Last night Ken and I were talking about the pointlessness of speeches on the House floor. I had been telling him how moved I was by Donna Edwards' very personal explanation of why she was voting for health care reform. We both marveled at how shamelessly one well-fed Republican zombie after another got up to the podium to recite, canned talking point meant only to distort facts and frighten people. And I told him how more Democrats looked like they had been paying attention to and inspired by Alan Grayson's recent refusals to take any guff from these Republicans-- like Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Ed Markey (D-MA).Ken reminded me that these speeches don't change any minds on the floor and that they're all just meant to be part of a 30-second sound byte on a local TV station back home. Maybe. But the speech Alan Grayson gave a few days ago is never going to be part of any 30-second sound byte on any TV station I ever heard about. It isn't likely that he did persuade any Republicans-- or Blue Dogs-- to vote for Life. In fact, I've been told that while he gave the speech Republicans plugged up their ears and hopped around like angry chimpanzees, objecting and objecting and objecting. They objected for over an hour. I think you'll understand why by watching it:

Labels: Alan Grayson, health care reform