Alan Grayson will run for Congress in 2012

Chris Moody
·Political Reporter

Let's be honest: The House floor has been really quiet the past seven months without the high-octane rhetoric of former Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson. Perhaps too quiet?

Grayson rarely held anything back while sparring with the loyal Republican opposition--a posture that likely contributed to his 20-point drubbing when the GOP took back control of the House last November. But to be Alan Grayson is to be undaunted, and the former lawmaker announced in a letter to supporters Monday night that he intends to try to take his old seat back in 2012.

"I'm in," he said. "I'm running for Congress."

Grayson said a friend suffering from organ failure who couldn't pay his hospital bills convinced him to jump in the race.

"A dying man wants me to run for Congress," Grayson said in the letter. "What exactly could I say? I promised that I would run."

Grayson won't be able to really start campaigning for a specific seat until next year, when the Florida legislature redraws the district lines using new population data from the 2010 census. So for now, he's running for Congress generally in the Orlando area.

Grayson only spent two years in Congress, but he quickly made a name for himself as a colorful and outspoken liberal firebrand. Click below to review some of his most memorable moments:

Smearing 'Taliban Dan' While running against Republican opponent Dan Webster last year, Grayson launched a heavily edited campaign ad that showed his opponent saying the exact opposite of what he actually said. The ad ended by calling him "Taliban Dan."

The meeting crasher In April 2010, Grayson made a scene when he turned up uninvited at a Republican meeting at a local restaurant.

The health-care 'holocaust' During the debate over health care last year, Grayson said the Republican solution to health care is to ensure people "die quickly" and called the American health care system a "holocaust."

Calling for the criminal prosecution of critics In 2009, Grayson wanted a Floridian to spend five years in prison for starting a website about him called MyCongressmanIsNuts.com.