Allen West Thumbs His Nose at GOP Establishment

Firebrand Florida Republican congressional candidate Allen West is maintaining his distance from the GOP establishment. He feels more kinship with the tea party movement, Poltico reports.

West gives the Republican “Pledge to America” a “D” grade. “It’s very important that in the first 90 to 120 days that the Republican Party earn the trust of the American people once again,” West said. “And I don’t think that the Pledge to America went very far in gaining that trust. It’s what we call in the military, boilerplate.”

And West says that he’s going to take the party leadership to task if he gets elected. “If John Boehner is speaker, I’m going to hold his feet to the fire,” West says. “And I think that’s important. And that’s what people are expecting of me down here.”