And now, another update on the strange public ramblings of the Republican from Broward, Congressman Allen West. He took his crazytalk on the road yesterday, upgrading from hateful, bullying emails to a few thousand watts of radio power on Mark Levin's show.
He said liberals were threatened by him because he's "the guy that got off of their 21st-century plantation," which seems like it may have irritated all those people, if they were still around, who got off 19th-century plantations.
West said that Democrats "cannot afford to have a strong voice such as mine out there reverberating and resonating across the country... They're not used to anyone that says 'I'm going to fight back against you.'"
The noble fight West is describing is against Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz, who said on the House floor that "the gentleman from Florida, who represents thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, as do I, is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Unbelievable from a member from South Florida."
So, logically, West responded by calling her "the most vile, unprofessional and despicable member of the House of Representatives," and then used the phrase "shut the heck up" in an email lecture on statesmanship. If there is anything admirable about this stupid non-issue, it's that West has managed to somehow manufacture the notion that he was in any way attacked.
Surprisingly, the email was leaked to the Internet, which set to work either calling the letter disgraceful and unbefitting of a congressman, or a victory for Good True Americans over a crazy baby-killing venom-bitch who deserves to have mean things said about her because hey, it's better to be mean than actually pass any meaningful legislation. West doesn't know how to do that anyway.
And then last night West took to the airwaves and painted himself as the champion for minorities who are being bullied by liberals:
"How does an honorable person survive in Washington D.C. and Capitol Hill, which is seemingly becoming a very dishonorable environment, where people continue to perpetuate the problems that this country faces, where you have people who are very comfortable with lying. The thing that really most aggravates me is that there's this double standard in that the people on the hard left can continue to attack conservatives, and especially minority conservatives and female conservatives. But yet when all of a sudden you stand up and say you will not tolerate this any more, then they claim to be a victim, which I find to be absolutely laughable."Again, this doesn't really seem like a question of right versus left, and to boil it down to "a black guy versus a woman" is asinine -- cries of racism and sexism are entirely red herrings, and arguments from both sides of that debate are predictably shallow.
It is likewise not about the Cut, Cap and Balance Act that the House passed on Tuesday. The Senate will almost certainly kill it without remorse.
It is a question of decorum. Regardless of how victimized West wants to make himself seem, are email tirades that start with "Look, Debbie," really what we should come to expect from men who get to put "Honorable" before their names as an official title?
Disagree with Wasserman Shultz if you want, and argue about that Jim Crow stuff she said, but statements like the one she made on the House floor are routine. Embarrassing emails like the one West sent are not, and "plantations" don't have a damn thing to do with it.
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