Republican House candidate Allen West, who is challenging second-term Rep. Ron Klein (D-FL), has in the past exhibited a stern approach to Democratic Party trackers. And now at a recent event, West directed a Dem tracker to leave, which got the crowd cheering — and more importantly, some leather-clad security men ejecting the guy, too.
West has recently come under scrutiny for his campaign’s ties to a criminal biker gang. It’s not clear whether the leather-clad security men who escorted the tracker away were themselves in any way connected to the “Outlaws” biker bang — the West campaign has described them as Vietnam veterans, “not thugs.” (West has pointed out that he could not possibly be an Outlaw — they do not accept African-Americans as members.)
Thing is, this tracker is lucky he only encountered possible bikers and not West himself. After all, West built his conservative political career on a particular event from his own military career — when he tortured an Iraqi policeman, and was proud of it.
Hmm, maybe we could get a Joe Miller/Allen West ticket in 2012? That would be one hell of a Republican national convention.
Here is the local NBC report:
And here is the raw tracker video:
(Via Benjy Sarlin at the Daily Beast.)
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.