Allen West: Youtube Celebrity

By Thomas Francis Fri., Dec. 18 2009 at 4:54 PM

That's Fox News video of Allen West, who campaigned unsuccessfully in 2008 against Congressman Ron Klein. But see, that was before West became a rock star on the Youtube. His October speech at Revolution in Fort Lauderdale, during the American Freedom Tour, has now been viewed over 1.2 million times. And only 1.1 million of those hits came from West's home computer!

Ha ha. I'm kidding, of course. The teaparty types love West. So do the anti-Muslim types who rally around the Florida Security Council. And he's also rounded up a national fanbase thanks to appearances on Michael Savage's show. Yesterday he was on Laura Ingraham's radio show. He also scored some headlines by boldly (some might say "recklessly") positing that the massacre at Fort Hood was a terrorist conspiracy.

Frankly, with West's new celebrity, I'm a little concerned he won't have time to offer constructive commentary and career advice to yours truly, as he so kindly did in the comments of this blog post from April.

For those who can't bear to sit through the whole Hannity video, you should still check out the exchange around 3:10. That's where Hannity, struck by how similar his own views are to West's, muses: "Our parents must have been related."

Unless Hannity's parents were black, I'm gonna say no, these two conservative men are not related.