How To Use A Teacup

[Ed. note: A reference to Florida 8th District U.S. Representative Alan "NOT Jeremy" Grayson.  Nickname originated here, though AP will never know how sorely tempted I was to glom it for myself unless he develops the urge to do some slumming in the outer rightospheric rim....]

1) Recognize the opportunity:

2) Keep him talking:

His remarks, which drew angry and immediate calls for an apology from Republicans, were highlighted by a sign reading “The Republican Health Care Plan: Die Quickly.”

Veteran Tennessee Republican Jimmy Duncan abandoned customary reticence to chastise Grayson.

“That is about the most mean-spirited partisan statement that I’ve ever heard made on this floor, and I, for one, don’t appreciate it,” Duncan said.

“It’s fully appropriate that the gentleman return to the floor and apologize,” said Representative Marsha Blackburn, another Tennessee Republican.

3) Watch him switch from a shovel to a backhoe to dig himself deeper:

4) Dangle more red meat:

“Alan Grayson not only refuses to apologize, he is doubling down on his despicable remarks and he is dragging his party with him," said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “This is an individual who has established a pathological pattern of unstable behavior.”

5) Watch the turd float to the top of the tank:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says there’s no reason for Representative Alan Grayson to apologize for his “Die quickly” remark, since Republicans have made statements just as outrageous as his.

“If anybody’s going apologize, everybody should apologize,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. “We are holding Democrats to a higher standard than their own members.”

She deemed the flap over Grayson’s remarks a "distraction" from the healthcare debate.

“Typically, Republicans would like to use this as distraction because they have no plan,” Pelosi said.

No plan that they will allow close enough to the planet's surface to catch a glimmer of the light of day, that is.  And a "distraction" completely unlike the several days Her Nib wasted on censuring poor ol' Joe Wilson, whose accusing Barack Obama of lying during his fecality-filled Two Hundred Thirty-Seventh Historic Speech For The Ages was ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE WORSE than Teacups smearing the entire GOP as mass murderers.  Oh, yes, and a "distraction" Republicans DID NOT CREATE.  Because as the Shrieker tearfully sobbed a fortnight ago:

"We are a free country, and this balance between freedom and safety is one that we have to carefully balance," Pelosi began. She then became emotional as she recalled the events, startling the reporters gathered for the weekly news conference.

"I saw this, myself, in the late '70s in San Francisco," she said. "This kind of rhetoric was very frightening and it created a climate in which violence took place."

Regaining control, she expressed a wish that "we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made" and "take responsibility" for what is said.

I guess Granny Funbags finally found "frightening rhetoric" and a "climate in which violence can take place" that she can believe in.

6) Collect another House seat for the GOP in 2010.

Or, to slightly edit Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer:

What we have seen over the course of the last twenty-four hours is a Congressman who is completely consumed with his own spotlight and has absolutely no respect for the citizens who elected him. I am more and more appalled with every twisted turn of the Alan Grayson roll coaster. It’s time for Congressman Grayson to leave the amusement park and go back to work for the people of Central Florida.