The Sin of Omission Revisited

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), who gained national fame earlier this year when he accused Republicans of wanting "sick people to die", compared America's healthcare system to the "Holocaust", and declared that Fox News and the Republicans are "the enemy", is back. Following in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez, Rep. Grayson wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that Florida resident Angie Langley be prosecuted and imprisoned for five years. Her crime? Ms. Langley has launched a website critical of Congressman Grayson. The website documents Grayson's various improprieties and allows visitors to donate to a Committee seeking to defeat the Congressman in next year's election. As far as partisan websites go, it is fairly tame and respectful. Much worse things have been said about much better men than Mr. Grayson.

Yet the Congressman will have none of it. He is demanding Ms. Langley be sentenced to five years in prison, citing a laughably flimsy set of criteria. It is only fitting that one of the most hateful and unhinged elected officials is embracing his inner-Stalin.

And is the media at the forefront of this unprecedented Congressional hubris? As is almost always the case when a Democratic politician does something untoward (never mind outrageous), the mainstream press is largely silent. It seems that only Republican misdeeds are met by scorn and indignation. Conservatives have justifiably grumbled about this glaring double standard for years, but their objections have fallen on deaf years. It is a constant source of frustration for conservatives that liberal sins are downplayed, while Republican indiscretions, trivial or not, are gleefully flaunted.

Just imagine the headlines had a Republican Congressman written a letter to a Republican Attorney General demanding that the owner of a liberal website be prosecuted and imprisoned for dissent. Cries of fascism would have been ubiquitous. The liberal dissident would have popped up on every network and cable news show and celebrated as a hero. Yet because Grayson is a Democrat, there is little news coverage and almost no outrage.

Alan Grayson may be a national disgrace, but the media's gross under-reporting of the Congressman's abhorrent antics is just as disgraceful.