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By Joy-Ann Reid

Allen West has become known for over-the-top, even violent, rhetoric. Now, his caustic statements, and a change in his district, could endanger his congressional future.

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West’s latest outburst: that President Barack Obama will lose the 2012 election in a brutal bloodbath, was shocking to some. But it’s pretty standard fare for the Florida Congressman, who called on his supporters to “gather their muskets” and go to Washington to throw the “tyrant” Obama out of office.

West has become known for over-the-top rhetoric. The Tea Party Republican, who once called himself a modern day Harriet Tubman leading African-American voters away from the Democratic Party “plantation,” has raised eyebrows by calling on his supporters to “gather their muskets” and march on Capitol Hill, for affiliating with biker gang that doesn’t allow black members, and for vowing to “bring the left to its knees.”

And West’s opponents are using his rhetoric to raise cash. Murphy reported taking in $1.4 million in 2011, including releasing a video highlighting what the campaign called West’s radical and offensive statements from the past year. Frankel has raised a similar amount, though neither campaign has matched West’s prodigious fundraising. West has raised more than $4 million so far for his re-election bid, more than four times either of his rivals.

Read the rest of the article at theGrio.

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