Nobody's Seen a Communist in Over a Decade': Fiery Clinton Mocks Allen West During Obama Fundraiser

A lot has been written about Clinton's appearance and speech at an Obama fundraiser Monday night. But one comment you might have missed is Clinton's tirade against Allen West's past statement that there are Communists in Congress.

"He’s had to get all this done with a House of Representatives that had one of the Tea Party members claim that 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Caucus were members of the Communist Party," Clinton said while raising his voice, "and neither the presidential nominee nor any of the leaders rebuked him for saying that! This is not the 1950s. At least Joe McCarthy could skate on the fact that there were one or two living Communists walking around. Nobody’s seen a Communist in over a decade!"

Right Scoop has the video:

As Right Scoop also points out, West has explained the comments. It's not that he thinks members of Congress are walking around with secret hammer-and-sickle tattoos. Rather, his belief is that the "Communists" of old are the progressives and socialists of today:

So it would seem Clinton is setting up a straw man: he's turned West's comments into something about communists openly walking around (and ducking into phone booths to change into their red-tighted costumes?). But that wasn't West's point. Rather, he was saying that even though they may not call themselves "Communists," today's progressives have adopted the same ideology of the out-of-control state controlling private citizens.*

And that's not a whacky theory.

*This paragraph has been updated for clarity.

(H/T: Hot Air)