Alan Grayson: Cokie Roberts an ‘infohack’

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) dubbed political analyst Cokie Roberts an “infohack” on Saturday, after Roberts sharply criticized Grayson’s stance on free trade agreements.

{mosads}In a blog post Saturday, Grayson uses Roberts’ criticism of him to try to round up campaign cash, calling her “a consummate Washington insider.”

“Are you disgusted by this crooked and underhanded attack by Cokie Roberts?” Grayson wrote. “Do you oppose ‘free trade’ giveaways?”

Cokie Roberts and her husband, Steven, had written in January that President Obama needed to stand up to “liberal ideologues” like Grayson that were standing in the way of his trade agenda.

The president and Republicans in Congress generally support giving Obama “fast track authority” that would smooth the path for broad trade deals in Asia and elsewhere.

Cokie and Steve Roberts said Democrats like Grayson were “flat out wrong” about trade, saying that organized labor and their allies “should not be allowed to dictate national policy.”

“They are, by their very nature, looking at the past, not the future,” they wrote.

In his retort, Grayson calls the country’s recent trade policies “an abject failure” that dates back two decades to the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Grayson said the U.S. has been running trade deficits for years, and that fast track authority would merely be a giveaway to corporate America.

“Her attack on me was really an attack on the American middle class,” Grayson said about Roberts. “Her attack on me was an attack on you.”