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With all of the many fascinating races this year, it's tough to highlight individual U.S. House races, even those featuring the most unique characters.
But Florida's Allen West is a special case, not just because his re-election bid was one of the most expensive House races of 2012, but because he's a special kind of congressman.
Conservative firebrand Rep. Allen B. West (R-Fla.) appears to have lost his reelection bid, with final vote totals in the state's new 18th Congressional District showing him trailing by more than 2,000 votes.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Democrat Patrick Murphy leads West by 2,442 votes -- 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent. That is outside the margin (0.5 percent) for a computer recount.
West, of course, is the one-term Republican, who believes everyone who disagrees with him is (a) a communist; (b) a supporter of slavery; or (c) quite possibly a communistic supporter of slavery. Despite only two years on Capitol Hill, West has positioned himself as a uniquely hinged figure in Republican politics.
But as of today, he's also poised to be a former member of Congress. West believes some votes in St. Lucie County were counted twice, wants access to precinct sign-in books, and is prepared to sue to get additional information. The Republican, not surprisingly, refuses to concede.
Democrat Patrick Murphy, meanwhile, has declared victory, and is working under the assumption that he's a representative-elect who'll take office in January.
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Mr. West is far in a way one of the most fowl and loathsome fools to EVER be elected to any office! The man is a raving sociopath of misinformation, shady deals and raw, unadulterated HATE! Now all we can hope for is that no one ever makes the mistake of electing him to any office ever again.
It was not urbane condescension towards West, magic, or wishful thinking that allowed Murphy to succeed in spite of being outspent 4 to one by SuperPacs in an extremely negative campaign. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and lots of Democrats stepped up to volunteer time and money to help Murphy show West the door.
We need folks to step up again in 2014, because that race is going to be super tough- especially in the Senate.
Frankly, given this man's ongoing paranoid hyperbole, his access to firearms, and his past willingness to employ those firearms in support of that paranoia (leading to his expedited retirement from the military) this guy is starting to scare me more than a little.
At the risk of being accused of hyperbole myself, he already seemed like the type who might leap off a balcony yelling "sic semper tyrannis", and now he's apparently lost his job.
Are congressmen allowed to carry weapons in the Capitol? Are they put through pat-downs or walked through metal detectors before Presidential visits to the Capitol?
We don't want you west, crawl back under your dirty rock and shut the .......up!
Hello, Thankful mom,
Let's hope we hear the end of this whack job. Let's hope he disappears under his rock. What a disgusting person. Who on earth are the constituents who voted this idiot into office in the first place? Does he represent a group of Neanderthals the anthropologists haven't discovered yet?
The man is bat crap crazy! I want to know who voted for him!
with west losing.....that means...
out of the roughly 270 GOP members of Congress next year...
the number of black republicans will be?
1
tim scott of southcarolina...
He's a Bu$h era torturer. He may have been relatively sane at some point, but his experience in Iraq forever twisted this guy.
I agree! The fact that he got as many votes as he did makes me want to stay out of that part of Florida cause there has to be something wrong with them too!
He was twisted a long time before then.
When he was born, the obstetrician needed a corkscrew to get him out.
(OK, I know it's the corkscrew that's twisted, not the cork, but...meh. It's still a funny image.)
Nice one Monk
Nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye!
When he was born, the doctor slapped his mother!
And this afternoon the court threw out LCOL Step'n Fetchit's lawsuit. He's over, at least as a Congresscritter, but I am sure he's entertaining competing offers from Fox and Glen Beck. He's sure to show up on the AFA show Bryan Fischer runs. Let's welcome the newest member of the Conservative Entertainment Complex (CEC from now on).
TC Like that CEC.
Perhaps we can work on a motto.
Wingnut Welfare for the recently unelected. Where your opinions always have merit.
The word 'special' should always be in quotes when applied to people like West. Like a 'special' child.
Uniquely hinged? You didn't mean unhinged ;-)
LOL What I thought too when I read that, Celeste.
Yes, somehow that "iquely" just sorta snuck in there.
There is a lot of information circulating about voter fraud in St. Lucie . Does anyone know if their is any truth to the stories?
There are a lot of RUMORS, most spread by West. As to any facts...well, we'll see if any turn up but I'm not holding my breath.
So far the only news organizations with this "news story" are the Conservative Entertainment Complex. No one else is even mentioning it. That alone makes it suspect!!
West said that there was irregularities and that there was 141% voter turnout. This was picked up by the "bubble" but the only evidence of anything was West's hearsay. I did some research and found lots of references to West's statements that indicated "Wide spread fraud". Finally I found the St. Lucie County supervisor of elections web site, which has a perfectly good explanation of the 141% number. Check it out http://www.slcelections.com/
for those too lazy to click Ken Rowland's link:
everybody gets two ballot cards (because it ran four pages) so if you compare the number of cards counted to the number of voters counted it's just about exactly double. whodathunkit!
no wonder these folks can't understand Nate Silver's math.
Notice that the RNC and big name Republicans are not speaking up on behalf of West?
They are pretty much happy to cut him loose I guess, they don't need him to keep the House majority, and I bet he is a real pain in the ass to deal with.
Say hi to Norm Coleman on your way out, Ex-Congressman.
