By Jack Funari
Attacking Allen West, a conservative Republican candidate running against liberal incumbent Ron Klein in Florida congressional District 22, has become something of a rite of passage for bloggers and editorial writers of the local left.
The attacks are relatively meaningless and probably help West more than they hurt him. What the far left despises the average American prizes.
New Times blogger and leading nominee for the Stephen Glass Fabulist Award for 2010,Tom Francis, speculated last week that West was inspired to use the phrase "come and get them" by the 2007 movie 300.
Now it's possible Francis may have skipped the May 2004 meeting of the Boca Raton Republican Club where West made his first political speech, but how could he have missed the Palm Beach Post account, by Lona O'Conner, "Army officer addresses Republican Club," which said:
"West urged the Republican group not to be swept away in an orgy of American self-loathing. He reminded his audience of the 300 Spartans who fought to the death against an army of 10,000 Persians at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. 'What is your Thermopylae?' he asked the crowd. 'Where will you take a stand?'"
I introduced West to the crowd at that meeting, and five minutes into West's speech, everyone in the room knew they were witnessing the birth of a political star, and that was three years before the movie 300 was released.
(This should rank as an almost-too-obvious-for-words disclosure: I'm supporting Allen West for Congress.)The phrase "come and get them," or "Molon Labe" in ancient Greek, has also long been the motto of patriots who defend our right to bear arms. Google either version of the phrase, and you'll get links for tens of thousands of pro-gun sites.
Conservative use of the Molon Labe phrase is Politics 101 and hardly news. I don't know where Francis gets his history from, but we conservatives are kind of retro-chic in that we tend to get our history from actually reading history books. Oliver Stone movies, not so much.
Francis goes on to weep about West's supposed overuse of "violent metaphors." Call me a crazy right-winger if you want, but West isn't some doily maker from San Francisco. He is a retired colonel of the U.S. Army, a combat veteran and a man who spent his entire life defending our country.
I'd be more concerned if a man like West didn't use a little military imagery here and there. I want to hear some violent military metaphors from military guys. They're military guys, for goodness sake.
Of course, using military terms during political campaigns is the norm, and not unique to West. After all, the word "campaign" was originally used to describe "a series of connected military battles."
But like I said, this kind of attack is just silly, it's like Francis is throwing cupcakes at an Army M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank and expecting to do damage.
It's worth a laugh, and if this is the best the left has, Ron Klein better start brushing off his lobbyist license, because come Nov. 2, he's going to need it again.
