Allen West Sounds Off, Romney? Not So Much

In an article dated April 10 in the Washington Post, Aaron Blake begins, “Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) has quietly emerged as a — if not the — favorite of the tea party element for the GOP’s vice presidential nomination.”

According to Allan West he’s heard there are between 78 and 81 communists in the US House of Representatives.  West office in an attempt to spin the coverage, sent the following clarifying text to the Huffington Post:

Moderator: What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card-carrying Marxists or International Socialist?

 West: It's a good question. I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It's called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

West arrives at this conclusion because the 2000 strong CP of America claims the Progressive Caucus as an ally, although of course the Progressive Caucus does not claim the CP as such.

Appearing on Hannity’s show on Fox talking about potential VP picks Sarah Palin said this about West: “Top of my list is Allen West. I love that he has that military experience. He is a public servant willing to serve for the right reasons. He understands the Constitution. He understands our national foreign policy issues that must be addressed. He has served. I really like him. There are so many, Sean, that are out there. And when I talk about going rogue, what I want to do is encourage the GOP nominee to not think that they have to go with somebody necessarily safe that conventional wisdom perhaps would lead somebody to believe that, if it’s somebody, quote-unquote, safe, that they’re not going to get beat up by the media, because no matter who it is.” I love that Palin mentioned Foreign Policy, but that;s for another day.

To emphasize the point, speaking at a Florida GOP Dinner, I guess in an attempt to express his respect for Constitutional principles West said the following: “We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table. Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America." To clarify his statements West later appeared on Hannity’s show. On the show, the clip was played without the introductory remarks for The President, Reid, Pelosi and the chairmen of the DLC, which allowed West to claim that he was suggesting the export of the ideas the dems stood for, not their expulsion from the country.  

Appearing on Fox and Friends Herman Cain also endorsed the West Pick for VP. When asked his choice for Romney’s VP pick, Cain responded, “Colonel Allen West out of Florida. Here's why. He is well-spoken, he is direct, people in Florida love him. He has a huge following. He is from Florida. Florida is going to be one of those key states. But more importantly, Colonel Allen West is a dedicated patriot. He served in the military, and he is willing to serve his country some more….

“Now I know that there might be some push back on his part, because he's just in his first term as a United States congressman, But my advice to him, if he were to ask me, is, you've served your country well and now you have a higher calling. And I would strongly recommend that he consider it, depending on any personal considerations he might have."

Alright, let’s be honest there’s no friggin’ chance Romney will nominate West as VP. The suggestions that are out here are just red meat for the yahoo right wing of a wildly right wing Republican electorate. In a previous press conference on Capitol Hill West told reporters that, “If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine. I think that you have, and let’s be honest, you know, some of the people in the media are complicit in this, in enabling them to get that type of message out.”

Commies or Nazis?  There is an increasing and vocal element of conservative theorists and commentators who are apoplectic over the election and potential reelection of an African American president. Some have just become completely unhinged.  West, a former military man, and an African American himself, is just part of the chorus. To a great extent he is just a clown, neither a serious politician nor a serious thinker. But he serves a useful purpose.


Claims that Obama is a Muslim continue to be banged about, so much so that a sizable chunk of Republican voters believe them to be true. Ignorance is impossible to eradicate—I get that—but the larger issue here is that people that know better do not stand up to dispute the obvious. McCain to his credit did call Obama a “good family man” at a point in his campaign when he may have known it was all but over and also realized what had been unleashed. Romney, a political chameleon, and an un principled coward, has not and apparently will not. So desperate is he to win that he has allowed the entire chorus to go at full throat. Limbaugh used words Romney had the “courage” to say “he would not have used”. Wow, forceful. Debate crowd boos for gay soldiers can’t quite be heard, the same for cheers for 200 executions, and calls for the leaving the uninsured sick to just die. In the movie, Game Change” McCain is heard talking about the “ugly side of American populism”. He claimed not to want to run a campaign that exploited it. We can only imagine how the country would be different and perhaps better if he had done that.

Now the conservative establishment is enraged with the comments that Hillary Rosen made. She couldn’t just continue to pound the obvious point that the Romneys are disconnected from the lives of average Americans in almost every way imaginable. Rosen went further making the obviously stupid claim that Romney’s wife, a mother of five, who has had both breast cancer and suffers with MS “has never worked a day in her life”. The comment was stupid, really stupid. The democratic attempts to spin it to claim that Rosen was not part of the campaign sound foolish, and Jay Cairney,the White House Press Secretary’s “I know three personally, women named Hillary Rosen,” when trying to dodge questions about the number of times Rosen visited the White House sounded like a “Who’s on First” comedy bit. Rosen clearly is part of the Democratic establishment and whatever her connections she made the comments on CNN in a purely partisan political context. Obama and Biden were right to refute them.

But at what stage as any of the really ugly rhetoric of the conservative right been refuted this year by the mainstream establishment of the party and it’s now current standard bearer, Mitt Romney? Allen West is a useful idiot with a sideshow act for the pure enjoyment of the ill-informed. His rhetoric is so inflammatory that he will no doubt draw rather large contributions from around the country to ensure that his “brave” voice is not silenced by the vast left wing conspiracy (Chorus of angels…). The money may help West hold onto a seat in the House in a district which encompasses Palm Beach, and so a lot of Jews not particularly happy with the Nazi references. But it will not matter either way.


According to Allan West he’s heard there are between 78 and 81 communists in the US House of Representatives. He is easy enough to ignore. The silence of those who should know better, those who allow and even condone poisonous political language cannot be ignored. Somehow, on Jan-20, 2012 America needs to find a way to come together and to move forward. After this political season it is hard to see how that happens.