Congressional candidate Allen West has entered the home stretch of his campaign against incumbent Democrat Ron Klein, but it appears he's still finding time to unwind with the occasional Netflix DVD.
Based on the speech he gave this week at the opening of his campaign in West Palm Beach, West has recently seen the 2007 flick 300. But to West, this wasn't a homoerotic orgy of gore, like some reviewers from the "liberal media" would have you believe. Rather, it was an inspirational lesson for what it takes to win a political campaign.
The part about the Spartans comes in around the 50-second mark of the video above. Of course, the Spartans' story isn't so much a tale of victory but of heroism in defeat. The Spartans were slaughtered. So I'm not sure it's quite the rally cry West wants in his race.
Then again, he's running for office in a district where he doesn't even live, giving a speech in the new campaign office that's not actually in the district where he's campaigning, so I guess this candidacy has always required suspension of disbelief.
Around the two-minute mark, West tells a campaign worker to mail a Ron Klein campaign flier back to the Florida Democratic Party with a quote from King Leonidas -- the Greek phrase for "Come and Get It."
Um, OK! I've contacted the Florida Democrats to see whether they've received that mail yet and whether they want to respond. (Preferably in Greek.)
Back in April, when he opened his Deerfield Beach office, West's Netflix queue must have recently delivered the Russell Crowe classic Gladiator, because that was the cinematic rally cry for that ceremony.
You can add this to the pile of violent metaphors in Allen West speeches. In his most famous speech, he told a Fort Lauderdale audience it was time to get their "bayonets" and take back Washington. He said that he wanted to make Klein afraid to leave his house and that he wanted to rip the gavel out of the hand of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
I wonder what else is in his Netflix queue? (Assuming that he already has the full DVD set of 24.)
