In a recent Facebook note to constituents, Congressman Allen West wrote, "I do not believe in fear-mongering leadership. No one follows an individual who panics or instills fear in tough situations."
Yet the Republican who represents a large swath of eastern Broward and Palm
Beach counties spent his first week in Washington supporting causes rooted in fear.
He signed on to co-sponsor legislation that would end federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.Ah, yes. NPR , with its earnest stories on micro-financing and U.S.-Chinese relations, is such a wasteful agent of evil.
Then he supported a bill that would deny U.S. citizenship to children, born here, whose parents are illegal immigrants. Really courageous move.
What kind of grown man is so afraid of the people who cut the grass and
clean the homes of his constituents that he takes his wrath out on
innocent kids?
And finally, in the same Facebook rant, West takes a jab at um, peace. He says he saw "the taxpayer funded Institution of Peace. Funny, I thought that was the business of the Pentagon."
West was referring to the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan organization that works to resolve conflicts in places like Afghanistan and the Balkans.
For a man who resigned from the Army after being accused of assaulting an Iraqi prisoner, the Pentagon might seem like an agent of peace. But the average American doesn't usually picture tanks and smart bombs when praying for a more conflict-free world.
Happy birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.