Allen West denies getting fired for calling woman a ‘Jewish American princess’

By Arturo Garcia/Raw Story

Former Rep. Allen West (R-FL) will not be working for a conservative online broadcaster but insists he was not fired from his position, Buzzfeed reported on Thursday.

Both West and PJ Media investor Aubrey Chernick released statements to staffers on Sept. 16 saying West would leave the company effective Oct. 1, each of them saying West’s departure was voluntary. West had been working for PJ Media as the director of programming for NextGeneration.TV while hosting his own show since January 2013.

“No I didn’t get fired,” West told Buzzfeed. “I’m leaving to pursue political aspirations. That’s it. There’ll be a statement that comes out and it’s effective in October.”

But when asked to comment on whether he told a female employee to “shut up” and called her a “Jewish American princess,” West told Buzzfeed, “There was an exchange, that’s all.”

In his memo to PJ Media staff, West said, “I will be giving up my position as director of programming at Next Generation.TV to get back on the front lines to expand the message of constitutional conservatism across our country.”

The same month he was hired at PJ Media,West told CNN that the idea of women serving in the military was “an equality trip.” In 2011, he called Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) “nasty” and “not a lady” in an email.

In his own memo to PJ Media staff, Chernick also framed West’s departure as voluntary, writing, “I thank Allen for all his dedication, hard work and contributions in launching Next Generation.TV and in establishing our Washington, D.C. presence and studio. I speak for all of us when I wish Allen the very best experiences and outcomes in his future endeavors.”

Tea party Republicans flocking to appear Monday at white nationalist-connected march

By David Ferguson/Raw Story

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Iowa Rep. Steve King, former Rep. Allen West and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions are all planning to appear at an anti-immigration reform rally held by a group with close connections to the white nationalist movement. According to Right Wing Watch, the Black American Leadership Association (BALA) is not the grass-roots organization it purports to be, but rather a longstanding cabal of anti-immigration activists who have “deep connections” to white nationalist John Tanton, a man the Southern Poverty Law Center calls“the racist architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement.”

The march, called the “D.C. March for Jobs,” with its “Just say ‘No’ to Amnesty” theme is slated for Monday and is expected to draw a heavily tea party-affiliated, far-right crowd. Michelle Cottle at the Daily Beast wrote Friday that BALA is believed to be “the latest in a series of minority front groups providing anti-immigration extremists cover from charges of racism.”

Tea party leaders, wrote Cottle, have been “downright giddy” at having a group of activists of color on hand to point to when critics call out the recent anti-immigration reform putsch by conservatives as a display of racial animus.

BALA founder Leah Durant claims that the group’s mission is to protect the economic viability of African-Americans in the U.S. by stemming the tide of undocumented workers it believes are streaming into the country, thereby preventing the widespread black unemployment they say would result from the “devastating effects of amnesty and mass immigration.”

In a June open letter to the Senate Gang of Eight, BALA “implor[ed] each Member to fulfill his or her duty to the millions of Americans struggling to find work” by killing the Senate bill and taking measures to reduce immigration.

Durant has found herself inundated with media attention from right-outlets, including invitations to appear with Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Mike Huckabee and others. BALA’s efforts to kill immigration reform have been trumpeted by the Daily Caller and the National Review.

Cottle wrote that while BALA’s existence only dates to the publication of its Facebook page in mid-May, at least a dozen of its members are long-time anti-immigration activists have have spent decades pushing the message that immigration will be economically devastating to the black community. Under different names over the years, including the African American Leadership Council, Choose Black America and the Coalition for the Future American Worker, this group of activists have been pushing policy agendas that Cottle called “misleading, dangerously divisive, and sadly predictable.”

Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights, told Cottle, “We’ve seen this before. This is the same page pulled from an over-20-year-old playbook.”

Several BALA leaders — Durant, Frank Morris, the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, and T. Willard Fair — have worked for, lobbied with or supported the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a notoriously anti-Latino, pro-eugenics organization that the SPLC classifies as a hate group. FAIR was founded by John Tanton, who, in the late 1980s, was outed as a racist when portions of his private correspondence were made public — letters and memos in which he railed against the “Latin onslaught” and said that society was doomed without a “a European-American majority — and a clear one at that.”

