The activity on the left to fire Alan Simpson from the Cat Food Commission is growing. Today, Rep. Alan Grayson joins the effort. From an email to supporters:

Deficit Commission Republican Co-Chair Alan Simpson just called Social Security a “milk cow with 310 million tits.”

Simpson seems to know a lot about farm animals. Which isn’t surprising, because only a swine would use such words to describe a program that we rely on to pay for food, medicine, and rent. Simpson is known for calling Social Security recipients ‘greedy geezers’, even while living on a generous government pension.

Enough of this nonsense. Fire this guy. And stop the Commission’s goal of cutting Social Security.

Grayson has a mini-site on this at StopTheCatfoodCommission.com.

In addition, several progressive groups have demanded that Simpson be fired:

CREDO:

The point of the commission was to have a bipartisan panel that could work through difficult areas and search for solutions to our problems in what President Obama called a “serious and thoughtful way.” So it’s hard to think of a worse co-chair than someone like Alan Simpson, who once again demonstrated that he has neither the temperament nor the objectivity needed to delve into such an important issue.

The National Council for Women’s Organizations:

We call for the resignation of Alan K. Simpson as co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. We have given the former Senator several chances at redemption, but his email today to our sister member organization, the Older Women’s League, illustrates his clear disrespect for Social Security, women and the American people, highlighted by his degrading, sexist, ageist and profane language. In the closing few sentences of the e-mail he states, “It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work.”

MoveOn.org:

Simpson has repeatedly, over the course of years, shown contempt for those who rely on Social Security while berating those who disagree with him. As Paul Krugman wrote yesterday, “he has to go.”

The Alliance for Retired Americans:

I am writing to you about a pattern of disturbing, insensitive, biased and offensive comments by former Senator Alan Simpson, the co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. On behalf of the four million members of the Alliance for Retired Americans, I urge you to demand Mr. Simpson’s resignation.

The Campaign for America’s Future:

Social Security has worked for 75 years and does not contribute one penny to the national debt. It has no business being part of the White House debt commission’s deliberations.

Yet debt commission co-chair Alan Simpson has used his position to repeat lie after lie about Social Security, clearly signaling his intention to support unnecessary benefit cuts that would undermine our nation’s retirement security.

Click here to tell the White House: Take Simpson Off The Commission. Take Social Security Off The Table.

This has metastasized. FDL’s petition goes further than most, however, not only asking to sack Simpson, but disband the entire commission.

On a conference call with several women’s groups and Rep. Raul Grijalva, advocates repeated Simpson’s long history of dissembling on Social Security, as well as his long history of acts against women, including chasing Anita Hill down a hallway after her Supreme Court confirmation testimony. He simply isn’t fit to serve.

On a related note, Grijalva had this to say about efforts to cut Social Security (this is a rough transcript):

Based on what we’re hearing from our constituents, they see this (the deficit commission) as a threat or even bigger. The will of Congress has already shifted in a whole different direction. The test is happening right now with my colleagues who are campaigning. If they’re not hearing what I’m hearing, they’re not listening. It’s going to be very tough to vote for any major cuts to Social Security for reasons of political survival.

UPDATE: Jack Conway has now added his voice, though he dissembles a bit on the program’s “long-term solvency”:

“Senator Simpson clearly is not approaching the serious challenge of solving the long-term solvency of Social Security with serious solutions,” said Conway in a statement to HuffPost. “Instead, he’d rather use offensive language to make
headlines. Rather than serve as a distraction to the rest of the group, the Senator should step down.”

Social Security, however, does not face a solvency crisis; the program’s actuaries estimate it can pay full benefits until 2037 and slightly reduced benefits in the decades after, if not changes are made.

Conway called on his opponent, Republican Rand Paul, to repudiate Simpson. “I call on Rand Paul – not his spokesman but him personally – to disavow Senator Simpson’s comments. We can be fiscally responsible without harming seniors or privatizing Social Security,” he said. A Paul spokesman didn’t immediately return an email.

UPDATE II: Progressive Caucus co-chair Lynn Woolsey: Fire Alan Simpson.

“Social Security should not even be on the table in deficit-reduction talks because it has not contributed a dime to that deficit, which has been caused largely by endless wars, reckless tax cuts and the recession.

“There are many better ways to reduce the deficit, including introducing the public option into the health exchanges created by the health care reform bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the public option would save $68 billion dollars over the first seven years. I have introduced a bill to do just that.

“But Simpson seems more intent on targeting Social Security and those who receive it.

“Simpson’s apology is not enough. He should resign.”