You’d never know from watching his appearance on On The Record Friday night (4/27/12) that Allen West, the Tea Party Congressman from Florida, has come under a lot of criticism lately. Most recently, he proclaimed, “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.” His inflammatory rhetoric is also why he’s been targeted for defeat by Democrats and facing a primary challenge in August. But the Republican Party is backing West and Fox News seems to be following suit.
During his most recent On The Record appearance, not a word was uttered by the supposedly “liberal” Greta Van Susteren about West’s McCarthyite tactics. Instead, she introduced him by showcasing some more of his inflammatory rhetoric – and discussing it sympathetically. “Congressman Allen West says President Obama is aiming tax weapons of mass destruction at Americans. What does he mean by that? Well, Congressman West joins us. Good evening, Sir.”
West told Van Susteren that Obama’s tax plan would “truly destroy our economy.”
Van Susteren did note that the tax code probably seems unfair to ordinary Americans but then immediately moved to her own criticism of Obama by saying that he had made “no effort to reform it” when Democrats held the House and Senate. Complaining about Congress putting their own careers above fixing the tax code, she made a friendly effort to add, “I imagine you’re frustrated by it, Sir.”
Of course he is. “I came here to present the right type of pragmatic, principled solutions. Reforming that tax code is one of the important parts to restoring economic security here in the United States of America. But seemingly, that’s not something that we have a willing partner to confront in the Senate side and definitely from the Administration.”
If it occurred to Van Susteren that calling Democrats “communists” and “despicable” might impede a willing partnership, she kept it to herself. Instead, she thanked West cordially for his appearance.
This is not the first time Van Susteren has helped legitimize West’s outrageousness.
I’d like to see the Constitution amended so that military people who leave the service with any type of blotch on their record are prohibited from holding political office for no less than 10 years from separating from the service. With this type of law in effect, we wouldn’t have to see animals like this war criminal. (I’d be even happier if folks like Cong War Criminal were disenfranchised. West essentially plea-bargained his way out of a felony charge but gets to keep all his rights of citizenship. How many African-American men in Florida have that luck? There are a lot of them who’ve served their full prison terms and have been released but face so many hurdles in getting their voting rights restored, but along comes the War Criminal and he gets elected to Congress where he sucks off the very government teat that he so hates.)
