Florida Congressman Allen West has only been a member of the House for a a year, but he's gained quite the reputation for some rather ... we'll go with ... colorful remarks.

Allen is a Tea Party-backed Republican representative, so there were the usual "Obama is a dictator" comments, as well as a Nazi allusion via his statement that Joseph Goebbels would be very proud of the Democratic Party.

But, early this week, Allen added a new villain to compare/insinuate against Democrats: communists.

During a town-hall meeting with constituents in Palm City, Fla., someone asked Allen what percentage of legislators were "card-carrying Marxists -- or neo-Castro socialists." To which, he responded: "there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party that are members of the Communist Party."

OK. We're actually kind of impressed with this accusation of a vague number of Communist Party members, infiltrating the American government. It's very retro in a Joe McCarthy sort of way.

We can't wait for the media firestorm over this one.

Video: Rep. Allen West on alleged American Marxists