Today is a day two years in the making.  Two years ago, as the 112th Congress was being sworn in, I was feeling badly that my favorite Congressman had been targeted and defeated and therefore wasn’t returning for his second term.  I picked up the phone and called the number I had for Alan Grayson and, to my surprise, he answered.

We had a lovely conversation and I’ve enjoyed being able to count him as a friend.  And today, I’m brimming with pride and joy that he is, once again, being sworn in as a member of the US House of Representatives.

Today on the show, I offered a quick salute and listened to some of his greatest moments from the House floor, thrilled with the knowledge that there are many more of those moments to come.

In addition to the delight of being able to say Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Tammy Baldwin, I’m happy that some of the most despicable characters to ever “serve” in Congress are gone.  Good riddance to Joe Lie-berman, Jim DeMint, Todd Akin, Ron Paul, Joe Walsh, Cliff Stearns, Mean Jean Schmidt, Ben Nelson, Mary Bono Mack, Dan Lungren, David Rivera, Scott Brown, Connie Mack, and of course Allen West!

I’m sad to lose Dennis Kucinich, Barney Frank and a few others…  but generally happy about the gains in the 113th Congress.  Click here to see the entire 112th Congress casualty list. 

Alternet‘s Joshua Holland joined me to take a look at what happened in the fiscal not-a-cliff deal, and the fights still to come in the next few months.  We also discussed the ineptitude of Speaker Boehner, and the fight for (and against) filibuster reform.

And Maysoon Zayid joined in, as she does every Thursday morning, to talk about what’s going on. Today, that included yesterday’s sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera, and the  truly sickening story of Ohio high school animals drugging and raping a young girl and posting videos of it online…

I hate to leave you with that image… so, here’s Lee Camp‘s 2012 Year in Review…

Talk to you Monday, radio or not!