Allen West: 'Governed by your inferiors'

In a letter to his supporters, retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West quotes Plato -- "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors" -- and talks about the problem of "impostors" in politics:

We are all quite familiar with the Bernie Madoff case which devastated many people here in South Florida, quite a few in Florida Congressional district 22. So many people placed their trust in what we now know was an elaborate “ponzi scheme”. The life savings of countless individuals was lost.
Just recently we have experienced another such case in the Ft Lauderdale area with a local lawyer named Scott Rothstein. The dollar amounts are not in the same strata as Madoff, only $1Billion, but that is still a pretty substantial number. One would think that we would be more attuned after the realization of what Madoff had executed.
But on an even greater scale we see the future and legacy of our Republic being stolen away by those who truly are our inferiors, impostors. . . .

Read the whole thing. You can also visit the Allen West campaign site. I first interviewed Col. West last year for the American Spectator. Given my notorious Hayekian tendencies, I was a fan as soon as the colonel started quoting Frederic Bastiat.

Last year's failure of the NRCC to spot West as a potential superstar -- they actually tried to recruit other candidates to run against him in the FL22 primary in 2008 -- was a harbinger of the problems that subsequently developed in NY23 this year. Small wonder that West singled out Doug Hoffman for praise:

The candidacy of Doug Hoffman in NY-23 portends the direction the elections of 2010, a true conservative providing an answer to the wasteful, arrogant spending of the Democrats in charge of Congress.

Fortunately, the NRCC has now awakened to the "Go West" phenomenon, so maybe things are moving in the right direction.

(Cross-posted at Hot Air Greenroom.)

Allen West: 'It is what it is'

The retired Army lieutenant colonel on Fort Hood:

We have become so politically correct that our media is more concerned about the stress of the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The misplaced benevolence intending to portray him as a victim is despicable. The fact that there are some who have now created an entire new classification called "pre-virtual vicarious Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)" is unconscionable.
This is not a "man caused disaster". It is what it is, an Islamic jihadist attack. . . .
What we see are recalcitrant leaders who are refusing to confront the issue, Islamic terrorist infiltration into America, and possibly further into our Armed Services. Instead we have a multiculturalism and diversity syndrome on steroids.
Major Hasan should have never been transferred to Ft Hood, matter of fact he should have been Chaptered from the Army. His previous statements, poor evaluation reports, and the fact that the FBI had him under investigation for jihadist website posting should have been proof positive. . . .

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, there's also this:

The official said investigators were looking into Hasan's association with the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., in early 2001, about the same time that a radical Islamist prayer leader and two of the Sept. 11 hijackers were there. . . .
Authorities were focusing aggressively on whether Hasan more recently had been following the fiery online sermons and blog postings of that imam, Anwar al Awlaki, the official said.
Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be in Yemen. He is actively supporting the Islamist jihad, or holy war against the West, through his website.
Early this morning, after Awlaki's name was publicly linked to Hasan's, a posting on Awlaki's site was titled "Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing."

Jihad? What jihad? Nothing to see here. Move along.

UPDATE: ABC News reports:

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

But don't start "jumping to conclusions" or anything.

Allen West on the Fort Hood massacre

Press release from the Iraq hero's congressional campaign:

Lt. Col. Allen West (Ret) is a former Fort Hood commander, most recently leading troops there in 2007. West has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and says the horrible tragedy at Fort Hood is proof the enemy is infiltrating our military.
"This enemy preys on downtrodden soldiers and teaches them extremism will lift them up," West said. "Our soldiers are being brainwashed."
West served more than 20 years experience in the United States Army and although he is waiting for more information to be revealed on Thursday's tragedy, West is certain the military must look at this broader issue on how to prevent Islamic extremism from penetrating our bases.
West has worked closely with the investigation of the planned attack on Fort Dix, New Jersey as well as the bombing of a soldier's tent in March 2003 while stationed in Kuwait. Both have been linked to Islamic extremism.
"The most importantly thing right now is that we objectively assess this situation," West said. "But it is imperative that we take steps to make sure this does not happen again."

Michelle Malkin has more on the massacre, including the news that the killer had come to the attention of law-enforcement six months earlier.

Jihad? What jihad?

First of all, Patrick Lanzo isn't originally from Paulding County, Ga., and . . .

