Allen West calls Debbie Wasserman Schultz "vile, unprofessional, and despicable."

And "from this time forward," she needs to "understand that I shall defend myself forthright against your heinous characterless behavior."

In other news... West is saying:

I believe we are headed towards the ultimate ideological clash in America....

I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool.

What's with West? Is he — as Think Progress would have it — into "making outrageous statements just to provoke a reaction"? Or have media folk on the other side of that "ideological clash" decided that the way to ruin Allen West's potential for a brilliant career is to portray him as hotheaded and irrational?

In this context, let's remember all the discussion about how Barack Obama had to fend off the "angry black man" stereotype:

"Folks are waiting for a Samuel Jackson 'Snakes on the Plane' moment from this president as in: 'We gotta' get this $#@!!* oil back in the $#!!* rig!' But that's just not who Obama is,'' says Saladin Ambar, a political science professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania....

"It would have fed deeply into a pre-existing set of narratives about the angry black man," [says William Jelani Cobb, author of "The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress."] "The anger would have gotten in the way. He would have frightened off white voters who were interested in him because he seemed to be like the black guy they worked with or went to graduate school with -- not a black guy who is threatening."...

"Rev. Wright almost cost him his run for the presidency because of fears of the angry black man," [says author and political activist Paul Street] ....

"He is Mr. Equanimity and Mr. Consolation," says Street. "That's how he negotiated his way through multiple worlds, and reached out across bridges."