Allen West Not a Fan of Newt Gingrich's "Baggage" or the Rest of the GOP Field

By Matthew Hendley Wed., Nov. 23 2011 at 12:20 PM

Categories: Allen West, Election

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Rep. Allen West

Rep. Allen West continued his never-ending media rounds yesterday with an appearance on Laura Ingraham's radio show, and aside from his omnipresent disdain for President Obama, he let Ingraham know he's not too pleased with the field of GOP presidential candidates either.

West described a sort of "political entitlement" the candidates have and specifically mentioned all the "baggage" former House Speaker Newt Gingrich carries around.

"Well, [Gingrich is] a fighter, but he's also a fighter that's carrying a 200-pound rucksack on his back with all the baggage, trying to fight," he said. "I think the problem with the Republican Party, Laura -- and you've been around this more than I have -- is that we continue to believe in leadership by entitlement. We don't come up with new faces, new visionary leaders. When you look at everyone on this stage, they've been in this game for quite some time."

Ingraham cut him off and ranted for quite some time about how the newer Republican faces in national politics have all refused to run. She mentioned that one of the younguns might be a good VP pick and suggested that's where West comes in.

"Who, me?" West replied, and added nothing else to the ongoing VP chatter.

Earlier, Ingraham tried to ask West about how to fix the problems in Washington, and he rambled on for a bit about the debt-to-GDP ratio before being cut off by Ingraham.

"Col. West, when you say that, literally, nobody knows what you're talking about," she said.

West replied, "[Republicans] are not very good communicators, at best."

West talked about how to get things done on Capitol Hill, describing it as a "bare-knuckles fight" in which "you gotta start throwing some punches."

The conversation didn't really follow a clear path -- if that didn't occur to you yet -- and Ingraham began talking about how many people view Republicans as being in the back pockets of the so-called "fat cats" while the middle class continues to whittle away.

That gave West the opportunity to rant about the president, saying "he's just walking around," and blamed him for playing the "blame game."

"First of all, when you start talking about millionaires and billionaires, the president is the one going around having these dinner parties at $30,000 a plate, so who is he hangin' out with?" West said. "He is the epitome of a political-class elite."

West then went on to describe himself as a "regular guy," immediately followed by his explanation of how he just had to pull his Hummer SUV over to the side of the road to talk to her.

Upon his exit, West was asked what he was thankful about this Thanksgiving. Of course, his country.

Listen to the audio from West's appearance by clicking here.

Follow The Pulp on Facebook and on Twitter: @ThePulpBPB. Follow Matthew Hendley on Facebook and on Twitter: @MatthewHendley.

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