congressman within 24 hours.” We gave the information to the Capitol Police; they are investigating.
Fox. You’d think that they would have learned their lesson after Dr. George Tiller was killed. And they did learn a lesson: a lesson in killing.
And why? Because I told the truth: the truth that by stalling on unemployment insurance, right-wingers revealed themselves to be heartless, selfish wretches, who have been taking food out of the mouths of children.
Am I the only one who has noticed this? Because if you’re with me on this, I’d like your support. I need your support.
This is actually the second time the freshman Congressman has had his life threatened. Back in March, just before a highly contentious vote on health care reform, Grayon’s son answered a phone call from a woman obviously opposed to his stance on the issue.
“My 5-year-old twin hit the speakerphone when the phone was ringing, and she said, among other things, ‘If you vote for health care, I’ll kill you,’” Grayson said, “and my 5-year-old went to my wife and said, ‘Mommy, there’s a lady on the phone who said she’s going to kill me.’”