Aaron Flanagan of the Center for New Community told Cottle that BALA’s newfound utility to the anti-immigration right is “blatant tokenism.” He said, “And tokenism is not a word I use lightly.”

Henderson expressed disappointment. “It’s troubling when opportunists use the economic challenges of the African-American community as cover for ideological and political extremism to align themselves with groups like FAIR, which had their own genesis in the eugenics movement.”

Joining the Republican Party politicians at Monday’s march will be fiery fundamentalist Christian pastor O’Neal Dozier, who was Florida state director of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)’s presidential campaign in 2012. Dozier declared that former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)’s Mormonism made him a threat to the country and that it would “taint the Republican Party” to choose Romney as its nominee.

Dozier is also known for his extreme anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim statements, including the belief that homosexuality is the “paramount of sins” and that same sex partnerships are “something so nasty and disgusting that it makes God want to vomit.” He has publicly stated that Islam “has a plan, a 20-year plan, to take over America from within.”

Mother Jones reported that a charity Dozier supported and lobbied for with local Republican politicians swindled Haitian immigrants out of $3 million by charging them for U.S. work permits and other papers that they never received.

‘Cliff’ from ‘Cheers’ wants Allen West to spread his ‘gene pool’ across America

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Conservative actor John Ratzenberger, who is best known as the character “Cliff” from the television sitcom Cheers, on Friday called for former Rep. Allen West (R-FL) to take “something from his gene pool” and “put it everywhere across this great country.”

Ratzenberger was introducing West at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference. He also called West a “real American.”

“We should really take something from his gene pool and put it everywhere across this great country,” Ratzenberger said. “A real American hero, my friend, Allen West.”

It was not immediately clear if Ratzenberger intended for West to personally distribute his DNA or had some other method in mind for sharing the “gene pool.”

Watch this video from Fox News, broadcast June 14, 2013.

Sore Loser Allen West: My Opponent Only Won Because He Cheated

By Scott Keyes/Think Progress

In an exit befitting his outspoken, controversial two years in Congress, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) said that he only lost his re-election because his opponent cheated.

West lost narrowly to Democratic up-and-comer Patrick Murphy last month, but refused to concede for weeks, demanding a recount of ballots in St. Lucie County. Only after a re-tabulation slightly increased Murphy’s lead did West finally accept defeat just before Thanksgiving.

However, the Tea Party congressman appears to be handling the loss acrimoniously. Appearing on Mark Levin’s radio show last Thursday, West accused Murphy of only winning by breaking the rules. “I’m not going away just because of a congressional race where he seems to have to cheat to beat me,” said West. He did not specify precisely how Murphy supposedly cheated.

LEVIN: You are a national treasure. You are way too important to have something like this to happen and off you go. That can’t happen. So I’m really curious to know. Do you have further public service in mind, potentially?

WEST: The most important thing everyone has to understand is my voice is not going to be lost. We’ve gotten a lot of opportunities, a lot of offers, and we’re going to make sure we continue to have that platform. [...] I’m a warrior and I’m a statesman and I’m a servant of this republic. I’m not going away just because of a congressional race where he seems to have to cheat to beat me.

LEVIN: He sure as hell did. It’s disgusting.

Listen to it:

Anyone who knows Allen West knows that he is not a bashful man. If he actually had evidence that his opponent won through fraudulent means, he would have presented it weeks ago and Fox News would run a piece every hour on the matter. That West has not shown any evidence gives a clear indication of how truthful his accusation is.

West later wrapped up the interview by accusing President Obama of being a “Marxist, Socialist, rigid ideologue” who “believes he has some self-conceived mandate to go out and further destroy and ruin our economy.”

Allen West, Republican Congressman From Florida, Concedes 2 Weeks After The Election

By MATT SEDENSKY/Huffington Post

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Tea party firebrand Rep. Allen West conceded his re-election fight Tuesday, two weeks after the vote gave way to court appearances, two partial recounts and unending accusations by his camp that the vote count wasn't fair.

"There are certainly still inaccuracies in the results" but not enough to change the outcome, the Republican freshman said in a statement conceding the race to Democratic newcomer Patrick Murphy.

"While a contest of the election results might have changed the vote totals, we do not have evidence that the outcome would change," West added.

