This is a tale in which we learn that becoming a folk hero for the online left, under the guidance of former MyDD scribe Matt Stoller, does not necessarily endear one to a center-right district that went Democrat for the first time in 25 years in 2008.
In Alan Grayson’s latest ad, he distorts video of his Republican opponent talking to a gathering of religious conservatives to make it appear as if he’s unequivocally endorsing the scripture, “wives submit to your husbands,” dubbing him “Taliban Dan.”
In fact, Daniel Webster was saying the opposite:
“Grayson manipulates a video clip to make it appear Webster was commanding wives to submit to their husbands, quoting a passage in the Bible. Four times, the ad shows Webster saying wives should submit to their husbands,” the site points out. “In fact, Webster was cautioning husbands to avoid taking that passage as their own. The unedited quote is: ‘Don’t pick the ones [Bible verses] that say, ‘She should submit to me.'”
This is the ad, which Camp Grayson defends as A-okay because Webster is, like, a Republican, you know?
Here’s Webster’s full quote, via the Orlando Sentinel:
So, the man who called the health-care crisis in America a “Holocaust,” enabled of course by Republicans whose health care plan is for you to “die, quickly,” told Dick Cheney to “STFU,” called a female Fed employee a “whore,” thinks Tea Partiers wear sheets on their heads, wants his name emblazoned in neon outside his home office, and used taxpayer money to fund a two-hour DVD of his greatest, insane hits will not be raising the level of dialogue in this country, which as we know, is the fervent wish of all liberal activists.
Back in 2009, Grayson was being used by the Washington Post as a poster child for civility, driven to angry rhetoric only by extremist Tea Party protesters plaguing his attempts at intellectual discussion:
Perhaps an editor’s note is in order stipulating that the Post‘s former prince of civility has produced the nastiest, most dishonest ad of 2010. It’s remarkable and sad how far the radical Tea Partiers have been able to push this “Harvard graduate with a soft voice,” isn’t it?
The near-universal condemnation of the ad and national media coverage has given Webster, who was behind in fundraising, an opportunity. Bring on the wave.
