The genius of Allen West

By Richard K. Barry

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is peddling a unique spin on how the GOP should talk about Obama's economic recovery (and, by the way, if Republicans want to call the economic downturn "Obama's recession" or terms like it, we need to start talking about "Obama's economic recovery").

Anyway, West was on Fox News with Neil Cavuto and had this to say about the improving economy and how Republicans should frame it:

WEST: Well, I would think maybe the markets are maybe looking five to six months down the road, when we have a change in leadership in this country – 

CAVUTO: Wait a minute, you think that this is built on a Republican either capturing the White House or Republicans capturing the Senate? … You think that the markets are getting bubbly in anticipation of a Republican taking the White House?

WEST: Oh, absolutely.

I liked Steve Benen's take at The Maddow Blog:

Let me get this straight. In the Republican congressman's mind, investors are overlooking improved job numbers, improved consumer spending, and improved economic confidence, and are instead investing based on expectations that a new, unnamed president might take office 10 months from now?

Well, maybe they will try to go with something like this because, let's face it, if the economy does continue to improve, they'll have nothing else. It's still awfully silly.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Dear Allen West, how about not driving a fucking Hummer?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

There are so many good reasons to dislike Republican idiot extraordinaire Allen West.

His whining about having to pay $70 to fill up his gas-guzzling, environment-raping Hummer, a completely unnecessary vehicle unless you have to navigate the chaos of a war zone, is certainly one of them.

Republican idiot extraordinaire Allen West says liberals should "get the hell out"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It's really not worth paying any attention to Allen West, the insane right-wing Republican Congressman from Florida who says stupid things (and bigoted things) pretty much everytime he opens his mouth.

But pay attention we do, if only because it's good to keep track of the crazy things Republicans say and do and because in his own way West speaks to the current degraded state of the conservative, er, mind -- a mind that has been purged of reason and civility.

Here, for example, is what West said yesterday at a dinner -- and of all things a Lincoln Day dinner, as if the GOP has anything at all in common with Mr. Lincoln -- in West Palm Beach:

We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table. Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, 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.

Of course, this is the usual sort of ridiculousness we hear from so many Republicans these days, even the supposedly sane (but not so much) Mitch Daniels. Seriously, in what world is any of this true? Unless you're completely delusional, perhaps as a result of spending too much time in the presence of Republican propaganda without an ounce of critical thinking, how can you possibly think that Obama and the Democrats are anti-free market? And how exactly do Democrats seek equality of achievement? By refusing to gut Social Security, pumping (not nearly enough) money into the economy when it's just about to go off the cliff, and bailing out Wall Street and the auto industry?

It's like some bat-shit-crazy bizarro world these people inhabit. And it is.

And, yes, Europe, that anti-capitalist, freedom-hating dystopia with... with... with all that social mobility and those hugely profitable companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Siemens and Novartis and Shell and Nokia and Airbus and those massive banks like HSBC and Santander, and those dynamic global cities like London and Paris and Berlin, not to mention that great quality of life.

Slavery!

This is the level of "discourse" we've come to expect not just from West but from Republicans generally. And, as the GOP descends further and further into madness, it's not going to get any better anytime soon.