Rep Allen West pens "dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationery"

According to the Miami New Times, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) penned "the dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationery" when he sent this one-word ("NUTS") letter to a local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR wrote to Rep West about his ties to radical anti-Islamic rabblerousers, arguing for their basic American constitutional right to be "afforded equal protection under law" and "to worship freely or participate in the governing of our society."

West has appeared on stage with Pamela Geller (cofounder of "Stop Islamization of America") and Brigitte Gabriel (who says she voices "what many in America are thinking but afraid to say out loud, for fear of being labeled a racist, bigot, Islamophobic, or intolerant").

For my part, I suspect the competition for "dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationery" is probably stiffer than this. I wouldn't give even odds on "dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationery by a Florida congressman" or even "dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationery by a Florida congressman this century."

But it's pretty dumb.

‘NUTS!’ — Allen West’s Strange, One-Word Response To Being Called Out For Ties To Islamophobes

• [phisrow]

  Aww, how cute, Allen West fancies himself a war hero…

  Because telling those terrifying sharia-muslins that their constitutional rights can get stuffed is totally as heroic as informing four divisions of German troops that you don’t really fancy surrendering, and then fighting the Siege of Bastogne…

  Unimpressive.

  • [Magorn Farker]

    What you mean being a faux tough guy and torturing an unarmed translator isn’t exactly as heroic as being outnumbered and surrounded by Germany’s best troops and refusing to surrender?   The devil you say

• [Abel Undercity]

  He thinks he’s being General Anthony McAuliffe ( https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe ) to the “Islamofascists” of CAIR.

  • [Conspirator]

    That’s exactly what I thought when I read this.  When taken in that context it doesn’t appear stupid just because there’s a lack of substance to the letter, rather it is stupid because of the unbelievable arrogance he has shown in that reply.  

  • [Lobster]

    I don’t know what else he could mean.  No one even uses the word “nuts” like that anymore.  Whether he deserves to paint himself like that is another matter entirely but it wasn’t totally random.

  • [Mister44]

    I am 100% positive he was referencing this. I kinda like West. Pre-election I heard some of his speeches and thought they were good. Maybe hes turned more tea-party-ish since then. Since he is what – in FL – he isn’t on my radar.

• [Bronxophile]

  Is he trying to channel McAuliffe at Bastogne?

• [millie fink]

  Nice. So this will get how much attention from the corporate media?

  And it’s worth noting that Pamela Geller is a heroic icon to Breivik, the anti-Multiculturalism and male-model-wannabe shooter from Norway. 

  • [Roanhouse]

    Assassinations & Male models? OH NOES! Call DEREK ZOOLANDER!!!

  • [Threedonia]

    Why is it worth noting?  John Hinkley Jr. idolized Jodie Foster.  So?

    Pam Geller is a dolt for other reasons and they’re unrelated to Norway.

• [Jim Saul]

  (Johnny Carson holds the envelope up to his turban)  ”What Pamela Geller has, and Allen West is…”

  (after opening the envelope)

  “Maybe he’s just trying out a shorter nickname for the teabagger party.”

• [pileofnearmisses]

  I think the Brigitte Gabriel quote should read: “she voices ‘what many in America are thinking but afraid to say out loud, for fear of being EXPOSED AS a racist, bigot, Islamophobic, or
  intolerant.’” At least it should say “labelled correctly.”

• [Phoc Yu]

  Maybe he was just a few years too late, was trying to send a letter protesting the cancellation of the TV show Jericho, and accidentally addressed it to the wrong recipients.

• [mccrum]

  I’m not sure about your second-to-last paragraph Cory, nothing I have ever read on Congressional stationary has ever made me feel so tragic and apologetic regarding one of the 545 people that are in charge of our government. 

  He is undoubtedly calling out to McAuliffe and it both weakens his position and almost mocks McAuliffe while he’s at it.  We’re not fighting people who are defending a guy who wants to put people in an oven, he’s fighting with another American about a basic right mentioned in the founding documentation of our country.

  This is both stupid and tragic and if this is the way things are headed over here I’m wondering if it makes sense to try and fight it anymore or just turn on Fox News like everyone else and revel in how bad “them” is.

• [Mordicai]

  Writing “NUTS!” on official stationary isn’t officially dumb– it is kind of cute, even.  Until you read on & see that “NUTS!” on official stationary was his reply to a member of his constituency who wrote him asking for her constitutionally guaranteed rights to be respected.  When you look at it that way– you know, the way it is– it is a serious breach of ethics.

• [John Meeker]

  This isn’t quite the dumbest thing ever written by Alan West.

  • [Florian Braun]

    He will come out with something, never fear.

• [Ambiguity]

  I don’t know… trying to figure out the dumbest thing written on Congressional stationary (or similar pursuites, like trying to figure out the dumbest thing said by a Congressman in varions contexts) seems vaguely akin to holding one’s hand in various molten metals, trying to figure out which one is hottest…

• [Rickety Rack]

  “with regard your”? Fire the scribe who penned this grammatical atrocity.

• [sdmikev]

  “[W]hat many in America are thinking but afraid to say out loud, for fear of being labeled a racist {or a] bigot”  Is the “islamization of America” anything like the “war on Christmas”?  I saw a butcher shop the other day that sold halal meat.  I heard that was a form of “creeping sharia law”.
  I love the mental gymnastics that people go through to try and justify their hatred.
  For the record, all organized religions are stupid, but fear-mongering on the part of these racist assholes is just amazing.

• [Snig]

  One of the few things I’ll give Bush props for is his speech, not long after 9/11, where he warned off scapegoating American Muslims. No, it doesn’t forgive the Iraq war or Bush’s other failings. But it’s something to see when someone is obviously grossly more stupid than Bush.

• [Richard Hung]

  Hey, he put it in quote marks. He just didn’t cite the source. I guess he expects them to have watched the movie “Patton”, then identify themselves with the German side.

• [catgrin]

  It just stands for “Not Under Tea Supervision!” He was letting them know what their chances of assistance were.

• [Marla]

  How does the GOP keep coming up with these people who (a) know how to talk tough, and (b) don’t know much else?

  • [mccrum]

    They hired good media consultants who understand how and when to get the right soundbite out.  These days the more you’re in the news for anything the better off you are, there is no bad press these days.

  • [Josh Jasper]

    They advertise for it.

• [Michael Escobar]

  Mr. Doctorow, this is a World War II reference. I don’t like Muslim-baiting or Islamophobia any more than you do, but Rep. West’s letter is not so inexplicable. It shows the siege mentality which the right wing is trying to cultivate, and its attempt to arrogate to itself the prestige of the American fight against the Nazis.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe#Battle_of_the_Bulge

• [Navin_Johnson]

  Florida and Texas forever locked in battle for last place in civility and common sense.

• [meg00k]

  If  CAIR is the politcal-propoganda wing of the infitada (of which there is documentation), which has declared war on America (not vis versa), then it is a perfectly comprehensible response.

• [inness]

  What’s truly disturbing is that here, in America, we have an individual making decisions whose linguistic choices place him mentally somewhere back in the days of the Bowery Boys and The Dead End Kids. I can imagine him gesticulating comically and yelling “Cheezit, boys! It’s the Ethics Committee!” in the state capitol canteen.

• [StumptownGeek]

  The simple explanation is that there was an office mix-up and this was intended to be Rep. West’s response to a constituent who asked for the result of Rep. West’s most recent psychological evaluation.
   
  If so, that other constituent might now be wondering why he just received an invitation from Rep. West to discuss his concerns over eggs and bacon at his next prayer breakfast fundraiser.

  • [mccrum]

    I think if his nice response was to invite Muslims to swing by for a bite of swine it means he should skim over the relevant cultural issues before breakfast as well.

• [Rich Keller]

  I am shocked and surprised that he would send such a message through the post on official stationery. His usual method is email or firing a pistol near someone’s head:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_B._West#Emails_to_Debbie_Wasserman_Schultz

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_B._West#Iraq_interrogation_incident

• [Robert Baruch]

  Was this written by a staffmember who just couldn’t take it any more, or are we going to have to call him Rep. Nuts West from now on?

• [ill lich]

  Well, in a way he has adequately informed CAIR of what they can expect from him, that he will be completely unreasonable, unhelpful, childish and paranoid.   Did you expect anything less from a “hero” of the Tea Party?  These guys won’t be happy until Muslims are required to register with local authorities and wear armbands with crescents on them–  I’m not trying to “Godwin” the conversation with a Nazi reference here, it really is the kind of thing Islamophobes have called for.

• [Mithras]

  Let’s just flesh out what West is saying here by giving this response. He is saying American Muslims are like Nazis surrounding the forces of good, and for those who are his constituents to ask him to educate himself is the equivalent of demanding his surrender.