. . . second, his tasteless sign is not a valid commentary on ObamaCare. But among the several other things wrong with this CBS News story, let's start with the dateline.

Temple is in Carroll County. Patrick Lanzo's Peach restaurant is in Paulding County. So CBS reporter Michelle Marsh can't even get the geography right, which casts doubt on her ability to understand the cultural significance of what it is that Lanzo intends by his unfortunate gesture.

This is not the first time the media has erred in a misguided attempt to find political meaning in this particular phenomenon, which compelled me to explain last November:

Just some demographic background for people who aren't familiar with Georgia. Paulding County is a fast-growing exurb of Atlanta, with a population of more than 120,000 that's increased nearly 50% since 2000. Median household income is more than $58,000.
When I was growing up in Douglas County, Paulding County was overwhelmingly rural. My hometown of Lithia Springs was sophisticated and cosmopolitan compared to Dallas or Hiram. But as neighboring Cobb County became urbanized, the Cobb developers moved westward.
The big thing was when Thorton Road (Ga. 6) was widened and connected to U.S. 278 via Powder Springs and Hiram, so that you now have a virtual freeway all the way from the Atlanta Airport (Camp Creek Parkway) to Rockmart (in Polk County). The area around the intersection of U.S. 278 and Ga. 92 in Hiram is now massively developed. A lot of the residents of Paulding County commute to jobs in Cobb or Douglas counties, especially in the industrial developments around the intersection of I-20 and Thornton Road.
Lanzo's Peach Bar is being spun as part of a "racist backlash" against Obama, which is silly: Paulding County never forward-lashed, so how can they backlash? Of course, the prosperous blue-collar exurbanites of Paulding County voted 69% Republican, but that doesn't make them evil, does it?

3, 2, 1 . . . raaaaacist! I wrote that Nov. 18, 2008 -- nearly 11 months ago -- and in all this time, Charles Johnson has yet to cite it as evidence of my Gelleresque evil. Why? Because he's lazy and stupid. If he were reasonably industrious and clever, he would have at some point found this item and said, "A-ha! Look the notorious white supremacist blogger is defending this!"

Uh . . . no. To explain is not to defend. In my experience, people like Mad King Charles, who make a big hairy deal out of being open-minded and enlightened, are some of the most benighted bigots you'll ever meet.

The use of the "n-word" and other such epithets was not tolerated by my parents, teachers or church leaders. As I've often said, my mother would have washed my mouth out with soap and worn me out with a belt if I'd ever spoken so insultingly. The fact that my mother was a native of Randolph County, Ala., born in 1929 -- and that I was born in 1959 in Atlanta, Ga., and raised in Douglas County, Ga. -- does not constitute proof that she or I or any of our kin were "racist," anymore than anyone born in New York or Massachusetts.

All my life, however, I've had to deal with the stereotypical presumption that all white people from the South are uniquely racist -- the collective embodiment of an evil that has replaced blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as the unforgiveable sin. Guilty until proven innocent.

Frankly there are times when a Southerner is tempted to surrender to the stereotype: "Fine. You call me a racist no matter what I do or say, so I'll go ahead and be as racist as you think I am."

This, I believe, is the temptation to which Patrick Lanzo has succumbed or, if not, it's part of his appeal to whoever the customers of his restaurant are. As the local NAACP told CBS News, the "latest ploy for attention by Mr. Lanzo is not surprising."

Another Black Conservative is correct to cite this as a rebuff to "the Raaaaacism Industrial Complex" that they are "are helping to hide real racists like Lanzo in a sea of falsely accused racists."

But you know something? I'd be willing to bet that if Lt. Col. Allen West were to hold a fund-raiser in Paulding County, Ga., it might be one of the most successful events imaginable, and that he might even get a couple hundred bucks from Patrick Lanzo.

Whatever their faults or failings, the decent folks among whom I grew up have always admired real courage, and Allen West has got that in trumps. Certainly, the colonel has no fear of the Flemish Menace.

(Via Memeorandum.)

Update: (Smitty) My humblest apologies. I had comments selected to approve, and then clicked the "Reject" link on one which said something completely unconstructive. I owe the five or so of you, who had valid things to say, my sincerest regrets for the inconvenience.

Charlie Crist in trouble in Florida?

Months ago, a conservative Florida Republican named Javier Majarres began e-mailing me to complain about his dissatisfaction with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the state GOP chairman, Jim Greer.

