Grayson's earmark woes go national

Alan Grayson’s controversial earmark request — for a local agency run by a controversial man who made headlines for trying to pad his own pockets at the expense of victims — may be starting to cause him some genuine trouble … on a national scale.

Until now, Grayson’s request for money for an agency run by J. Willie David (see 2007 story on David’s attempts to take money from orphans below) was mostly a local issue. Grayson’s request was first spotlighted by WDBO. The Sentinel noted it as well — and our editorial board slapped him around pretty well last weekend too. But now, Grayson is in the sites of a well-known Washington watchdog group: CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), which also led charges against everyone from Tom Feeney (Abramoff trip to Scotland) to William Jefferson (of cash-in-freezer fame). No politician wants to be in their crosshairs. In an interview with the DC-insider pub, The Hill, CREW director Melanie Sloan even went so far as to imply that David was likely expecting “a quid pro quo” from Grayson, going on to say: “What is Grayson thinking? It is unconscionable. Taxpayers deserve an explanation.”

Grayson has offered an explanation … but not an apology. And that may be a strategy he wants to rethink. Grayson said David’s group, the Florida Civil Rights Association, could’ve offered real help to Floridians looking to avoid foreclosure – which is why he requested the $350,000 earmark. And his office of course denies there was anything in it for him. Still, the earmark was rejected — and rightfully so. It would be foolish to ask taxpayers to focus only on an organization’s supposed mission without also examining the track record of the man running it.

I’d be hard-pressed to believe Grayson actually got or expected anything for this. (And before you hyper-partisans start hyperventilating, I also said multiple times that I didn’t believe Feeney actually delivered anything to Abramoff either.) But both men’s decisions reflect poor judgment … at best.

What may give this story the most legs (the NRCC has been beating this issue like a drum for two weeks) is that Grayson not only hasn’t said he messed up; in The Hill’s story, he seemed to suggest that he might make the same request again next year. Bad call…
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