Republicans and Democrats slammed Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) for calling Linda Robertson, an adviser to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, a “K Street whore” in a month-old radio interview that circulated on Capitol Hill Monday night.

“There’s no call for that language. No call for it. That’s absurd. If he was standing here now, I’d say that to him,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.)

“He’s out of control,” added Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.

The remarks are the latest to surface in a string of controversial statements by Grayson, who said on the Alex Jones radio show that he believes Robertson, a former Enron lobbyist, is not qualified to pass judgment on intricate financial matters.

It’s clear that his colleagues’ opinion of him has suffered.

“Is this news to you that this guy’s one fry short of a Happy Meal?” asked Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer defended Robertson, whom he said he knows.

"I think it's inappropriate and unfair," the Maryland Democrat said. He decried the "heated rhetoric" that he said interferes with the ability solve problems.

Late last month, Grayson said Republicans’ health care plans were for Americans to “die quickly.”

Grayson, who is Jewish, later earned reproach from the Anti-Defamation League for referring to the health care system as a “holocaust in America.”

More recently, Republicans complained that a Website he created and promoted on the House floor – www.namesofthedead.com – had links to both his official House Web site and his campaign site. He later removed the link to his campaign site.

Grayson, who did not vote on Monday, has shown no sign of backing down.

Todd Jurkowski, Grayson’s spokesman, declined comment other than to confirm that the interview occurred.

Democrat Dina Titus of Nevada called Grayson’s remarks “a bit extreme and rather sexist.”

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the first-term Democrat from Orlando, already has a well-deserved reputation for overheated rhetoric. But he outdid himself Tuesday night when he declared -- on the floor of the House -- that the "Republican plan" for health care was for Americans to not get sick, or to "die quickly" if they do.

There is no place in a civil debate in Congress for this kind of hyperbolic, hyperpartisan attack. It's outrageous. Mr. Grayson owes the House a sincere apology.

But is it any surprise that pugnacious Democrats like Mr. Grayson are fighting back in the escalating war of words of health-care reform? Some Republicans, after all, have been hurling their own over-the-top charges at Democrats for weeks, like accusing them of favoring "death panels" to deny care to the elderly and disabled. A pox on both their houses.

We understand the mounting frustration among Democrats who are convinced that Republicans have no goal other than blocking health care reform. But there is plenty of room for principled objections to reform of the kind that the president and Democrats favor.

The slash-and-burn approach to debate on both sides will doom any chance for bipartisan health-care reform.

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A Democratic congressman from Florida is refusing to apologize for saying that Republicans want Americans who get sick to just "die quickly." Republicans on Wednesday were planning an effort to scold him just as Democrats chastised a Republican lawmaker earlier this month.

Rep. Alan Grayson made his comments on the House floor Tuesday night while criticizing Republican health care proposals as a "blank piece of paper."

"If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: die quickly," he said. "That's right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."

His remarks weren't spontaneous: He reinforced the point with signs saying the same thing.

Republicans are likening Grayson's remark to South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's widely criticized shout of "You lie!" during President Barack Obama's address to Congress earlier this month. They say Democrats should insist that Grayson apologize just as they insisted Wilson should.

Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, who heads the party's conservative Republican Study Committee, was planning to introduce a "resolution of disapproval" over Grayson's behavior that mirrors one Democrats approved against Wilson. Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Republican leader John Boehner, said Boehner supports the resolution.

Grayson, a first-term Democrat known for being provocative, represents a Republican-leaning district around Orlando and was already among the GOP's top targets for the 2010 elections.

Ken Spain, spokesman for the House Republican campaign arm, said Democrats should be "lining up to call on him to apologize."

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now has an opportunity to condemn the very behavior and tone of this health care debate that she claims will 'incite violence,'" he said, referring to Democratic concerns that the bitter tone of the health care debate could lead to attacks.

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