Majarres was a big supporter of Lt. Col. Allen West's FL-22 congressional campaign. (I profiled West for The American Spectator and blogged about his campaign through the fall.) Manjarres felt that Crist and Greer didn't do enough to support West.

Manjarres formed the Conservative Republican Alliance, and blogs at Red County. So today, Kid From Brooklyn has a post at the Hot Air Green Room, linking this Orlando Sentinel story:

Before last fall's election, Crist took time out of his work schedule to campaign for McCain, appearing at rallies, raising money for him in Texas and California and visiting the GOP candidate at his ranch in Sedona, Ariz.
"He was with him so many times I thought he was an adopted member of the family," said Mitch Ceasar, Democratic chairman of Broward County.
Back home, Florida's economic crisis was deepening. But Crist did not step up his workload, according to his schedule.

Florida is one of the states hit hardest by the bursting of the housing bubble. There's been lots of noise about Crist running for Senate next year, but as it is, he might be lucky to be re-elected as governor. Manjarres writes:

Crist's indecision is, in all likelihood, delaying the entrance of several candidates into either the Gubernatorial race or Senate race. . . .
In my opinion, I think Governor Crist is very beatable in a primary election. If the right conservative candidate steps up and directly confronts him on both his record and his lack of leadership, he will force Crist to answer to the base of the Republican Party in a primary election. I think he could very well lose because he has disappointed those who elected him, time and time again during his tenure. . . .
Governor Crist is a wounded deer who has fallen completely out of favor with the base of the Republican Party -- the political cover he gave President Obama by supporting the reckless "stimulus" plan was the final straw for many. [Emphasis added.]

Majarres notes that Dr. Marion Thorpe has declared as a Republican candidate in the Florida Senate race, and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio might also get in the race. There may be a Tea Party conservative rebellion brewing against "me too" Republicans like Crist.

For want of a nail . . .

Nothing so frustrates conservatives as watching how the Republican Party repeatedly throws away opportunities for important victories. Andrew Breitbart talks about one squandered chance:

Back in 2004, a smart, good-looking moderate Republican Hispanic ran for Congress. At the time Victor Elizalde was just under 40 years old and working as an executive at a big-time Hollywood studio. As an ethnic minority, a family man and a rare open conservative in an industry dominated by liberals, Mr. Elizalde represented hope and change for the Republican Party.
Yet because he was running for Henry A. Waxman´s safe seat, Mr. Elizalde got no support from the Republican Party . In fact, no one in the party´s leadership took notice of him. As a result Mr. Waxman trounced Mr. Elizalde with 71 percent of the vote.

Amen, Brother Andrew! I saw them do the same exact thing this past year with Lt. Col. Allen West. His supporters were bitterly disappointed that the NRCC -- after trying desperately to recruit any other Republican to run in FL22 - wouldn't lift a finger or spend a cent to support an Iraq war veteran's campaign.

The "cretinous b*stards" who run the Republican Party will gladly throw away millions to support useless RINOs like Lincoln Chafee, but let a real conservative fight to win a primary, and watch how those overpaid geniuses at the GOPHQ "cocktail party" treat him like a leper.

If Michael Steele changes nothing else as RNC chairman, he must change this. No more "Mavericks," no more wasting money on Chafees, and no more running away from a fight leaving conservatives to die on the political battlefield.

New book on Allen West

A new book by Richard Berry, A Missing Link in Leadership: The Trial of LTC Allen West, examines the experience of Lt. Col. West in Iraq -- when he was charged with assault for the gunpoint interrogation of a terrorism suspect -- in the context of leadership theory.

CQ rates West's campaign for Congress in Florida's 22nd District as a long shot, because of first-term Democratic Rep. Ron Klein's huge financial advantage. However, West's campaign is now attracting national attention -- including recent coverage from Human Events, the New York Daily News and the New York Sun -- which should help generate fundraising for a candidate who's everything conservative Republicans say they want in Congress. As his campaign manager told me last week, their only concern is that the support might come too late to help.

(Cross-posted at AmSpecBlog.)

Congratulations, Allen West!

A friend e-mailed to tell me that Iraq war veteran Allen West, Republican candidate for Congress in Florida's 22nd District, has been named "Worst Person in the World" by Keith Olbermann. Congratulations to all those who've worked so hard to help Colonel West win this prestigious honor.

