Government Shutdown 2013: Is Congress Drunk? 'Many Seem Loaded,' Rep. Alan Grayson Says Of GOP

There may be a government shutdown, but one Democratic member of Congress says there’s one thing his GOP colleagues aren’t shutting – the cap on their flasks.

Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida clams that some House Republicans reek of alcohol as they try to do their jobs and avert the shutdown from entering its second day.

“Many of them seem loaded,” Grayson told Slate in an interview Tuesday. While he didn’t single out any particular GOP members, he said, “it’s the usual suspects.” He added that he didn’t “really feel like getting that personal with people.”

There were also media reports over the weekend of congressmen drinking on the job: Both Politico congressional reporter Ginger Gibson and Buzzfeed Capitol Hill reporter Kate Nocera tweeted their observations, although like Grayson they didn’t name names.

“I'm not over exaggerating when I say I can smell the booze wafting from members as they walk off the floor,” Gibson tweeted Saturday. The Politico reporter was pressured into naming the congressmen, but said her nose couldn’t help her identify the culprits.

“For all those asking for names, sorry, I didn't get close enough to figure out the source of the smell,” she wrote.

Nocera mentioned three unnamed members of Congress in her tweet Saturday: