Whoever said politics was boring? Not when freshman congressman Alan Grayson steps to the floor. Elected to Florida’s 8th District in 2008, the Democratic Congressman has only been in the U.S. House of Representatives for a little over a year, but has made quite an impression. What impression you say? Well, let’s take a look at some of his quotations over the past year.

On the House Floor: “You know what the Republican health care plan is? It’s this: Don’t get sick. And if you do, die quickly.”

After that zinger, Grayson was asked to apologize… and this happened on the house floor.

Grayson: “My Republican colleagues would like me to apologize. I would now like to apologize… to the dead.” … He later added, “America doesn’t care about your feelings.”

Grayson also then had an opinion on Republican obstructionism to all of Obama’s ideas:

Grayson: “The American people understand that if President Obama had a BLT for lunch tomorrow, the Republicans will try to find away to ban bacon.”

Grayson: “These Republicans are foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging neanderthals who think they can get what they want by being stubborn.”

Grayson: “We can’t run this country based on Republican hissy fits.”

Grayson, on Dick Cheney: “On the internet, there’s an acronym that seems appropriate for my response to Dick Cheney: STFU.”

Grayson, on Dick Cheney again:”I have trouble listening to what he says because of the blood that drips from his face. I think he’s just angry because the President doesn’t shoot old men in the face. Did he just turn into a bat and fly away?

Grayson, on Dick Cheney, a third time: “Who wrote the intro to Cheney’s book? Satan?

Grayson on Republican criticism of Obama’s Nobel Prize: “Republicans probably wish there was a Nobel Prize for fear.”

Grayson on The Republican Party: “Their party is composed of two factions: the liars, and the gullible. The politicians lie and the gullible just suck it up. It’s a symbiotic relationship”

“Republicans hate government because they’re so bad at it.”

“Republicans are a wholly-owned subsidiary of corporate America.”

Grayson on his lack of challengers: “The Republican Party are bullies. It’s always the case, you stand up to the bully, and the bully backs down.”

Grayson, on whether Wall St. CEOs have the same right to make huge bonuses as so do baseball players: “Sure they’re similar. One group entertains us, the other steals from us.”

You might think that all of these quotations means that Grayson is some un-serious firebrand who’s going to get booted out of office in November.

Well, think again.

On substance, Grayson is no lightweight. He was born in the the Bronx. He grew up in the tenements there. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science and worked his way through Harvard, graduating summa cum laude in three years. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He worked as an economist for two years and returned to Harvard for graduate studies. Within four years, he earned a law degree with honors from Harvard Law School, a masters in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and completed the course work and passed the general exams for a Ph.D. in government.

After his studies, Grayson worked for a DC law firm for five years, working on the DC court of appeals. Later he wrote his masters thesis on Gerontology, the process of aging. He later became the attorney for plaintiffs prosecuting fraud and abuse of Iraq War contractors. The Wall Street Journal described him as waging a “one man war against contractor fraud in Iraq.”

In 2008, he was elected to Congress, the only Democrat to be elected in his Republican-leaning district since 1970, where he has authored or sponsored many important bills and is Vice Chair of the House Progressive Caucus. He has recently gained the reputation of being the Republicans’ number one target in the November elections… So, how’s Grayson doing? Well, he recently wrote this article on the Huffington Post:

“The story that everyone wants to tell is that the Democratic Party is disheartened and disintegrating. Teabagger Republicans are juiced up and on top. Or so the media says, over and over again…. But the House candidate who raised the most money in the entire country during the last FEC reporting period — $860,000 in three months — is not a teabagger. He is not boosted relentlessly by Fox News. He’s not even a Republican. He doesn’t think that the Earth was created 6000 years ago, that President Obama was born in Kenya, or that global warming is a hoax. This House candidate also, remarkably, had the largest number of contributors. Over 15,000 individuals contributed, many of whom have given time after time, whatever they could. The House candidate who raised the most money did so without French-kissing lobbyists, without flattering the idle rich, and without reaching into his own pocket.The House candidate who raised the most money, from the most people, is an outspoken populist who tells it like it is on the war, on jobs, and on health care. His website is called CongressmanWithGuts.com. In the 100,000 e-mails that he has received this year, the most common refrain is, “You are saying what I’ve been thinking….I know who he is. Because he’s me. “

Yep Grayson is awash in campaign donations. People love this guy, for saying the things they’re thinking in their heads. So, who are all these challengers on the Republican side waiting to attack?

…. crickets…

Politico recently reported in an article titled “Rivals Shy Away From Grayson” :

“As a polarizing freshman from a competitive House seat, one with a habit of making provocative comments, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) would appear to rank among the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents. Yet Republican after Republican keeps backing away from challenging him, enough to raise the question: Are prospective candidates scared of Grayson?”