Cheap smear on Allen West

Last month, I interviewed retired Lt. Col. West, the Republican candidate for Congress in Florida's 22nd District. Today, one of Col. West's supporters e-mailed me a New Republic article about the candidate that is truly a disgrace to that magazine's reputation.

However, the article is not all bad. For instance, I didn't realize that Col. West reads Bastiat in his spare time. Excellent! And there is one passage in the article that I found particularly informative:

[T]he national party showed little interest in rallying behind someone so controversial. Looking at the giant ziggurats of cash the Democrats were building to protect their newly won seats, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) frantically searched for candidates who were safe and, most crucially, had access to a lot of money. In the 22nd -- a district the Democrats took in 2006 but which still boasts more registered Republicans than Democrats -- a scion of a famous Florida political family, a well-connected state representative, and the popular mayor of cash-soaked Boca Raton were all begged to run. All declined.

Now, wait a doggone minute. If Col. West is "controversial," isn't it because it was his job to actually fight the war that the national party supported? To hell with "safe" candidates and famous "scions." Here the GOP has the flesh-and-blood refutation of all those "chickenhawk" slurs, a heroic character straight out of a Tom Clancy novel whose candidacy instantly makes FL-22 a contest worthy of national interest, and yet the NRCC "frantically searched" for somebody else -- anyone else -- to run for this seat? Outrageous!

That is the perfect capsule summary of what's wrong with the GOP HQ people in Washington. Every conservative who's tired of the politically tone-deaf idiots who are running the Republican Party into the ground ought to go make a contribution to Col. West's campaign today.

UPDATE: Now that I think about it, has anybody told the NBRA about this? Does Angela McGlowan know about it? After all the work they've done to recruit black Republicans, to see the NRCC actually working against a black Republican is insane. Somebody needs to be raising holy unshirted hell with the national party about this situation.

Wild for West

From my latest American Spectator article:

Conservatives seeking a gleam of hope amid gloomy prospects for November are beginning to turn their eyes toward sunny Florida, where an Iraq war veteran is waging a David-and-Goliath battle for Congress.
Allen West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who made headlines five years ago with his gunpoint interrogation of an Iraqi prisoner, is challenging first-term Democratic Rep. Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd District.
After the 2006 midterm meltdown that helped Klein defeat 13-year incumbent Clay Shaw, many Republicans -- including presidential candidate Sen. John McCain -- are campaigning as boring centrists.
West, however, is bringing a back-to-basics conservative message. He takes a strong stance against illegal immigration, favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and criticizes free-spending Washington ways.
"What you see happening is that the Republican Party has gotten away from its basic ideology," West says, adding that 2006 "was a bad year for Republicans because they started acting like Democrats.”

By all means, read the whole thing, and be sure to visit Col. West's Web site.

PREVIOUSLY:
6/16: Update: Col. West & FL22

6/15: Atlas interviews Col. Allen West
6/14: Video: Col. Allen West vs. CAIR
6/14: FL22: Col. Allen West vs. "Rookie of the Year"

Update: Col. West & FL22

UPDATED & BUMPED: Just got off the phone with LTC West himself, who told me he'll be interviewed Tuesday on The Laura Ingraham Show.

While talking to the colonel, I learned, among other things, that he's an Atlanta native like me. We talked SEC football -- he's a University of Tennessee alum, while I'm a University of Alabama fan. He said he'd be happy to give me a "Roll Tide!" When I accused him of pandering, he added, "Except on the Third Saturday in October."

PREVIOUSLY: Just got off the phone with a campaign staffer for Col. Allen West, the Republican challenger to Rep. Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd District. The staffer said the campaign’s baseline poll last month showed Klein "surprisingly weak" and that, despite Col. West's relatively low name-recognition, there was a lot of excitement because he is "such a compelling candidate."

The district "went heavily for Hillary" in the Democratic primary, which the West campaign feels is a good omen for their candidate, because Clinton voters were generally more hawkish than Obama's. The district, which extends along the coast northward of Miami, has about 12 percent Jewish voters, many of whom are "uncomfortable" with Obama, the staffer said. (Unless I'm mistaken, El Rushbo lives in the 22nd District.)

While West's fundraising so far is no match for Klein's $2 million war chest, the staffer said the record-setting 2006 campaign -- where Klein and incumbent Republican Rep.
Clay Shaw spent more than $3 million combined -- was an anomaly. Usually it doesn't take that much to win FL22, and "we feel we will have enough to be competitive," the staffer said.

Asked whether it was a possibility that the John McCain campaign might make an appearance with Col. West, the staffer said probably not before October, if then -- especially since Team Obama is making noises about ceding Florida to McCain. If there is a fight for Florida, however, the West campaign may help boost McCain more than vice-versa, the staffer said, because Col. West is such an "inspirational" candidate.

BTW, the staffer said the West campaign is very much aware of, and grateful for, their support within the conservative blogosphere. To quote See-Dubya, "hint, hint."

PREVIOUSLY:

6/15: Atlas interviews Col. Allen West

6/14: Video: Col. Allen West vs. CAIR

6/14: FL22: Col. Allen West vs. "Rookie of the Year"

Atlas interviews Col. Allen West

Somehow, I missed this earlier, but Pamela Geller interviewed the FL22 candidate during CPAC:


No doubt, I was too busy recovering from the previous night's party.

PREVIOUSLY:
6/14: FL22: Col. West vs. "Rookie of the Year"

Video: Col. Allen West vs. CAIR

"We are being infiltrated . . ."



(Via See-Dubya, with apologies for the poor quality of the video.) Col. West spoke at an Americans Against Hate rally March 1, criticizing the Broward County Commission for its support of CAIR.

Like See-Dubya said, "Hint, hint."

FL22: Col. West vs. "Rookie of the Year"

In a year when Republican prospects look exceedingly gloomy, there are a few bright spots for the GOP. One of them is the 22nd District of Florida, where retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West is challenging first-term Democratic Rep. Ron Klein.

In 2006, FL22 was one of the most expensive House races in the country, as Klein took on 13-term incumbent Republican Rep. Clay Shaw. The Politico recently named Klein its "Rookie of the Year." But the rookie now faces a veteran -- literally.

Col. West's biography reads like the screenplay of a Hollywood thriller. A Bronze Star veteran of Desert Storm who led an artillery battalion of the 4th Infantry Division in Operation Iraqi freedom, West was relieved of command in Iraq after firing a pistol past a prisoner's head during an interrogation in August 2003. (West's method got results; the prisoner revealed important information about an impending attack on U.S. forces.)

Col. West was named "Man of the Year" by David Horowitz's FrontPageMagazine.com. He has been featured in Jack Kelly's column, AmericaThinker.com, Human Events, and the Weekly Standard, interviewed on the Michael Savage show, and yet -- oddly enough -- I'd never heard of him until See-Dubya mentioned him at MichelleMalkin.com.
Col. West has taken a tough stance against amnesty for illegal aliens: "As your congressman, I will fight those who are willing for any reason to jeopardize our sovereignty and security. No amnesty of any kind should be considered; it simply rewards illegal behavior and encourages others to break the law."

In his campaign against Klein, Col. West has made hay by accusing Klein of abusing the franking privilege, mailing out campaign material at taxpayer expense, for which Klein was chastened by Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman, who said, "The people of Florida are suffering. . . . Your campaign coffers are not."

Klein's campaign coffers (with over $2 million cash-on-hand as of the April 1 FEC filing) are the biggest challenge faced by Col. West, who had raised about $100,000 through the end of March. Here's a video of Col. West talking to the Broward County Republican Party about the importance of vision:



"Ron Klein has a lot of money. So what?"

(Cross-posted at AmSpecBlog.)

UPDATE: The Sun-Sentinel reports that polls indicate Klein may be vulnerable:

Klein's re-elect number, which no incumbent likes to see at less than 50 percent, was 49 percent. That's the percentage of people who said they'd vote for him.
West had 23 percent of the vote, and 28 percent didn't know or were undecided.
In 2006, Shaw's re-elect number at about the same time was 48 percent. . . .
Far more people have a positive view of Klein's performance than a negative one - 49 percent to 13 percent - but he also has a fairly high 38 percent who didn't know or didn't answer the question.
The West people take solace in the share of people -- 43 percent -- who would consider voting for a generic Klein opponent. Another 22 percent said they would vote for Klein, regardless of who the opponent is, and 8 percent would vote to replace him, no matter who the opponent is.

What the West campaign needs is money.