Oh, look. Another Congressional Republican saying something crazy and offensive.
"I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don't know that," Coffman said. "But I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American."
But MoveOn once compared Bush to Hitler! Michael Moore! Both sides are equally extreme!
Here's the problem. Republican rhetoric has gone so over the bend over the past four years that no one will even notice. Coffman apologized, but one wonders -- why? This stuff began even before Obama got in the White House -- with Paul Broun (R-GA) comparing Obama to Hitler. Was he censured? Not at all.
And since there's no rebuke, and no price to pay, Republican voters will keep lapping up this poison like candy -- and further down the drain we all go.
When last we heard from neo-McCarthyite and confirmed crazy person Allen West (R-FL), he was claiming that half of the Democratic caucus in the House were communists. Now, he's claiming the Muslim Brotherhood is pulling the strings at the Pentagon.
“We have to understand that when tolerance becomes a one-way street it leads to cultural suicide,” West told "Fox and Friends" on Monday. “We should not allow the Muslim Brotherhood or associated groups to be influencing our national strategy.”
When asked if he believed those groups were influencing U.S. strategy, West responded, “Oh, absolutely,” and cited the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting report that didn’t mention the suspect’s Muslim faith as a potential motive for the killings.
So far, the Muslim Brotherhood has gotten Obama to surge in Afghanistan, increase Predator strikes in the entire region, send the Special Forces into Pakistan to kill bin Laden -- and launch an air war Libya. They're very sneaky!
What a nutball.
Oh, and I love that Faux News talking head said of West, "You're a guy who's trained to follow the law," when West was kicked out of the Army for breaking it.
Tea party hero and anti-Muslim bigot Allen West (R-FL) spoke in Palm City, FL on Tuesday, and busted out a old right-wing favorite: McCarthyism.
The conservative tea party icon also got in shots at Democrats and President Obama, who spoke Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University. West said Obama was "scared" to have a discussion with him. He later said "he's heard" up to 80 U.S. House Democrats are Communist Party members, but wouldn't name names.
And here's Tailgunner Joe, singing the same song in 1950.
"The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."
Someone should ask West to produce the names of the Democrats in the House who are Communists or tell us where he's "heard" that number -- or STFU.
Making unsubstantiated claims about large numbers of Communists in the government used to lead to disgrace. That this wackadoo is considered a possible veep pick tells you everything you need to know about the fetid state of the Republican Party.
CREDO SuperPac has announced the eighth member of its 'Tea Party Ten' members of Congress that it will seek to defeat in the 2012 elections, Dan Lungren of California. The 10 are chosen on the basis of their extreme positions and rhetoric and the fact that they are vulnerable. Most of them were elected in the 'wave' election of 2010 and could easily lose in 2012 if they have strong challengers.
Sometimes the actions of elected representatives become so odious that urgent action is required. Many of the Tea Party-affiliated House Republicans were elected in 2010 on a wave of concern about a very troubled economy and with millions of dollars in expenditures by political groups associated with Karl Rove or the Koch brothers. Their actions in Congress have been beyond the pale.
They voted to deny the science on global warming, to change the very definition of rape, to deny funds to Planned Parenthood for the provision of contraception, to expand tax breaks for the top 1%, and to eliminate Medicare and leave seniors and the disabled at the mercy of the insurance industry.
Lungren was announced Wednesday as the latest Republican added to the campaign. His headline reads "California's Rick Santorum":
For more than 30 years, Dan Lungren has stood for Tea Party extremism and radical assaults on equality. When the Obama Administration refused to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, Dan Lungren was happy to sink $1.5 million of our tax dollars into a contract with a former Bush Administration official to uphold this discriminatory law. But denying equal rights to lesbian and gay couples is about the only thing Lungren wants to fund. He voted for the Ryan budget to slash social services and end Medicare as we know it. He voted to defund Planned Parenthood, cut Pell Grants for one third of University of California undergraduates, cut $125 million from K-12 education in California, and eliminate Headstart funding for 14,000 low income children in his district. His position on women's issues are even more extreme: Lungren has sponsored legislation that would have outlawed abortion even in cases of rape and incest, and is so anti-woman that he called the Obama Administration's new regulations on no-cost birth control an "assault" on the First Amendment.
Lungren joins Mike Fitzpatrick (PA), Joe Walsh (IL), Frank Guinta (NH), Sean Duffy (WI), Steve King (IA), Chip Cravaack (MN) and Allen West (FL) on the list. Two members of the Tea Party Ten remain to be unveiled.
Those interested in getting Lungren and the rest of the Tea Party Ten out of office can sign the CREDO pledge or contribute.
West called out not just President Obama, but Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and fellow Floridian Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
“Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, and 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.”
