Mike Thomas, on Grayson's "peeling Crotty's thin skin off ever so slowly, and then enjoying his liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti"

Just read Mike Thomas' July 7 Sentinel column,

"A Crotty congressional run would unleash pit bull Grayson"

After enduring 'Ric" for so long, it's delightful to think of pompous old-boy Crotty--and by extension his cancerous party--getting publicly eviscerated by the only Dem in Congress with a hint of Huey Long-style pugnacity (need much more of that, sez I).

Reminds me: yesterday at a doctor's office I came across Orlando Magazine's annual feature, 'speaking fellatio to power' (sure, they prefer to call it Orlando's '50 Most Powerful', but judge for yrself if I'm far off the mark).

In discussing Mr #1, (and before getting down to the squick-inducing monotony of craven power-elite arse-kissing) OM mentions the toll hike:

"...Crotty, as the chairman of the ("culturally corrupt") agency’s board, supported a 25-cent increase at various collection drive-thrus on area toll roads. Crotty justified the increase as necessary to secure high bond ratings, ensuring lower interest rates. But the public was in no mood...

'Sometimes you have to make tough decisions in this business, and that [vote to increase tolls] was one of the toughest I have had to make,' Crotty told us in late May."

Setting aside the personality-talk of Thomas and others--not wholly irrelevant, but still more worthy of a middle-high cafeteria--consider the (hindsight-benefitted) cost-reducing counter-approach Grayson's office has suggested (obnoxious emph added).

1 "Repealing the recent toll increase
2 Eliminating tolls on the roads that are already paid for, or reducing the tolls to cover only thecost of maintenance
3 Ending the practice of using one toll road to pay for the construction of another
4 Implementing the Grand Jury instructions in OOCEA’s contracts and OOCEA’s charter
5 Returning all contributions obtained by, in the Grand Jury’s word, “extortion”
6 Adjusting salaries so that no OOCEA employee makes more than the highest-paid elected official in Orange County

7 Making the OOCEA Board an elected body, not an appointed one, to ensure accountabilityto the motoring public..."

http://grayson.house.gov/2009/06/grayson-condemns-culture-of-corruption.shtml

Yeah...which of these reform approaches--Grayson's above or Crotty's 'stick it to the taxpayers' same old same old--looks more like principled 'tough decisionmaking' to you?

To be more clear, by my lights it's not that Crotty lacks principles...it's that he's a guy looking out for a class of OC citizen (anted-up 'stakeholders', if you prefer) wholly removed from the working class Grayson clearly includes in his political calculus.

So long as he's motivated to look after the interests of a beat-down, working lower-middle class, it really doesn't matter the least bit to me if Grayson is also motivated by what Thomas figures as ruthlessness, self-absorption, and a deep love of being Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando.