Congressman-Elect: Obey Only The "Good" Constitutional Amendments

Allen West, the Republican congressman-elect from Florida, had himself a good military career going before somebody ratted him out in Iraq back in ’03. The young Army Lieutenant Colonel was interrogating a civilian Iraqi cop suspected of having knowledge about impending attacks on American soldiers in the area. West admits he held a gun to the cop’s head and then fired a round past his head. The cop talked.

It turned out they didn’t get any useful information from the cop, and when word of the “unusual” interrogation technique got to the wrong (right?) quarters, LTC West found himself in an Article 32 hearing for violating a couple sections of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and, long story short, was allowed to retire with full bennies. This guy was being groomed for one of the top spots in the Army, having seen combat in three theatres of operation and being a grad of the Army Command and General Staff College. But, his military career ended in a court-martial.

West was elected by the people of Florida (who are not, to say the least, given to electing a lot of black people to national office) in the mid-term earthquake. Last week, the Congressman-to-be put his foot square into his mouth on a conservative internet talk-radio program by saying that American news outlets that ran the WikiLeaks diplomatic cable-leak story should be censored. Not “investigated”, as Joe Lieberman suggested, but CENSORED.

Damn, if those Tea Party folks hear about this, young Mr. West is gonna have some ‘splainin to do, for trampling on the Tea Partiers favorite document.

Unless, of course, Mr. West is of the same opinion that some of the Tea Partiers hold, that the Amendments (like the First Amendment, with that damnable guarantee of free speech and free press) aren’t really a part of the constitution.

Or, like my often-referred-to icon from Madison of the late 60’s, Eddie Ben Elson, who announced his candidacy for Dane County DA in the nude from the stage of the Dangle Lounge (an erstwhile strip joint) with a platform that said we should “only obey the good laws.”

Damn that pesky Constitution and all those damned amendments!!!!!