Don't Go West, Young Man

Yesterday, former congressman Allen West (R-Mars) took off after Democratic congressman from Illinois, Tammy Duckworth for reasons...well, for reasons known only to him and the voices he hears.  Basically, he questioned Rep. Duckworth's loyalty and patriotism.  It seems to stem from her being named by her party to serve on the special committee on Benghazi -- something most people wouldn't consider a loyalty-question action, but then most people aren't Allen West.  There was something in there about him wanting her to follow her oath she swore as a solider (something she isn't at the moment), as opposed to following her party, blissfully ignoring that Rep. Duckworth swore another oath, to uphold the Constitution when she was elected to the House of Representatives. I don't know exactly what he's thinking, he's Allen West, let the guy who translates Ted Nugent's rants figure it out.

Just as a reminder, while we pause as Allen West questions the loyalty of Tammy Duckworth, that Ms. Duckworth flew combat missions in Iraq, lost both of her legs when her helicopter was hit and had one of her arms damaged, and received the Purple Heart.  Allen West also served in Iraq and was decorated, though he was forced to resign in order to avoid to avoid being court martialled.

In response, Kaitlin Fahey, a spokeswoman for Rep. Duckworth said that Mr West's remarks were "disappointing."  She then added, ""The congresswoman is committed to working with her colleagues on both sides of the aisle to prevent the tragedy of what happened in Benghazi from happening again. It's disappointing, though sadly not very surprising, to see Mr. West choose to politicize such a serious issue for personal and political gain."

This really bothers me.

No, not what Allen West says.  I pay no serious attention at all to what Allen West says -- or blathers, or whatever verb you want to use.  What bothers me is that anyone from Tammy Duckworth's office felt compelled to give a serious reply to Allen West's rant, which gives it credibility.  What I'd have preferred for them to say would have been something like --

"We have no response to Allen West because we don't understand why anyone would care what Allen West says, or for that matter why he was being interviewed in the first place,  He's a former Congressman who was defeated in his last election, and we believe the people have spoken.  Just because someone posts a comment on Twitter doesn't mean you have to response to every angst-ridden rant that passes by your screen every second, and Allen West is the former-Congressman equivalent of Twitter.  He's low-hum background noise.  If people want to waste their time paying serious attention to Allen West -- something I'm not even sure Allen West does -- that's their choice.  Just like they could watch TV test patterns if they like.  But Tammy Duckworth has better things to do.  I have a three-year-old niece -- she has better things to do.  Thank you.  God bless America.  And God help Allen West."