(The Root) — The Tea Party: "No More Popular Than the Klan." That's what Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat, tweeted out Monday evening.
When you click on the link provided in the tweet, the provocative image of two Klansmen standing behind a burning cross forming the "T" in "Tea Party" is the first thing you notice in the fundraising post on a Tumblr site called Alan Grayson's Emails. "Now you know what the 'T' stands for," it reads. Indeed.
The congressman was criticizing the way the GOP — more specifically, the Tea Party — handled the shutdown and did not mince words about how he felt about it.
"I think that ordinary Americans are with the president. They're appalled by the Tea Party's tactics. They come to the president saying, 'If you don't let us steal your car, then we are going to burn down your house.' They are appalled by the way the Tea Party cheered on the shutting down of the government, cheered at the fact that we put our credit at risk for a generation to come," he said in a Thursday interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton, according to the blogpost. "And they're appalled by the enormous expense — the fact that this temporary shutdown ended up costing America $24 billion. That's almost $100 for every man, woman and child in this country. Frankly, they want their money back, and the Tea Party out of their lives. At this point, the Tea Party is no more popular than the Klan."