Murphy campaign manager Anthony Kusich said he was not aware of any concession call to his candidate, simply an email that was publicly distributed.

In his own statement, Murphy said he was "humbled by Congressman West's gracious concession" and eager to get to work on behalf of all voters.

"To those who supported my opponent, my door is open and I want to hear your voice," Murphy said. "I campaigned on a message of reaching across the aisle to get things done for the people of the Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches, and that is as important in this district as it is in Washington."

Murphy declared victory hours after the vote, even as thousands of absentee, provisional and overseas ballots were processed and two partial recounts undertaken. But West's campaign remained skeptical of the results, largely in St. Lucie County, where elections officials acknowledged missteps.

An initial recount of some early ballots in St. Lucie gave West a slight bump. His campaign fought for a fuller recount, and received it, but it only improved Murphy's margin of victory. St. Lucie's final tally ultimately was discarded because it didn't meet a state deadline. Numbers certified by the state Tuesday give Murphy the win by 1,904 votes.

Many have speculated West could find a new career in the place where he has been frequently seen, on cable television, but he has not said what his next step will be. "Only God knows what is in store for each of us," he said in his statement, adding, "I will continue to fight for our republic."

Whatever the next step, the contest between Murphy and West will go down as one of the most expensive in congressional history. Murphy eked out the win though he was out-fundraised more than 4-to-1.

West, 51, is a favorite among the most conservative reaches of the Republican Party. He has made a string of headline-grabbing statements, from calling a majority of congressional Democrats communists to saying President Barack Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and others should "get the hell out of the United States."

Murphy, 29, portrayed West as an extremist who had done little else in Washington than stoke partisan fires.

In his concession statement, West offered congratulations to Murphy, saying "I pray he will serve his constituents with honor and integrity, and put the interests of our nation before his own."

Rep. Allen West seeks court-ordered recount in Florida

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

Rep. Allen West’s re-election campaign has filed a complaint in the 19th Judicial Circuit Court seeking a full recount of early ballots in the race for Florida’s 18th Congressional District.

“The West campaign is simply seeking the truth, and an accurate count of votes,” read a statement released on Wednesday. “Given the inconsistencies emanating from the Supervisor’s office, we have no confidence in any of the information regarding the votes counted or the election results overall.”

Democratic candidate Patrick Murphy declared victory over the weekend after the state of Florida released completed vote tallies showing he had a nearly 2,000 vote lead over West. However, West has refused to concede the race, claiming there were numerous inconsistencies with early voting totals in St. Lucie County.

The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board on Sunday recounted three days worth of early voting due to a machine malfunction.

The partial recount led to Murphy losing 667 votes and West losing 132 votes, a net gain for the Republican congressman. But Murphy’s margin of victory was still too high to trigger an automatic recount under Florida law.

“This limited, partial re-feed – not conducted pursuant to any statute – uncovered significant errors in the initial tabulation of votes,” West’s campaign said in a statement. “Nearly 1,000 votes disappeared from the count, and neither the Canvassing Board nor the Supervisor provided any explanation for this selective recount.”

West’s campaign added that a full recount of early votes would likely uncover additional errors that would affect the final tabulation of votes.

“The erroneous decision of St. Lucie County to ‘re-feed’ only some of the early votes cast in this election violates the Florida Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection to voters,” West’s campaign alleged.

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner on Tuesday sent three auditors to St. Lucie County to investigate the irregularities.

Why Allen West Lost: 16 Of His Worst Moments In Congress

By Scott Keyes/Think Progress

Rep. Allen West (R-FL), one of the most controversial Tea Party freshmen in Congress, lost his bid for re-election Tuesday night.

Despite moving to a new, more-Republican district (Florida’s 18th congressional district), West was edged by challenger Patrick Murphy (D) by 2,500 votes.

During his two-year tenure in Congress, West earned a reputation as not only one of the House’s most brash members, but also its top Islamophobe.

Here are 16 of the most contentious moments of his congressional career:

1. Progressives are “communists”: At a town hall meeting in April, West saidthat 80 House Democrats were “members of the Communist Party.” He later clarified that the 80 Democrats he was speaking about were those in the Progressive Caucus.

