The Significance of Congressman Allen West

7/31/2011
Marvin Folkertsma

Amidst the rhetorical pyrotechnics surrounding July’s debt-ceiling debates, another controversy streaked across the sky like a comet, flared for an instant, then receded into the maelstrom of ongoing partisan attacks. The shooting star in question involved an exchange between two of Congress’ most controversial members, Allen West (R-Fla.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), whose regard for one another constitutes something of a congressional equivalent to how the Earps and Doc Holliday felt about the Clanton-McLaury gang at the OK Corral.

Except in this case, only one of the participants was present, and this was the problem. Their dispute, which since has reverberated through the internet, went like this: “The gentleman from Florida,â€