That’s the narrow, antiseptic way to put the matter. Legal Insurrection and Shark Tank put it differently, suggesting “GOP establishment” complicity in singling West out.
Will Weatherford, Florida state representative and spokesman for the Romney campaign in Florida, confirmed this weekend that the Republican-controlled Florida legislature is about to approve a redistricting proposal that will make it much harder for Allen West to be reelected. Legal Insurrection points out the obvious:
Weatherford tried to hide behind a need to comply with [state and] federal law, but that’s obviously a dodge since there could have been many ways to comply yet not sacrifice West.
To point out some more “obvious,” this is a Republican-controlled legislature. Did the Republicans allow other GOP-held Congressional seats to be severely jeopardized by the new district lines? Apparently, only one. An analysis done for the Washington Post last week indicates that Allen West’s and Tom Rooney’s seats are the ones in the most danger. Getting positive help from the redistricting are Republicans Dan Webster, Sandy Adams, Mario Diaz-Balart, and John Mica.
Redistricting isn’t as easy as it looks, of course. But it is not believable that it is either a fully non-partisan process – when anyone is doing it – or that the Florida GOP leadership was neutral as to which seats were jeopardized by their plan.
One possibility is that Republican leaders thought West and Rooney were the most likely to achieve reelection in newly hostile districts. They haven’t said that, so that’s pure speculation based on trying to put this in a positive light.
Meanwhile, who are Florida’s arguably most outspoken, conservative Republican Congressmen? West and Rooney.
J.E. Dyer’s articles have appeared at Hot Air’s Green Room, Commentary’s “contentions,” Patheos, and The Weekly Standard online.
The Optimistic Conservative 
Oh, the wonderful wonderful irony of it.
The Republicans are the very same party that is trying to disenfranchise as many of our black, poor, and hispanic citizens as possible by way of the transparent ruse of demanding voter identification documentation (In the Land of the Free where we have never – unlike Russia and similar places – required our citizens to carry identification).
Pastor Bonhoffer’s (I think) saying comes to mind – “First they came for the communists and I stood by and did nothing. Then they came for the Jews and again I did nothing. Finally they came for me…..”
Well, having started by trying to disfranchise people unlikely to vote Republican, the Republicans are now trying to disenfranchise each other (admittedly, in this case, two particularly toxic members of the species)
Expect few tears to be shed.
Oh, please! Who is disenfranchised by requiring proof that he or she is actually eligible to vote? lf no proof is required, actual eligible voters suffer vote dilution. If they owned shares in a corporation they would get really upset about dilution of their stock.
And nobody in Rep. West’s district gets disenfranchised by redrawing the lines. Everybody gets to vote, but the establishment decides where they can vote so they can do the least damage to establishment goals.
http://nailheadtom.blogspot.com/2011/11/at-least-no-one-was-shot-to-death.html
that one’s a pip.
That Zuckerman desperado looks pretty damn scary to me. it’s a good thing that those cops were armed and had their stinking badges.
pretty clear from that picture that she’s showing the strap of an RPG launcher under that coat.
While I dream of dissenfranchising the lazy and the non-productive among us, this is obviously not the case here. This is more like dirty politics or, more accurately stated, political cage fighting ground and pound.
But, then…what are we surprised about and why does any of this surprises us in the least? Our democratic process allows for and actually encourages shinanigans like this and whether it’s the GOP doing it to its own rebelious members or the DNC doing it to the GOP, it is still a very important part of the game that our politicians continually strive to contrive.
So, for those lovers of democracy, the warriors that stand firm in support of “self government” against thick or thin, for all those that will gladly burry their heads in the ground or stick their fingers in their ears while chanting “lalalalala” before ever considering that there is no such thing as “self government”, not now, not here and not ever; and for all those democratic die-hards that work tirelessly to sustain, augment and grow our own brand of manipulated democratic government, to them I say: learn to live with stuff like this and, furthermore, try to enjoy it ’cause it ain’t gonna change anytime soon and it might get much worse before it gets any better.
🙂
rafa
Yeah,
It really shows that the Power Elite/Establishment is more than willing to lose seats than actually have to deal with Conservatives.
The Republican Party is broken. It’s Power tripping Elite “leadership” aka the folks with the dough and the ladle to the trough, just expect the hoi polloi to fall in line for their handouts.
I will not be treated as a possession of anyone. I am not obliged to vote FOR, or AGAINST anybody.
If Romney gets the GOP nomination, the GOP loses my vote. We must stop rolling over and voting AGAINST someone by voting FOR something that isn’t even close to marginally different.
Romney will raise taxes, lots of taxes. He WILL NOT repeal ObamneyCare. He will cave to the Dems every time they say “Boo!”, and he will make George W. Bush looks like a Firebrand resurrection of Reagan.
Obummer = Mittens.
No choice. No vote.
r/TMF
West certainly is outspoken and having his words attributed to the Republican Party can be akin to dragging a very dead and noisome albatross to the party.
I was sort of hoping that maybe West and that other crazy-ass, Wasserman Schultz, gone be simultaneously disappeared …leaving everyone better off.