2. Opposed early voting as an “entitlement”: In an interview with ThinkProgress, West objected to early voting in Florida because “people see it as an entitlement.” He ultimately lost his seat, in part, because of high Democratic early voting turnout.

3. Said Obama’s campaign slogan had a “Marxist-Socialist” meaning: West found hidden meaning in Obama’s “Forward” slogan. “They want to bring out an old Soviet Union, Marxist-Socialist theme for their campaign called “Forward”.”

4. Obama’s DREAM initiative was a voter fraud conspiracy: Appearing on Fox News, West saw a more nefarious effort beneath Obama’s deferred action immigration policy. “Is this one of those backdoor opportunities to allow people in the next five months to get the opportunity to vote?” he asked.

5. Food stamps “enslave the American people”: West lamented the rise in available food stamps for Americans. “That’s not how you empower the American people,” West said. “That’s how you enslave the American people.”

6. Social Security enslaves the American people: Appearing on Fox News, Westcriticized Social Security disability benefits. “Once again we are creating the sense of economic dependence, which to me is a form of modern, 21st century slavery.”

7. Obama wants to enslave people: West argued at a campaign event that Obama “does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning and having that title of American. He’d rather you be his slave.”

8. Said Barney Frank should be in a “pink jumpsuit”: West criticized openly gay Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) congressional tenure earlier this year. “[He's] a guy who for all practical purposes should be in a pink jumpsuit for what he did.”

9. Called undocumented immigration an “invasion”: In a newspaper interview, West likened undocumented immigrants to an enemy force. “You have to repel invasions,” West said.

10. Told congresswoman, “You are not a lady”: West blasted nearby congresswoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) after a dispute, scolding her in a letter, “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!”

11. Called for censoring news outlets: After Wikileaks released thousands of pages of documents, West argued that “we also should be censoring American news agencies” who reported on the cables.

12. Obama supporters are a “threat to the gene pool: West wrote on a conservative website, “I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool.”

13. Religious coexistence “would give away our country”: West blasted“Coexist” bumper stickers at a March 2011 town hall, saying people who have them represent “something that would give away our country, would give away who we are.”

14. Said Nazi leader would be “very proud” of Democrats: In December 2011, 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.”

15. Criticized rise of feminism: West told a conservative conference that liberal women “have been neutering American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness — to let them know that we are not going to have our men become subservient.”

16. Told liberals to “get the hell out of the United States”: At a Republican dinner, West had harsh words for his Democratic counterparts. “Take your message of equality of achievement. … 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.”

Allen West Says Stay-At-Home Mothers Should Be Considered Working Moms, So Long As They’re Not On Welfare

By Scott Keyes/Think Progress

POMPANO BEACH, Florida — Stay-at-home moms should be considered working moms, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) argued on Tuesday — just so long as they’re not poor.

ThinkProgress discussed the issue with the south Florida congressman on Tuesday following a town hall meeting. West argued that women who stay in the home to raise kids should be considered working mothers. But when asked whether mothers who are on welfare should be allowed to stay home and raise their children, West’s position was remarkably different. Instead of advocating for the work that poor mothers do at home raising kids, West decried the “growth of the entitlement or the nanny state.”

To West, the problem isn’t welfare-to-work, which requires mothers on welfare to work outside the home; it’s “people depending on the federal government”:

KEYES: Is there any question about whether or not stay-at-home moms who are raising kids, whether or not they should be considered working moms?

WEST: [...] Go to any military installation and go on that installation to a stay-at-home mom that is taking care of that family and that household why, or even a husband, a spouse, the primary person that’s deployed, and tell them that they’re not really working. I don’t think you’ll be walking off that military installation the same way that you walked onto it.

KEYES: What about mothers who are on welfare though? Do you think they should be allowed to stay at home and raise their children?

WEST: I think that what we need to do is how do we reduce the growth of the entitlement or the nanny state. Coming from the inner city, a good thing of the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson, I think now you’re talking about second and third and getting towards fourth generation of welfare. And as I showed up there, I don’t want more people depending on the federal government. I want more people to be out there and enjoying the American dream.

Staying at home and raising kids is absolutely work, as any parent will attest. The problem is that conservatives like West will only defend the work of stay-at-home moms when they live in financially secure homes, while backing welfare reforms that prevent lower income mothers from doing the same.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) accuses Obama of ‘destroying the black community

By David Ferguson/Raw Story

Florida Republican congressman Rep. Allen West has torn a page from Sarah Palin’s book and issued a proclamation to the world via his Facebook page.

