Tea Party Favorite Allen West Explains Why He Supports Boehner's Controversial Plan

The Republican Party isn't a unified front right now. At least not in the House. There are some congressman who don't think that Speaker John Boehner's debt plan goes far enough. There are others who think that even though Boehner's plan isn't perfect, it's the next-best thing. And many have accused the Tea Party Reps. of being in the former camp and sabotaging any compromise. But there's one Tea Partier who is breaking the mold -- Allen West.

(Read our update: West Responds to Tea Party ‘Schizophrenia’ Over His Boehner Support)

West appeared on Fox News Friday morning to explain why he is supporting the Boehner plan even though it may be unpopular among staunch conservatives to do so. According to him, it's a position he arrived at after "I searched my own heart and I understood that this still allows me to stay within my principles.”

"We can sit around and wait for the 100 percent plan, but as I said in a short speech I [gave] at a GOP conference a few days ago, this is a 70, 75 percent plan that gets us to continue to move the ball forward down the field, and that’s why I’m supporting it," he explained.

“This is not the perfect plan as I said. One of the things that I’m not warmed over about is this joint Congressional committee,” West said. “But I know you can’t come up here expecting that you are going to get your way each and every time. I think John Boehner’s plan is far more superior to Harry Reid’s plan and is far more superior then anything to come out of the Senate, which has not passed a budget in 820 days.”

You can watch the interview below, in which West also explains the closed-door GOP meeting that included a clip from the movie "The Town:"

In other words, he wouldn't fit into John McCain's definition of a "hobbit."