Allen West on the O'Reilly Factor talking about the race card

West, Republican Congressman-elect from Florida talks with Juan Williams as guest host of O'Reilly Factor about John Lewis comments (well Lewis is West's soon to be colleague on the Congressional Black Caucus) in defense of his fellow colleague Charles Rangel who was convicted on ethics violations this week.

I got wind of this vid via Publius Forum whose blogmaster, Warner Todd Huston,stated:

We are seeing it more and more: black Americans decrying other blacks for throwing the race card.

I would be very impressed if we weren't hearing only Allen West who unfortunately is largely in a very vocal minority decrying Congressman Lewis from utilizing the race card. Or whatever it was he was doing.

Well I was tempted to say this wasn't the race card, but it does come in different forms. In this case in the clip of Lewis, all he had to do was mention that Rangel was down there in Selma, Alabama back during the Civil Right Movement to march for the struggle. Almost as if to absolve Rangel of what he was convicted of and Lewis even admits that he doesn't know the facts of this case.

That seems like a common tactic. Many of these old-school politicians or civil rights leaders like to refer to the various events of their struggle just to stifle a debate, mainly to force people to back off a particular subject, or just as easily a lead in to a more serious use of the race card. Well most of those are my guesses.

But my main point is to say West can't be the only one to say this. Surely someone else on the Black Caucus has a problem with that. They can't all want to coalesce around a colleague whose ethical problems won't just sink him but sink them. Especially if they attempt to stick up for him like this.