West cited the 13 percent unemployment rate among black Americans and wrote, “The failed economic policies of President Obama are destroying the black community and lessening the chances for economic freedom while promoting economic dependence.”

Referencing the fact that he was recently un-invited by the NAACP to speak at an event, West said, “Perhaps this is what the NAACP was afraid to hear me address.”

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NNACP) was actually quite clear about its reasons for rescinding an invitation to West to speak at the Martin County, Florida NAACP’s Tuesday Freedom Banquet earlier this week.

Martin County NAACP President Jerry Gore told Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, “There’s a certain statement he made about Communists.”

Gore was referring to a recent assertion by West that there are currently “about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party.  It’s called the Progressive Caucus.”

West has taken a novel approach to addressing critics of  the remark, saying to conservative blog The Daily Caller that a “stupid” reporter took his remarks out of context but then days later assuring CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien that he meant the statement exactly as he made it.  However, when the congressman was pressed by O’Brien to name specific members of the progressive bloc who are Communists, West declined.

Scarborough: Is Romney going to apologize for West’s ‘Communist’ remarks?

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Friday said there was “inconsistency” because President Barack Obama has been forced to renounce a Democratic cable pundit’s comments about Ann Romney but Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has not apologized after Rep. Allen West (R-FL) accused 81 House Democrats of belonging to the Communist Party.

In the past 24 hours, President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other Democrats have all spoken out in defense of Ann Romney after Democratic CNN contributor Hilary Rosen asserted that Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life.”

But as Scarborough noted on Friday, no Republican — including Romney — has disputed West’s recent claim that up to 81 House Democrats were secretly members of the Communist Party.

“When are we going to get the apology from Mitt Romney for Allen West, a congressman who compares — or says 80 Democrats are Communists?” the MSNBC host asked Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. “I’m not carrying the Democratic card right now, I’m just saying this seems a bit overblown.”

“You’ve got the gender wars that have been going on for the past few weeks,” Noonan explained. “And I wouldn’t say it was the Republicans who started the gender wars, who started the whole trope of the war against women.”

Scarborough then posed the question to former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele: “Shouldn’t Mitt Romney distance himself from a sitting United States congressman who is connected to the Republican Party, who is connected to Mitt Romney, who is connected to the Washington establishment — an elected member of Congress who said 78 to 81 Democrats are Communists?”

“I don’t know,” Steele stuttered. “I don’t know because I don’t think it’s worth it!”

“You don’t know if Mitt Romney should condemn a sitting congressman that says 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives are Communists?” Scarborough pressed.

“Well, I mean, why should he condemn them?” Steele replied.

“Why should he condemn them!” Scarborough exclaimed. “He’s comparing 78 to 81 public servants in the Unites States House of Representatives — are saying are part of a movement that were responsible for the death of over a 100 million people in the 20th century.”

“The Hillary Rosen thing and the Allen West thing, they are two separate things,” Noonan insisted. “I think it odd that you are connecting them.”

“Here we have a cable news pundit that has shut down the political discourse over the past 24 hours, when a sitting United States congressman says something deeply, deeply offensive and no Republican has spoken out against that,” Scarborough shouted. “Does nobody see there is a little bit on inconsistency here, Peggy? Do you distance yourself from Allen West’s comments?”

“I don’t have to distance myself, Joe,” Noonan shot back. “You are being mischievous. … [I]t did hearken back to an unfortunate time in our history when a senator from Wisconsin stood up and I believe there were 200 to 205 Communists in the State Department. It’s silly. It’s way past 50 years ago.”

“I forget where we are,” she added. “Look, the Democrats opened a front. They opened it mischievously about a month ago. They just got nailed for fighting in part of the front. Fine. Let it go.”

Watch to the video below from MSNBC’s Morning Joe, broadcast on April 13, 2012.

