Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Where is the line between spirited speech and a radical rant? Politics in America has always been spirited and frankly if it weren’t, I doubt many would participate in it. But when speaking of opposition party leaders to say "they need to get the hell out" of our country as a sitting Florida Congressman did on Jan. 28 in a public address conservatives, liberals and independents alike should condemn.

This trend to declare others un-American or a traitor harkens to the days of Joe McCarthy. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a Tea Party darling sent to Washington to defend the Constitution, apparently does not understand it is not "his" or those who agree with his politics country. It is everyone’s.

Joe the Plumber can express his right to free speech usually with little or no consequences, but a sitting Congressman, who is sworn to represent (speak for) even those he may find lacking in his state, has responsibilities. There is no ...