Outspoken Radio Host Named Chief of Staff

In the wake of last week's GOP victories in the midterm elections, some conservative firebrands who have leveled harsh criticism at Washington officialdom will soon themselves become Capitol insiders.

Congressman-elect Allen West (R-Fla.), who rode the tea party wave to unseat Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.), has hired Joyce Kaufman, a local conservative talk radio commentator known for her provocative and sometimes incendiary statements, as his chief of staff, according to The Washington Post.

In discussing the move on her show Tuesday afternoon, the husky-voiced radio commentator said she is excited to come to Washington and get a "bird's-eye view" of Congress. Kaufman dismissed the outgoing Democratic leadership as "garbage."

"Over these months I have been blessed to form very wonderful relationships with the West family," Kaufman said, adding that she had been a supporter of his campaign. "I looked at this family and [told] myself, how do you not fight and put them up on the pedestal when we've got this garbage up on the pedestal now, people like Nancy Pelosi?"

It's true that newly minted Washington chiefs of staff do not usually employ such rhetoric when talking about their new jobs. It's also true that few freshman classes in Congress contain as many rabble-rousers as the incoming Class of 2010.

West's campaign manager, Josh Grodin, defended Kaufman's outspoken style. "What's been working in Washington has not been working," he said. "Things need to be different."

Kaufman is an afternoon host on WFTL-850 AM in the South Florida market. The station on Tuesday announced on its Web site: "Joyce Kaufman becomes a Washington Insider!"

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