Allen West calls tax on tanning beds ‘racist’

By David Ferguson/Raw Story

Florida Congressman Allen West (R-Ft. Lauderdale) can’t seem to open his mouth lately without saying something provocative, controversial and, some would say, ill-considered. According toFlorida news blog Sunshine Slate, in addition to his remarks on Tuesday accusing members of the House Democratic Caucus of being members of the Communist Party, the Freshmen Representative and tea party favorite has declared that the proposed 10 percent tax on tanning beds proposed in the Affordable Care Act is “racist.”

Sunshine Slate points to a speech West made to a group of seniors on Wednesday, April 4 at Century Village, a retirement village near West Palm Beach. To a sparse crowd, the Congressman declared that he agrees with “10 to 15 pages” of the president’s Affordable Care Act, but that the tanning bed provision was more than he could countenance.

“You want to talk about something that’s really racist? They have a tanning tax,” West, who is African-American, said, “I’m not tanning.”

On Tuesday, March 10, West calmly asserted to a room full of supporters that “79 to 81″ members of the House Democratic Caucus are “members of the Communist Party.”

Hoping to mitigate the damage from the claim, West’s handlers told the right wing blog The Daily Caller that a “stupid” reporter had taken the Representative’s words out of context. West, said campaign manager Tim Edson, was referring specifically to the House Progressive Caucus and called the flap over West’s charges an issue of “semantics.”

“The real point,” he said, “is these people speak for themselves and if you listen to the words of the progressive caucus it’s clear that these people are opponents of capitalism — they oppose free markets, they oppose individual economic freedom — so you can call them whatever you want — whether they’re socialists or marxists or communists.”

Libera Della Pianna, a spokesperson for Communist Party USA said that whatever West may believe, there are no Congressional Democrats currently on the party’s rolls, not even Vermont’s avowed socialist Congressman, Bernie Sanders. Della Pianna called West’s remarks “an absurd way to cast a shadow over his colleagues. It’s kind of a sad ploy.”

West has received favorable mentions as a possible Vice Presidential candidate to run alongside presumptive Republican nominee Massachusetts ex-Governor Mitt Romney (R). Former Republican candidate Herman Cain, ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R), and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R) have expressed their support for the West as Vice Presidential nominee.

West has a history of controversial and intemperate remarks, however, particularly toward liberal women.

In July of 2011, he sent an email to Democratic National Committee chairperson Rep. Deborah Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), calling her “vile,” “despicable” and “not a lady.” He has also accused liberal womenof “neutering American men” and bringing males “to a point of incredible weakness,” socially and economically. Gender equality in the U.S., he said, would mean that the national debt “will continue to grow.”

Mitt Romney is expected to announce his running mate at the 2012 Republican National Convention, which takes place in Tampa, Florida, August 27 to 30.

Allen West suggests 80 House Dems are Communist Party members

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Tea party darling Rep. Allen West (R-FL) on Tuesday warned that as many as 80 Democratic lawmakers are members of the Communist Party.

Speaking to about 100 supporters and 15 protesters in Jensen Beach, the freshman congressman refused to name names after saying that that he had “heard” that 80 Democrats serving in the House of Representatives were secretly Communist Party members, according to the The Palm Beach Post News.

West also took the opportunity to blast President Barack Obama, who had spoken in Boca Raton earlier in the day about fairness in the tax code and policies to ensure millionaires paid as much in taxes as their secretaries.

“I really wish that, standing here before you, was Allen West and President Obama,” West told the crowd. “We could have a simple discussion. But that ain’t ever gonna happen.”

“Why not?” a member of the audience shouted.

“Cuz he was too scared!” West replied.

Last week, failed GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin first floated West’s name at a possible “rogue” pick for 2012. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), an early supporter of Mitt Romney, agreed that West would be “good” in the VP slot.

West said on Friday that he would accept the Republican vice presidential nomination if it was the “right fit.”

West told CNN’s Kyra Phillips that he had “never been out on a dinner date” with Romney, but he’d be willing to join the ticket.

Yeah, well, right now, you know, the focus is, of course, being a good Congressional representative,” West explained. “But if someone were to make that call to me, which I really doubt is ever going to happen, you would have to make sure that it is something that God would ordain for you, and you’d have to talk to your wife, my wife and my two daughters about. But we have always stepped up to the plate to serve our country. And if it’s the right fit, then I will do so.”

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has also called West an “excellent choice” for the GOP ticket.

Watch this video, uploaded to YouTube April 11, 2012.