No Democrat should be talking to Alex Jones. Period. No sane person should be talking to him. It's amusing to me that the same people who assail any Democrat goes on Fox News as a weakling, are now praising their new truth-telling hero for something he said on the Alex Jones show.

Keep in mind that Jones is someone--in addition to his multiple fraudulent 9/11 conspiracy claims--has a film out called "The Obama Deception" in which he claims that so-called banker "elites" engineered the 2008 Wall Street crash in order to install their "puppet" Barack Obama as President of the United States. The is the same paranoid Anti-Semitic bullshit the John Birch Society peddled years ago. Why in the hell would any good Democrat--an elected Democrat no less--be willing to lend legitimacy to that hateful freak show by appearing on it?

I want Democrats to be tough too, but here are ways to be tough without resorting to name calling and cheap rhetoric. I can think of a dozen better ways to respond off the top of my head. For example, a better response might have been "This is coming from the person who bungled the effort in Afghanistan in the first place and lied our way into another war we didn't need to get into. So I don't think people are too interested in anything Dick Cheney has to say about the President's approach to Afghanistan. If the American people had wanted us to keep making the same foreign policy mistakes over and over again they would have elected a Republican to do it." A something like that is a tough "gloves off" statement, that also addresses and dismisses Cheney's criticism of Obama. Calling him a vampire gets you a lot of attention, but it doesn't advance your argument.

It just turns into a little Hardball sideshow...first Grayson says something outrageous, after the commercial break comes Michelle Bachmann to spout another conspiracy theory. I'm sure Grayson has been good for ratings, which is why he is everywhere right now.

I like my Democrats tough, but I also like them to behave reasonably. In the media world I would cite Rachael Maddow as the best possible example for how to advance progressive ideas in a way that is forceful and persuasive without giving in to cheap, over-the-top rhetoric. She doesn't get angry, she doesn't call anybody names, she just tells the truth in a way that anybody can understand. Because when it comes down to it, calling Cheney a vampire (or whatever, like I said I've called him worse) isn't going to persuade anyone who doesn't already think the guy is evil.

Maybe it's not the most harmful thing in the world, but I don't see it as particularly helpful either.

As for supporting good Democrats once elected, I do not think that means you have to agree with everything they say (or how they say it) on television. I think we can disagree about whether Grayson's comments here were helpful to the causes he and I both support without resorting to hurtful rhetoric and name calling.

Anyway, I'll let you have the last word if you want it, as I don't really want to get into a big back-and-forth.

That said, Grayson seems to get that this is an issue that deeply impacts people's lives. This is live or death stuff, and he was right to draw attention to that fact. But he shouldn't let himself be used for entertainment value by the likes of Chris Matthews in order to extend his 15 minutes of fame, and it is starting to seem like that is the case.

But for the record I'd also like to say I really, really hate that Queen song.