  I love it when they reveal themselves this way.

• [grimc]

  No more disemvowelling, just straight up disintegration?

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Given that little edit button, DVing would be like herding cats.

    • [Mister44]

      But everyone loves cats!

      • [Threedonia]

        and some cats are more equal than others

• [Inchoate]

  Allen West has proven repeatedly that he is not a Gentleman, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!

• [leoeris]

  In a follow up he stated, “Nanny Nanny Boo Boo”

• [pjcamp]

  Allen West thinks he’s Anthony McAuliffe.

  Sadly, he is mistaken.

• [Michael Streets]

  The quote is from the television series “Jericho.” The show was about a fictional town in Kansas trying to survive after a radical faction set of atomic bombs in over twenty US cities dividing the country at the Mississippi. In the last episode of the the first season, a neighboring town is preparing to attack Jericho thinking they had a Blackwater-type company attack them. In the last scene, the leader of the neighboring town contacted the Jericho commander seeking Jericho to surrender. The commander replied with just one word just before the end of the show: “NUTS!”

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_(TV_series)

  • [Threedonia]

    the Jericho is a rip-off of General McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge.  Before the decline in education it was widely known.

• [Michael Streets]

  Sorry folks, I just found out myself that the original quote came from General Anthony Clement “Nuts” McAuliffe commanding the 101st Airborne Division troops defending Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. He originated the reply to a German surrender ultimatum: “Nuts!”

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe

• [Michael Streets]

  I just posted the correction myself.

• [Michael Streets]

  hello

• [Neuron]

  The dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationary is his closing, “Steadfast and loyal”.

• [Neuron]

  Meanwhile, CAIR should give West the Cleveland Browns treatment:
  http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/browns.asp

  • [catgrin]

    First I’d seen it, and I love it!

• [purple-stater]

  I found his response pretty darned amusing, and an extremely far cry from the most stupid thing ever written on congressional stationary.

• [TallDave]

  CAIR, funded primarily by the Saudis, has consistently defended terrorists and terrorist funding organizations, as has been extensively documented, as well as defending advocates of practices like honor killings and violence against homosexuals and critics of Islam.  CAIR doesn’t want constitutional protection for their beliefs, they want to be allowed to VIOLATE constitutional rights, esp. those of women, homosexuals, and critics of Islam.

  Don’t be another oikophobic dupe.  There are many fine, patriotic, freedom-loving Muslims and many fine Muslim organizations, but CAIR is not one of them.

• [Snig]

  Amusing history fail.  FDR, democratic socialist, was for it, isolationist Republicans held him back.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease
  Thanks for trolling along, don’t forget to tip the moderators. 

• [Cynical]

  I’ve developed an amusing new game after reading the comments on the last page or so of articles on Boinboing. I call it “Troll or Astroturfer?” 

  I’m thinking it could be combined with alcohol in some way. Perhaps “drink a shot for every IQ point you’ve dropped as a result of reading this transparent, farcical drivel”?

• [strangefriend]

  Christ, what an asshole.
  & the Congress-critter should be congratulated on being truthful & telling folks he is nuts.
  This is from a native Texan.

• [elix]

  Aww, I sure hope you’re a Poe. Also, I call Godwin whether or not you’re serious. You lose, good day.

• [grimc]

  Just because West wrote the dumbest thing ever on congressional stationery doesn’t mean you have to try to do the same on the internet.

• [scifijazznik]

  Astro-trollers!!

• [Phillip Lamb]

  To me, it smells like paying top-dollar for internet damage control.

• [Rob]

  Can I sue you for the inevitable alcohol poisoning from those rules?

• [Florian Braun]

  If you account for IQ points lost to the shots that would get both circular and lethal.

• [Brent Kirkham]

  Warning: Your experience may differ, remember to drink plenty of water and eat regularly whilst playing Astro-Troll.

  May contain…..well, you get the picture.

• [Peter Zanon]

  Hm. I was about to dismiss this post outright for referencing jihad watch, it being a right-wing hate site. However, that is a rather amusingly badly doctored photo, and definitely reveals CAIR being quite disingenuous. That being said, I still have sympathy for them, simply because, unlike conservative Christians (ie Focus on the Family), they actually are experiencing severe bigotry and persecution in the US.

• [Mithras]

  You can tell by the pixels?

• [Threedonia]

  Examples please…