(I'll save you the trouble of looking it up. It took six months of pointless and unsuccessful litigation to drag Coleman from his Senate seat. During this time, he regularly issued statements urging his opponent Al Franken to concede in the interest of the taxpayer's money.)
Actually, that recount was triggered automatically by law due to the closeness of the initial tally. You can't blame Coleman for that. Florida has a similar law, but in this case the gap is too large to trigger an automatic recount.
True. I was just recalling that even though he lost every recount and every court decision, he just wouldn't concede.
Damn glad to see Alan Grayson back.
I would call west uniquely UN-hinged figure in republican politics. They're all unhinged, but west is uniquely UN-hinged.
Congressman West is a perfect reflection of the Republican Party. The Party, as a whole, is struggling through the 5 stages of grief. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Denial has clearly been an ongoing struggle for the party. I believe they are currently dealing with the Anger stage. Since the stages are not chronological, only time will tell us what stage is next.
Cagan, #12
Can I hope there is a stage called extinction? That's the T-party stage I want to see.
West is so un-hinged he creaks when he walks. I see a frightening streak in him, quite frankly, and hope he is being closely watched. His anger is way out of line with reality.
Personally I just love that he is fighting it. It will just make the victory all the more sweeter! Let him go down kicking and screaming, sorry but I take a perverse delight in the fact that he can't handle losing. Good luck in the Senate Patrick Murphy!
I agree, I'd love to see the Capital Police come and remove him from his office kicking and screaming. Now us folks up here in Minnesota have to work a little harder and get rid of loony Bachmann.
Angel, I couldn't believe she got reelected! Well, Jon Stuart will be happy anyway! She's always good for a laugh.
I'd love to know what Keith Olberman had to say when he heard she'd been reelected!
Err Uhm Sandra Patrick Murphy is headed for the House of Representatives no the Senate.
Now you've seen a zombie in our hallowed halls of government, courtesy of the T-Party. And now He's gone. With any luck at all we won't see any of those types in the future. They'll just go to that dark place they go to lick their wounds, and probably try mass hypnosis next time. I hope he takes Herman with him.
There are still quite a few left. They're posing as sane teapubs along with wacko Bachmann and that Eddie Munster guy.
Phenner, ONE left is one too many! Especially if it's Ryan.
Awesome to see him replaced with a prep school, country club brat with zero accomplishments living off his family's wealth, trying his hand at politics now since nothing else has worked out. Rich man's failure. And he's off to DC. Woohooo! You win!! Lollipop, lollipop, lollipop nation. Lollipop, lollipop, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
Bitter a bit?
Not bitter....highly amused!
Don't you mean "unhinged"?
I thought that man is crazy , I hope he never,never gets elected to any other office. what bother me most was 49% voted for him it was that close. A psychopath for sure. Bachmann's area there are a lot of sociopath like her, think like her. she will be hard to get out until they change the district lines what a shame.
Its true her district is very friendly to her kind of flame throwing, racist, sexist. gay bashing politics. What hurt us in her district this time around was the gay marriage amendment on the ballot, it brought all the bigots out in her district.
Angel, Do they all live in that one area? Could there be some sort of radioactive fallout that drifted over there a while back?
What towns are in her district? I will avoid visiting them. I'd be afraid it could be contagious.
She has the northern suburbs of Minneapolis, runs from Stillwater and Blaine in Anoka county.
Who really frigging cares about this particular post in Florida?? Anybody?? Maybe someone who actually lives there? Hope so.
Anyway, the elcetion should be decided there by now, and anybody's rhetoric has been a complete waste of time.
Democrats.....it's time for YOU to try something different for a change. Start governing this country and stop your bit#%ing!! The country is absolutely SICK that you've wasted the last 4 years!! Man up.
You are not "the country".
Mike
The people who you should be talking to are the Republicans who have spent the last four years sitting on their arses obstructing anything getting done. Like I've said you need to get out of the South. See a bit of the rest of the country maybe even the world.
i guess any one who wants a balanced buget and accoutabilty by the goverment is not normal to word things better . i am so glad i come on here and give fair and balanced veiw . first of all he wants to control spending , is this a crime ? from what i read on here i cannot belive my eyes . i will end it with this msnbc is demonizing him and you all have been drinking the kool aid . have your heard debt limit is being dicussed to being rasied at 19t . do you want to become a country like greece or keep on spending . question who is going to bail the USA out pls answer this honestly . this debt is just passed on to our kids but one day the piper will say time to pay up .
Isn't it nice, lawbaker, that Obama LOWERED the deficit in his first term. Contrary to what the "Fair and balanced" voice tells its sheep.
Oh, yes, he did!
May I hazard a guess that you live in St. Lucie county?
oh my, you'll need to point to the data that brought you to that magical conclusion. and your cereal box doesn't count. may i suggest the cbo website (i'll even give you that!). please pull the most recent report and proceed. Hint: if you come up with anything other than single/middle digit growth for years 08-12 or low/middle digit growth (inflation adjusted) then you need to go back to school. please show your work. there are points to be had even for wrong answers. time starts now.
The highest form of pure thought is in mathematics. Plato
"Uniquely hinged"... is that a polite form of "unhinged"?
Buh bye, Mr West