He pledged that he will do everything in his power to stop President Obama from “destroy[ing]” the country.
I've got nothing to say to this hyperbolic absurdity except to note that it is only those least-versed in American history who can make such un-American statements. That he feels comfortable saying such things without fear of the House leadership condemning him (can you imagine the outrage if some Democrat said that about George W. Bush during his term? Quelle horreur!) shows how far down the dialogue has degenerated in the Republican Party. Nonetheless, West is becoming such an embarrassment to the Republican establishment that they are taking pains to redistrict West out of existence.
The teahadists eat that sort of thing up with a spoon, naturally. But the Florida GOP, which has a supermajority in the state legislature and is headed up by GOP Governor Rick “Voldemort” Scott, has undertaken a project to redraw the state’s districts—after being compelled to do so by votes on a ballot initiative in 2010. And it looks like Mr. West might be headed south.
Who would rob the nation of such a fiery demagogue? Wingnuts can’t pin this one on the Dems, who are pretty much powerless in Florida. But Colonel Mustard has a clue:
One of the rising stars of the Tea Party is about to be sacrificed by the Republican establishment in Florida, led by someone spinning for Mitt Romney.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
It was Will Weatherford in the Conservatory with a wrench! Well, the truth is, West was in some trouble with voters anyway. I don’t live in his district, but from what I understand, voting in a certified loon like West was something of an aberration for that area, and it’s possible they find West’s constant grandstanding a bit embarrassing.
Extreme right-wing Florida Congressman Allen West, who recently declined to run for United States senate, said in his weekly address that the Arab Spring of democratization in the Middle East and surrounding areas is really about Muslims trying to re-establish the historical caliphate:
This so-called “Arab Spring” is less about a democratic movement, than it is about the early phase of the restoration of an Islamic Caliphate, the last being the Ottoman Empire.
We are witnessing secular Muslim leaders being deposed in very volatile and unstable nations. This growing Islamic Totalitarianism manifested in militant Islam has had a modus operand [sic] of capitalizing on unstable political situations (Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia).
Now we see these same types of instances occurring in Egypt, Libya, and Syria and the rose-colored glasses of some seek to portray this as a great awakening of liberty. History does not support this in the Middle East.
We must evaluate these occurrences through the prism of keen strategic and operational insight which looks out 10, 20, or 30 years.
If we had done so during the deposing of the Shah of Iran, we might have been able to prevent what arose. The Iran with which we must contend today is the major exporter of Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism.
In the rest of the essay, he goes on to condemn Barack Obama, Palestine and the United Nations, while calling for militant support for Israel and its current borders.
BLITZER: Now there's reports out there as of this moment that he called you and apologized.
SCHULTZ: That is absolutely untrue. I have not received an apology. I haven't received a phone call. I know he has my e-mail, I haven't got an apology on my e-mail nor on my fax machine in my district office or my congressional office in the Capitol or at the Democratic National Committee.
BLITZER: He's quoted in this Roll Call as having told a "Huffington Post" reporter, 'I just apologized.'
Following Rep. Allen West’s (R-FL) tirade yesterday against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the Tea Party Republican told the Huffington Post that he had “just apologized” to his fellow Floridian this afternoon. Wasserman Schultz told CNN this afternoon, however, that reports of West apologizing to her were “absolutely untrue.”
Allen West never did formally apologize to her. Let's face it, he would never have behaved like this to another man in Congress. Roll Call breaks it down: The Allen West Apology Mystery
Did he or didn’t he?
Shortly after Roll Call reported Wednesday afternoon that Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said that he had apologized to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) for calling her “vile, unprofessional and despicable” in an email, the phones started ringing off the hook.
Wasserman Schultz aides said there had been no apology, and West’s office adamantly denied the report and demanded a retraction.
So, what exactly happened?
West said, “I just apologized,” when asked by a Huffington Post reporter about the situation in the Speaker’s Lobby before votes Wednesday afternoon, according to a tape of the conversation.
The Huffington Post reporter repeated the question later, asking about it in the context of a group of female lawmakers preparing to hold a news conference to condemn him. The Members planned to call on the leadership of both parties to rebuke West. In response to the question, West reiterated that he had apologized before walking into the House chamber.
But West spokeswoman Angela Sachitano doubled down, saying it was Wasserman Schultz who should do the apologizing. Sachitano strenuously denied that West had apologized to Wasserman Schultz and even denied what he’d told Huffington Post...read on
His people even lie about what West said to the Huffington Post.
Reader Warning: Reading this post may cause you to be exposed to defective genes, if you believe Allen West. That is the window in front of the desk where I am sitting typing this post. That sticker has been in that window for several months now. This post reflects the gene pool and opinions of this writer and does not purport to speak for the gene quality of any other writer here at Crooks & Liars.
