WASHINGTON — Not everyone thinks imitation is the best form of flattery. In fact, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando took such offense at a parody website aimed at unseating him that the freshman Democrat has asked that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder investigate the Lake County activist who started the anti-Grayson website “mycongressmanisnuts.com.”
Specifically, Grayson accuses Republican activist Angie Langley of lying to federal elections. His four-page complaint highlights the fact that the Clermont resident lives outside his district, but that Langley still uses the term “my” in “mycongressmanisnuts.com.”
“Ms. Langley has deliberately masqueraded as a constituent of mine, in order to try to create the false appearance that she speaks for constituents who don’t support me,” writes Grayson. “[She] has chosen a name for her committee that is utterly tasteless and juvenile.”
Grayson’s office did not respond with comment other than to confirm the letter exists — including its request that Langley be fined and “imprisoned for five years.”
Langley did not immediately respond with comment.
Her webpage, which imitates Grayson’s own congressmanwithguts.com, was launched this fall as a way to raise money against him. He has infuriated Republicans this year, most famously by saying the GOP healthcare plan was for sick patients to “die quickly.”
She had hoped for a major fundraising “money bomb” on Dec. 16, but the website shows that only 92 donors have given $3,725 as of Friday afternoon. Grayson’s complaint to the attorney general was dated on Dec. 15 — one day before the website’s planned fundraising event.
The Grayson letter also took issue with how Langley organized the corresponding fundraising committee. In documents filed with the Federal Election Commission October, she says that the committee’s intent is to support or oppose “more than one Federal candidate.”
“The website, however, clearly shows that the Committee opposes only me,” writes Grayson, an attorney who made a name for himself before joining Congress by going after war profiteers.
Read the complain here (PDF).
