From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

The Birthday Boy Responds to the Un-American Liar

First the un-American liar:

Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., says he believes scores of his Democratic House colleagues are members of the Communist Party. At a town hall meeting [earlier this month] in Palm City, Fla., the Tea Party-backed freshman was asked by a man in the audience: “What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card carrying Marxists or neo-Castro Socialists?”

West responded that he believed “there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party that are members of the Communist Party.” When asked to name them, he declined.

8 days later, the un-American liar doubled down:

“So name names for me,” [CNN's Soledad] O’Brien said. “Start naming the 78 to 81…”
“Oh, we don’t have to…” West countered.
“Oh, we do! I’m dying to know,” O’Brien pressed. “Which are the members of the…”
“You can go look up the progressive caucus…” interrupted West.
“I got ‘em right here!” O’Brien interjected…
“[T]hen you’ve got the names,” West said.

Today is Edward R. Murrow’s 104th birthday…born April 25, 1908 in Polecat Creek, North Carolina. He had more integrity in his pinky than Congressman West has in his whole body. Murrow went after un-American liar Senator Joe McCarthy for saying stuff like this:

“The issue between the Republicans and Democrats is clearly drawn. It has been deliberately drawn by those who have been in charge of twenty years of treason. Not the hard fact is…the hard fact is that those who wear the label…those who wear the label “Democrat” wear it with the stain of a historic betrayal.”

So, since West feels so moved to revive McCarthyism, here’s a little Murrow magic from his famous See It Now broadcast of March 9, 1954:

“We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men—not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it—and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” Good night and good luck.

Happy birthday, Ed, wherever you are. And Congressman West? The 50s called. They’d like their red-baiting back, please.

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