Conservative radio talk-show host Joyce Kaufman, who was appointed to be Republican Congressman Allen West's chief of staff back in 2008 because, well, she's just as batshit nutty as he is, lamented West's loss to Patrick Murphy on her radio show on WFTL-AM (850) on Wednesday.
Kaufman blamed the defeat on a poorly run campaign. Also, because she wasn't on his staff to help Colonel Commie Hunter keep his Tea Party lunacy alive.
Shortly after being named chief of staff for West in '08, Kaufman had to step down when it was revealed she had said "If ballots don't work, bullets will" at a tea bag party rally.
Not so much because West disapproved of the message (that rhetoric is right down his inane alley) but because a woman in New Port Richey went bananas and emailed the radio station with threats and Broward schools had to be put on lockdown.
Kaufman insisted on her show this week that if she had been on West's staff, he would have beaten Murphy.
All the congressman needed to do was pay her 20 grand and this race would have been won, according to Kaufman.
West never talked about his record, she said.
"I'm going to tell you why what happened in the 18th District," she told her listeners. "Not a single piece of literature telling you about what West did or what he was going to do. Just attack ads against his opponent."
Later, after some rambling about the presidential race, she went back to what might have been, if only West had hired her:
"Let me explain something to you. I never attempted to demean or diminish the congressman. I went out of my way to not say things. But that's over. Now I have the right to talk about the differences between the campaigns he ran with my help and without my help. I wasn't there for his first race, and he lost. I went all-in for his second race and he won. I wasn't in for this third race, and he lost."
Kaufman then told a story about how she offered her services as a consultant for his race in the 18th, for a fee, while implying that someone on his staff got paid millions. She says she was, however, rebuffed with extreme prejudice.
"Once upon a time, I told West I'd consult for him," she said, "but I would want to be paid, and I was laughed at. What I probably would have done for $20,000 as a consultant -- someone got paid millions -- there is no way, had I been involved at all, would I have... I would have not been quiet. He lost because it was a horrible campaign... because he started listening to Washington insiders."
He should've have listened to me! A fellow Muslim- and illegal immigrant-hater! Not them pesky Washington Insiders!
Kaufman's biggest beef toward West's campaign (aside from her not being on it) seems to be that he ran a totally negative one instead of standing on his record, which includes calling Debbie Wasserman Schultz a "vile" person and saying that people on food stamps were "slaves."
For her part, Kaufman once called Nancy Pelosi "garbage" and once proposed that illegal immigrants caught committing a crime should be hanged and have their bodies "sent back to where you came from, and your family should pay for it."
So, really, it probably wasn't so much the "ballots or bullets" comment or even a refusal to pay her 20 grand, but more an issue of redundancy.
No one does crazy better than Allen West. Why waste $20,000 when he does it so well without any help?
The Joyce Kaufman Show is on WFTL (850) weekdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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