West's words are 'guilt by association taken to an extreme,' Libero Della Piana says. | AP Photo
By
DARIUS DIXON | 4/11/12 2:10 PM EDT
Updated: 4/11/12 2:43 PM EDT
A top official of the Communist Party USA on Wednesday ripped Rep.
Allen West’s “sad ploy” for claiming that as many as 80 Democratic members of the House are communists.
“I
just think it’s an absurd way to cast a shadow over his colleagues.
It’s kind of a sad ploy,” Libero Della Piana, a vice-chairman of the
national Communist Party, said of the Florida Republican’s charge that
about 80 House Democrats were members of the radical party.
“It’s just guilt by association taken to an extreme,”
he told POLITICO. He also said there are no members of Congress who are
members of the
Communist Party – not even avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“I think it’s just absurd,” Della Piana said.
In a video clip
of the event posted Wednesday, West was responding a question from a
constituent asking “What percentage of the American legislature do you
think are card-carrying Marxists?”
“That’s a fair question. I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of
the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party,” West says
in the video. He went on to say, “It’s called the Congressional
Progressive Caucus,” according to a West spokesman, Tim Edson.
Della Piana also said that using the term “communist” as slander ran counter to democratic principles.
“We are supposed to live in a political democracy,” he said. “I
didn’t know that being a Communist in Congress was off-limits or out of
bounds. There aren’t any now and if there were in the future does that
mean that the voters don’t have a say? Can’t choose a Communist to be in
Congress?”
In fact, charges from the tea party that President Barack Obama and
other Democrats were enacting “socialist” policies has led to increased
interest in socialism, Della Piana said.
“I think a lot of Americans were opened up the idea of socialism
because of the tea party’s attack on it,” he said. “I think they put it
back on the agenda. By attacking every policy initiative of the
president as socialism, they put it back in the public debate… it wasn’t
exactly something the average American was talking about before that.”
Top 10 Allen West lines
On Fox News, West referred to himself as 'the modern day Harriet Tubman.' | Reuters
If Vice President Joe Biden is known as the gaffe veep, just imagine Rep. Allen West.
On Friday West said he doesn’t expect to be tapped for a VP slot, but if he got that call
he’d consider it.
In full West flourish, he also told CNN’s Kyra Phillips
that he does not know the GOP’s likely nominee, Mitt Romney, very well,
but would get to know him.
“Well, you know, I’ve never been out on a dinner date with him if
that’s what you’re asking me,” West said. “So I don’t know if I would
like him. But I think that we’d have to sit down and discuss things.”
Friday’s lively appearance pales in comparison to some of his more
famous moments.
Here’s POLITICO’s look back at the Florida Republican’s
10 most memorable lines:
1. “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!” — July 19, 2011
in an email to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz,
chair of the Democratic National Committee, where he also called her
“the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable” member of the House.
2. “So I’m here as the modern day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead
people on the Underground Railroad away from that plantation into a
sense of sensibility.” — August 17, 2011,
on Fox News saying he wants to lead black voters away from the “21st century plantation” of the Democratic Party.
3. “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.” — January 28, 2012,
speaking at a Lincoln Day Dinner in West Palm Beach for the Peal Beach
County GOP. West
later backpedaled on his “get the hell out” statement, saying his words had been misinterpreted.
4. “If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the
[Democratic] Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine.” —
December 15, 2011,
linking the Nazi propagandist Goebbels with the Democratic Party while talking to reporters in the Capitol.
5. ”I will drive the car!” — July 26, 2011, after House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy
played a clip from the film “The Town”
in an attempt get Republicans on board with House Speaker John
Boehner’s debt plan. In the clip, Ben Affleck’s character says, “I need
your help. I can’t tell you what it is. You can never ask me what it is.
You can ask me about it later” and his friend replies, “Whose car are
we gonna take?”
6. “No. I like chocolate chip ice cream and I will continue to like
chocolate chip ice cream. So there’s no worry about me changing to
vanilla. I like to, you know, ride my motorcycle. What do you want me to
do? You want me to change my behavior and ride a scooter? I’m not into
that.” August 9, 2011,
answering the Sun Sentinel’s question, “Should gay people change their behavior and not be gay?”
7. “I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper
sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool.” — July 18,
2011, in a post on the website
Red County.
8. “I would take these gentlemen over and let them get shot at a few
times and maybe they’d have a different opinion.” — May 26, 2011,
speaking to the Miami Herald
about members of the House who had voted to for a proposal that would
have required President Barack Obama to submit a clear timetable for
withdrawal from Afghanistan.
9. “I need a bucket.” — Sept. 26, 2011, responding during
a radio interview about what he thinks of when Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s name is mentioned.
10. “Pretty woman, walking down the street…” — February 7, 2012,
singing Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” at his 51st birthday party.
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