Palm Beach Post Mocks Congressman Allen West's Military Pride

While reading through newspaper stories about Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s cowardly attacks on Congressman Allen West earlier in the week, I came across an even more repulsive attack on him from a Palm Beach Post columnist named Frank Cerabino: the latter was especially repugnant because of the fact that it was full of haughtiness and a not-so-veiled attack against West’s military pride.

Dated October 20, 2010, Cerabino’s column was obviously part of a larger attempt to prevent West from being elected to Congress in November of that same year (and fortunately, it was an effort that failed).

In the column, Cerabino mocks Congressman West for writing articles that appeared in a biker magazine. Thus he refers to West as an “unhinged future AM-radio talk-show host” and “a regular contributor to Wheels on the Road, a South Florida bikers magazine bursting with right-wing political commentary.”

Elsewhere in the column, Cerabino haughtily remarked that he hadn’t known West was a “fellow columnist” until he found out about the West’s work in Wheels on the Road. The clear intent of this statement was to demonstrate Cerabino’s superiority because he was writing for the Post while West was writing for a lowly biker magazine. (Note to Cerabino – I’d rather read the biker magazine.)

Anyway, Cerabino’s column also took the criticism of Congressman West to new levels by mocking the pride West takes in his military service. Wrote Cerabino: “[West has] a penchant for wearing his Army jump wings on civilian blazers.” (Note to Cerabino – mocking a Republican’s pride in the military might be the cool thing to at the cocktail parties which the Post’s columnists attend, but in heartland American it’s viewed as despicable.)

Now, before anyone gets all bent out of shape and sends me emails about how Cerabino was in the Navy years ago and therefore can’t be accused of mocking the military, please note that I know he was in the Navy. Please also note that John Kerry served in Vietnam, yet he described our troops fighting in Iraq as terrorists.

Therefore, Cerabino’s military service notwithstanding, his substantial track record of taking dirty shots at Republicans, and particularly conservatives, is far and away his stronger characteristic.

For example, it was he who authored the Post column that went after Rush Limbaugh in 2004, when Limbaugh was trying to keep his medical records from being shared with every person in the world. And more recently, Cerabino described Limbaugh’s new “Two If By Tea” as “sugar water for … tea partiers.” He also insinuated that Limbaugh had launched the tea simply as a new way to make money off people (which means he clearly missed Limbaugh’s announcement that a percentage of the profits will go to military families).

So my point is simple: Congressman West is a good man, a true conservative, and a proud American. And long before Wasserman Schultz went on a verbal tirade behind his back, other liberals were taking cheap shots at him for being a man of the people and for literally wearing his military pride on his sleeve.

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