Rep. Allen West (R-FL) is no stranger to controversy and seems to relish in making outrageous statements just to provoke a reaction. But the freshman congressman may have outdone himself with a rambling, far-ranging post on the site “Red Country” in which he calls supporters of President Obama “a threat to the gene pool”:
I believe we are headed towards the ultimate ideological clash in America. There is a widening chasm which has developed between those who believe in principled fiscal policies and those desiring the socialist bureaucratic nanny-state. [...]
And all we hear from the President is talk about “shared sacrifice,” “tax the rich,” and “increase revenues by tax hikes.” It was just December 2010 that President Obama and the Democrats extended the Bush era tax rates for two years…now less than a year later they are FLIP-FLOPPING! [...]
I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool.
So this is where our politics stand. Wingnuts claiming those with different opinions have defective genes? I could debunk his claims which are factually incorrect as to the allegation of 'flip-flopping', but what's the point? I have defective genes, after all.
Here's a piece of lore handed down from my mother to me and from me to my kids: When you descend into personal attacks, you lose the argument entirely. Evidently that, too, is something people with defective genes believe.
Meanwhile, here's my response to Rep. West: I might have defective genes, but at least I'm not smoking some kind of exotic hate crack.
Allen West, as Susie suggests, has a bit of a problem. For as much as he likes to appear on Fox News and talk about what a good guy he is, he's really just a shyster pulling the wool over his constituents' eyes.
The so-called town halls he's holding? They're on private property rather than public property (churches, specifically), and all the questions are pre-screened in advance, despite his protestations to the contrary.
Watch the video above, where West's chief of staff says the index cards with questions are given to a "3rd party" (that would be church staff), who then sorts the questions before they are asked.
Nothing random there, nor is there any sincere effort to answer real questions from real constituents. It's sort of like a Fox News interview. It gives the appearance of sincerity, but it's just more scripted nonsense.
Here it is in action, at the town hall where Nicole Sandler was tossed out:
After Sandler was tossed into jail, she was held for 17 hours and says she was maced while there.
Inside the meeting, West was less than a minute into his remarks tonight when two or three men began shouting from the audience.
"How about our Medicare that you're stealing?" shouted one.
"How about allowing questions from the audience?" shouted another man, apparently dissatisfied with West's decision to answer written questions submitted by audience members before the meeting.
At West's previous town halls, members of the public lined up to ask him questions in person, sometimes waiting 30 minutes or more to do so.
"What you have seen happen previously is you get such a line of people and a lot of folks want to come up and proseletyze for six or seven minutes and you're really not getting to the questions that people want to have answered," West said after the meeting.
West, who has gone back and forth with critics at his previous meetings, said the written format was not an effort to avoid tough questions.
"I don't duck," West said.
During the meeting, West had responded to a question about Medicare when Nicole Sandler of Coral Springs, a former radio host on the liberal Air America network, began shouting from the audience.
Other audience members began shouting at her and a police officer led her out.
"This is supposed to be a town hall meeting. That means back-and-forth," Sandler said as she exited.
Sandler argued with a Fort Lauderdale police officer in the lobby who told her to leave the building. After she yelled at the officer for placing his hand on her, she was arrested for "trespassing after warning" and led away in handcuffs.
Funny. I don't recall the 2009 town hall meetings as having the heavy police presence at every single one, or people being arrested for asking questions. And I certainly don't view Nicole Sandler as someone who is threatening in the least, but evidently those policemen did.
Nicole Sandler lives in Allen West's district. She is entitled to receive answers to her questions even if he doesn't like her politics. She is entitled to attend town hall meetings and ask those questions. She's even entitled to record those meetings.
Having her arrested for insisting on answers to her questions is just another indication of the totalitarian state people like Allen West, wingnut loony man, think of when they think of "liberty."
(ps - If you want a taste of what conservatives in Sandler's district want our country to look like, read the comments on that Palm Beach Post article)
Here's the video of her being ejected:
UPDATE: John Amato
I just spoke to a source close to the situation and $25.00 was already posted for her bail. She's not out yet. Since the town hall was on private property, the police were allowed to arrest her on a trumped up charge. She was pushed by the cop to get out of the building while she was trying to leave. He arrested her for daring to ask a question from the audience. If it had been in a public building there would have been no grounds to ask her to leave. West only answered pre-approved questions. What a cowardly move by Rep. Allen West's people.
Karoli wonders...
The "private property" Nicole was ejected from was Calvary Chapel's theater. Calvary Chapel is a tax-exempt organization. It seems to me that they should not be playing partisan politics, screening questions and supporting West's narrative without being accountable for that.
