Allen West Versus The Death Eaters

Allen West Versus The Death Eaters
Avada sexist racist kedavra.
by John Hayward
07/21/2011

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) finds himself surrounded by a swarm of identity-politics Death Eaters after his fiery email to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), in which he called her “vile, despicable, and cowardly” for addressing insulting remarks to him on the House floor. (By the way, for the benefit of befuddled liberal forum trolls picking up their marching orders at the Daily Kos, she did this behind his back, after he left the floor.)

The first group to materialize behind West in columns of black smoke, and begin hurling their very best death curses at him, was a feminist brigade of female Democrat representatives. They wrote a letter to West and the GOP leadership, demanding they disavow his remarks.

We know that politics can get rough and that strong debate brings out many emotions. And as women, we are often held to a higher standard in public discourse.

News reports indicate that after last night’s debate, Congressman Allen West sent a completely inappropriate and sexist e-mail in total disrespect of our colleague, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

By any objective viewing of her floor speech, she was well within the rules of decorum for our chamber. Yet, Mr. West’s response was completely out of order and an offensive personal attack with a clearly sexist tone. We call on you to disavow this response in the strongest of terms.

We also call on Mr. West to immediately apologize to Ms. Wasserman Schultz and vow to keep debate about policy, not personality.

Women are “held to a higher standard in public discourse?” Really? That would explain why Debbie Wasserman-Schultz feels free to publicly accuse Republicans of wanting to kill women and the elderly on a regular basis. That would also explain why she lied during the debate over Planned Parenthood funding, and claimed no Democrats voted in favor of cutting it. One of the representatives she claimed does not exist was Health Shuler of North Carolina… the guy who ran against Nancy Pelosi for the Minority Leader position.

Has she ever apologized for that garbage? Has the Democrat leadership disavowed it?

The Democrat women going after West should remember Lord Voldemort’s advice about using the Unforgivable Curses: you’ve got to mean them. They only used the word “sexist” twice in four paragraphs. Let me suggest a more energetic rewrite:

News reports indicate that after last night’s debate, sexist Congressman Allen West sent a completely inappropriate and sexist e-mail in total disrespect of our colleague, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

By any objective viewing of her floor speech, she was well within the rules of decorum for our chamber. Yet, the sexist Mr. West’s sexist response was completely out of order and an offensive sexist personal attack with a clearly sexist tone. We call on you to disavow this sexist response in the strongest of terms, or else we’ll call all of you sexists. Now go away, or we will taunt you a second time.

Just out of curiosity: how is it “sexist” to declare that someone is not a lady? I thought that’s what paleo-feminism was all about.

West is also under attack from the Congressional Black Caucus, which is reportedly “furious” and “shocked” over his “unfortunate” remarks. They were going to castigate West at their meeting yesterday, but other stuff came up, so they had to postpone it. CBC head Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) vowed to take the issue up in a personal meeting with West.

Has the Congressional Black Caucus reprimanded Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) for openly and falsely accusing Obama critics of racism from the House floor yet?

That happened a week ago, and it was only the latest of her ugly racial tirades. Isn’t this exactly the sort of thing the CBC should act swiftly to condemn? Shouldn’t they be far more concerned about the wanton abuse of racial allegations than Allen West calling Debbie Wasserman-Schultz vile, cowardly, and un-ladylike? They’re making complete laughingstocks of themselves.

Unsurprisingly, the Democrats are using West in a hastily written fundraising letter, which Dave Weigel of Slate received. I wonder if they also sent a copy to the Koch Brothers.

Last night, Republican Rep. Allen West sent a disgraceful e-mail outburst to one of our most accomplished colleagues in the House, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, telling her to “shut the heck up” for daring to challenge the GOP plan to gut Medicare and Social Security to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

I wish I could say I was surprised.

Unfortunately, this is exactly the sort of partisan tantrum we're used to from House Republicans as they push our economy to the brink of disaster while pandering to their Tea Party base.

This kind of appalling behavior is all too familiar from Congressman West, who has riled up his extremist right-wing base by attacking progressive women for “neutering American men,” calling supporters of President Obama, “a threat to the gene pool” and writing for a misogynist magazine that denigrated women with words I'd be ashamed to even repeat.

And now that he’s in Congress, West thinks he can attack a respected legislator like Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz with this kind of hate-filled screed.

Allen West has shown us his true colors, now let’s show him ours.

West has been fending off the Death Eaters with characteristic grace under fire. He struck back hard on the Mark Levin radio show last night. The Right Scoop has posted audio of the West interview. He answers the charge that he was uniquely horrible to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz:

The thing that really most aggravates me is that there is this double standard and that the people on the hard left can continue to attack conservatives and especially minority conservatives and female conservatives. But yet when you stand up and say you will not tolerate this anymore then they claim to be a victim which I find absolutely laughable.

And this is why he thinks the Death Eaters have designated him as the Chosen One who must be destroyed:

People who are black conservatives – I grew up in the inner city, strong values, came from a strong military family and background – what we do is we totally invalidate the liberal social welfare policies and programs. I’m a threat because I’m the guy who got off of their 21st century plantation and they cannot afford to have such a strong voice as mine out there reverberating and resonating across this country.

Once again, we must ask too much of you, Congressman West. Listening to the Party of Personal Destruction howl at you for being crisp with a hatemonger like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is very educational for the voters, not to mention vastly amusing. We can easily come up with something far more objectionable from a Democrat every day, from now until the 2012 elections, and demand they disavow it. By all means, let us continue.
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To read another article on this subject by John Hayward, click here.