Allen West Defends Controversial Comments

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Rep. Allen West (R., Fla.) calls himself the No. 1 target of the Democratic Party.

West, who made headlines two weeks ago when he said he believed "there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party," stood by his remark in an interview and said he's fine with being the top target of Democrats.

Rep. Allen West (R., Fla)

"I'm the No.1 target for the Democrat Party. ... I am very happy to be their No. 1 target, because we have to have people who will stand with courage and conviction and character to speak the truth," West said.

West didn't step down from his allegation that many Democrats were also part of the Communist Party.

"Everyone's focusing on a Red Scare thing, and of course the other side [Democrats] using the [Saul] Alinsky tactic, trying to call me a Joe McCarthy, which I find very ludicrous," West said.

West said the Communist Party in America "rebranded" itself at the turn of the century to be called progressives, and added that the Woodrow Wilson White House was referred to as the first progressive administration.

Wilson, a Democrat, never called himself Communist, nor was his administration considered as such.

"When you study along the spectrum of political ideologies and you look at the far left, being it communism, progressivism, Marxism, socialism -- or as Mark Levin calls it Statism -- you really have to look at the strategies and the tactics and their ideology of governance," West said.

-- Written by Joe Deaux in New York.

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