Rep. Alan Grayson drives Republicans crazy. Insane. They hate him more than probably anyone else in the House, because he doesn't mince words, doesn't suffer GOP fools, doesn't run scared in what is a lean-GOP district (R+2).

They also hate him because he knows how to poke them in the eye, time and time again. Like throwing his name into a Republican primary question. From his press release:

Rep. Grayson Has Huge Lead in Republican Primary No, that’s not a typo. According to a poll of registered Republicans last week, Congressman Alan Grayson has an enormous lead in the Republican primary for Florida Congressional District 8 (FL-8). Of course, Grayson is a Democrat. Yet Grayson is far and away the leading choice among registered Republicans in FL-8. In fact, he has almost twice as much support among Republicans as all his Republican opponents combined. In the poll, Grayson won the support of 27.8% of registered Republicans. None of Grayson’s 13 opponents scored higher than 3.7%. Their combined performance was only 14.5%. The remaining 57.7% of registered Republicans were undecided. 30.1% of registered Republican women support Grayson. And Grayson has the support of 25.5% of registered Republican men. Grayson also has an enormous lead in name recognition. 76.9% of Republicans know Grayson; none of his opponents scored higher than 15.1%. 81.4% of Republican men know Grayson, and 72.4% of Republican women know him. Grayson received high marks from Republicans for his Constitution initiative. Over half of all Republicans said that they were more likely to vote for Grayson because he passed a resolution urging high schools to teach the Constitution, and he had distributed tens of thousands of copies of the Constitution throughout the district. Interestingly, Grayson is more popular among Republicans than Republican Governor Charlie Crist is. 42% of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of Crist, far more than those who have an unfavorable opinion of Grayson [...] The poll was conducted on Feb. 26th. There were 324 respondents, all registered Republicans in FL-8. The margin of error was 5%. The poll was conducted by Middleton Market Research.

Cheeky, to say the least. Of course, Republicans are simply besides themselves.

"This is the most bogus thing I've ever seen in my life," said Andy Seré, Regional Press Secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

That seems to be their stock response whenever they see poll results that don't match their preconceived reality. Remember their response to polling showing strong secessionist sentiment in their ranks, or the birther stuff? The NRCC can always duplicate the poll to try and prove it wrong, but it won't. Maybe Rasmussen will fill the void, eager as he is to carry the Right's water with his magical (and secretively funded) polling.

In any case, Republicans expect Democrats in Grayson-style districts to run scared, and most do. National election prognosticators duly slot incumbents like Grayson into the "going to lose" category, because as everyone (in DC) knows, strong Democrats never win reelection.

Yet there is Grayson, poking them with a stick. Mocking them to their face. The GOP has no idea how to respond.

And it's a thing of beauty.

Update: More in this rec list diary.