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Communist Party slams Allen West

A top official of the Communist Party USA on Wednesday ripped Rep. Allen West’s “sad ploy” for claiming that as many as 80 Democratic members of the House are communists.

“I just think it’s an absurd way to cast a shadow over his colleagues. It’s kind of a sad ploy,” Libero Della Piana, a vice-chairman of the national Communist Party, said of the Florida Republican’s charge that about 80 House Democrats were members of the radical party.

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“It’s just guilt by association taken to an extreme,” he told POLITICO. He also said there are no members of Congress who are members of the Communist Party – not even avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

(Also on POLITICO: West claims there are 80 communists in the House)

“I think it’s just absurd,” Della Piana said.

In a video clip of the event posted Wednesday, West was responding a question from a constituent asking “What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card-carrying Marxists?”

“That’s a fair question. I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party,” West says in the video. He went on to say, “It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus,” according to a West spokesman, Tim Edson.

Della Piana also said that using the term “communist” as slander ran counter to democratic principles.

(See also: Top 10 Allen West lines)

“We are supposed to live in a political democracy,” he said. “I didn’t know that being a Communist in Congress was off-limits or out of bounds. There aren’t any now and if there were in the future does that mean that the voters don’t have a say? Can’t choose a Communist to be in Congress?”

In fact, charges from the tea party that President Barack Obama and other Democrats were enacting “socialist” policies has led to increased interest in socialism, Della Piana said.

“I think a lot of Americans were opened up the idea of socialism because of the tea party’s attack on it,” he said. “I think they put it back on the agenda. By attacking every policy initiative of the president as socialism, they put it back in the public debate… it wasn’t exactly something the average American was talking about before that.”

Ask Dr. Politics! You are fair and I am unbalanced:

Q: What is all this controversy about the Buffet Rule? Why is President Obama for it and why are the Republicans against it?

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A: The Buffet Rule is simple: You grab a plate, you walk down the line, and you load your plate with food. But the Republicans want those making more than $1 million a year to be able to load up on shrimp, smoked salmon and those little pink baby lamb chops. The rest of us would be left with the three-bean salad and the pigs-in-blankets. Also, for the 1 percent, it would be all-you-can-eat.

Q: That doesn’t seems fair.

A: Well, there is no point in being rich unless you can lord it over somebody. But under Obama’s Buffet Rule the middle class and poor not only would be able to go through the line first, but they could go through it like Sherman went through Georgia. They wouldn’t even need plates. They could just grab whatever they wanted and stuff it in their mouths. Also, only the rich would have to use sneeze guards.

Q: Why do I keep reading that Mitt Romney has won the nomination? How many delegates does he actually have?

A: Nobody knows. Really. The Real Clear Politics count has Romney with 656, Rick Santorum with 272, Newt Gingrich with 140 and Ron Paul with 67. The Republican National Committee has Romney 573, Santorum 202, Gingrich 132 and Ron Paul 26. POLITICO has a different count based on the “Associated Press, Republican National Committee documents, and POLITICO research” that shows Romney at 661. And the Moon Colony count shows Gingrich one delegate away from victory with 1,143 delegates.

Q: How is this possible?

A: Clearly there is massive fraud, most of the so-called delegates do not have birth certificates and the rest are Ron Paul moles, who will cast their votes for him at the Republican National Convention, surprising and confounding the lamestream media. Paul will then choose Julianne Moore as his vice president, because she makes a better Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin.

Q: Have you ever been right about anything?

A: Allow me to quote the very first paragraphs from my column of Jan. 2 of this year:

“DES MOINES — If Mitt Romney wins the Iowa caucuses, the race for the Republican nomination is over.

“If Mitt Romney comes in second in Iowa, the race for the Republican nomination is over.

“And if Mitt Romney comes in third in Iowa, the race for the Republican nomination is over.”

Q: You turned out to be a genius!

A: Thanks, Mom. And I am sorry I flunked out of optometry school.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
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Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
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eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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