Has Allen West gone too far?
No introductory remarks needed here. This guy busted himself. Your thoughts?
Arena Asks: Amid the House budget debate Wednesday freshman Republican Rep. Allen West dispatched a scathing personal email to Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, calling her “vile, unprofessional ,and despicable,” “a coward,” “characterless,” and “not a Lady,” and demanding that she “shut the heck up.”
Does West owe an apology to Wasserman Schultz? Or were his remarks in line with reasonable political discourse?
My Answer:
Wasserman Schultz spoke about substance, whether one agrees with her or not.INTENTIONING
Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) GoodThe new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.
West responded with ad hominems. Flinging the epithet “not a Lady” with its inappropriate capital “L” as the final thrust of his rhetorical sword simply reveals that West is a Sexist with a capital “S.” Apparently the offending words got his goat in particular because they were delivered by an uppity Woman.
The Gentleman’s punctuation skills are none too good either, incidentally.
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.
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I hope this little temper-tantrum tirade was worth it for him because I think this may cost him more than apology!!
Some folks with a sense of entitlement resort to personal attacks when they can’t take the heat from the truth. Rep Allen West’s nasty attack email is the adult equivalent of playground bullying, with a sexist twist.
Kudos to Wasserman Schultz for taking the high road when answering one TV interviewer’s questions (http://huff.to/rdT13q) about Rep West’s tirade.
Roberta and Kel,
The gloves tend to be off on the House floor, so that part doesn’t bother me as much as the sexism inherent in how West said what he said. It’s pretty obvious that Wasserman Schultz triggered the tirade as much because of what gender she was as what she said. A Lady, after all, is supposed to be quiet and meek, especially toward a gentleman.
This little piece caused quite a firestorm on Facebook, so I’m sharing those comments here:
Earl de Berge likes this.
David Robinson Frankly he was being polite to the lady Gloria,
David Robinson And were he to use proper grammar and language appropriate to the matter at hand he would have left Ms Wasserman wondering what hit her. Congressman West isnt there to be popular, he is there to represent the people of his district the same as MS Wasserman, its time for congress to stop acting like middle school adolescents and get on with the job at hand of getting our country back on its feet.
David Robinson No Gloria. he hasnt gone to far, In fact he’s only beginning, and this man will get results. Which is more than i can say for others in the hallowed halls there.
Renée Guillory He’s unprofessional. Enough said.
David Robinson Excuse me but let me ask you all this, What makes you think he’s a thug? And frankly We’re talking about the Congress and the house and lord knows that those are the LAST individuals who act professional whatsoever, What would you expect Colonel West to do? He stood up for himself.
Sandy Owen I can’t believe what our government has come to – base slurs and no concrete arguements. What a coward HE is!
David Robinson And Mr Frost. Please do not call my friend a sociopath and felon, he spent most of his life defending this country and he did a hell of a lot more than you ever could have done..
David Robinson This man is no Coward.
David Robinson And its easy to call someone a coward than to prove that he is.
David Robinson Please Excuse me Miss Feldt, but i made a speech on your forum, I apologize.
Michael Druckman What about Bill Myhr? Selective outrage onch again by the left.
Stacey Burns I loved Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’ response, addressing West as “a constituent of mine.” http://is.gd/7YQYEc
David Robinson Its nice to make noise, what matters is results.
Sandy Owen Mr. Robinson: you totally besmirch the name of Robinson who did so much to further racial harmony, despite the folks who feel as you do.
http://bit.ly/okBLRe Looks like Michelle Goldberg agreed with me and even used some of the same words.
Rep. West is a piece of work. However, the Gang of Six plan the President praised is evidently also a raw deal for senior citizens. Is the DNC chair going to call him on that? Perhaps she will be spared the agony of having to choose between principle and party loyalty, because it appears that Gang of Six plan is already unraveling, not attracting much support despite the endorsement by the President.
It strikes fear in my heart to read just now that Obama and Boehner have struck a deal…Debbie WS for president.
Perhaps for 2016 she may consider it, but I would be flabbergasted to see her do anything to undermine the President. I have no doubt she was appointed DNC Chair to help convince women Obama deserves our support. I, on the other hand, will do everything in my power to undermine him and his party of no principle. He is just lucky I do not have much power, but I expect him to lose anyway, because the economic recovery is a sham, except for the wealthy few manipulating the stock market.
I suggest it’s more fruitful to devote one’s energies to undermine the Tea Partiers. It’s the job if advocates to make it impossible for politicians not to do the right thing. If the right wing were not so strong, the Dems would not be so weak. Sad but true.
You and I will have to agree to disagree on that, Gloria. I think you have it backwards. If Democrats were not so weak on standing on principles, in most races Republicans would not stand a chance. They win by default. Neither party is strong or popular; the Tea Party got rolling because people wanted to throw out the politicians in power, which last election happened to be Democrats. Democrats rode a similar wave in 2006 and 2008, but they squandered their chance to make substantial changes, opening the door for reactionaries like those who exploit the anger of the Tea Partiers, while the Democratic base was too turned off to stem that tide.
The best efforts of activists will have little effect on politicians as long as money plays such a prominent role in politics. The pernicious influence of big money makes it well-nigh impossible for mainstream politicians to do the right thing.
It appears MsRep at the Women’s Campaign Forum does not agree with me about the pernicious influence of big money.
Political reality is indeed all about the Benjamins, but is that supposed to be a good thing? I know, that is not the point MsRep is making, but what passes for practical politics is no reason to be proud.
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