Michele Kirk
BIZPAC Review
May 1, 2012
Things got tense at Monday’s Forum Club of the Palm
Beaches meeting when sparks flew between guest speakers Ted Deutch and Allen
West.
The two congressmen were scheduled to speak in front
of a few hundred guests at the Palm Beach County Convention Center for 10
minutes each on the Affordable Care Act, then take questions from the
audience.
The festivities began cordially enough, with the
gentlemen displaying mutual respect for each other, but the day took a turn for
the ugly when the Democrat Deutch said of his Republican colleague West: "It is
awfully hard to engage in meaningful bipartisan discussion when some suggest
that half of my party belongs to the Communist Party, that the way we do things
is reminiscent of the Nazis. That makes it really difficult."
The comment aroused a look of anger and an immediate
rebuke from West, who said, “I think that was a cheap shot, but I’m
alright.”
West lightened up after a few minutes and showed his
humorous side when asked how he thought the U.S. Supreme Court would vote on the
health care law. Placing a notecard to his forehead, West said, “I just
channeled Johnny Carson.”
Ted Deutch calls out Allen
West
