There were, however, a total of 14 defections from both Boehner, and Nancy Pelosi, who got 192 votes.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Va., got three votes. Reps. Louie Gohmert, Texas, and Paul Broun, Ga., both cast votes for ousted Rep. Allen West, Fla.

Tim Huelskamp, Kan., one of the four conservatives Boehner ousted from his committee spot, cast a vote for Jim Jordan, Ohio. Dave Schweikert, Ariz., another one of those conservatives, did support Boehner.

Both Michael Grimm and Peter King of New York, who had been at odds with Boehner over Hurricane Sandy relief funding, both voted for the speaker to keep his seat.

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Rep. Allen West, the Florida Republican best known for his impressive innovations in congressional crazy, has finally conceded to his Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy, two weeks after Election Day. When early results showed him narrowly behind Murphy, West demanded a recount, alleging a conspiracy to steal the election from him. He had no legal right to a recount under state law -- Murphy's lead was outside the percent margin stipulated by Florida election law -- but a recount went ahead anyway. Unfortunately for West, the recount only put the Tea Partyer further behind Murphy.

And so, finally this: "While many questions remain unanswered, today I am announcing that I will take no further action to contest the outcome of this election," West said in a statement to Politico. “I pray he will serve his constituents with honor and integrity, and put the interests of our nation before his own," West added of Murphy.

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On Sunday, Democrat Patrick Murphy declared victory for the second time after the county filed the results of its recount, though it missed the noon deadline because of a problem uploading the results from one precinct. From the Palm Beach Post:

Preliminary numbers released around 2 p.m. by the St. Lucie County board showed Murphy with an even greater lead, with 65,841 votes to West’s 52,704. When those results are added to the final tallies in Martin and Palm Beach counties, Murphy’s lead increased to 0.65 percent.

West still hasn't conceded, and his team is considering what legal options it has left to pursue.

“It’s time for Allen West to do the right thing and concede,” said Murphy’s senior adviser, Eric Johnson.

“As usual, Murphy’s people are full of garbage,” Tim Edson, West’s campaign manager, said. “This is something the secretary of state and governor will have to sort out.”

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From the Miami Herald:

West’s campaign filed a complaint in St. Lucie County Circuit Court on Tuesday asking a judge to order a recount of all 37,379 ballots cast in St. Lucie County during the eight-day early voting period. St. Lucie, Martin and northern Palm Beach counties make up congressional District 18.

West argues a full recount is justified because a partial recount on Sunday showed Murphy losing 667 votes and West losing 132 — a net gain of 535 votes for West.

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent three representatives to the county to figure out the discrepancy, but St. Lucie County Elections Supervisor Gertrude Walker said that though the results were presented on election night too hastily, "It happened, it's corrected, and we have the correct results right now."

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The recount took place on Sunday and looked at ballots cast in St. Lucie County via early voting. But the West campaign didn't accept the results, and was outraged that St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker had only recounted three out of eight days worth of early voting ballots.

"The Supervisor and the Board continue their attempts to hide the facts and after today's events, their conduct and inconsistent behavior cast even more doubt on the St. Lucie County's election returns," his campaign said in a statement, WPTV reports.

The election's official results will be certified on November 20.

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Florida's unofficial tally from Saturday shows Democrat Patrick Murphy ahead by 2,442 votes, 50.4 percent. State law mandates that those numbers be used to make a decision on a recount, despite a number of absentee ballots that still haven't been counted.

From the AP:

Murphy declared victory early Wednesday morning and has held his lead ever since, even as thousands of absentee and provisional ballots were processed. He issued a statement Saturday saying it was time to put the campaign behind. He called his win a signal that voters were tired of the extremism West represented.

West's campaign insists there are many unanswered questions in the race, mostly centered in St. Lucie County, the only one of three counties in the district that Murphy won. They are concerned that votes were counted twice and have asked to review sign-in books from the polls to ensure the number of voters matched the ballot count.

"We're simply not going to just walk away from the race until we see that the numbers add up," West's campaign manager Tim Edson told the AP.

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Circuit Judge David Crow on Friday said West's request was "entirely premature." The judge said vote-counting procedures are in place and being followed.

Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy holds a lead in the race for the South Florida seat. An unofficial tally puts him above the threshold for a recount.

The ruling was a defeat for West, but his side claimed victory anyway. An attorney for West says the campaign was simply trying to make sure the election is fair and transparent.

An attorney for Murphy called West's legal actions a "political stunt."

A full unofficial count of votes is due Saturday.

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But Islamophobia -- even from elected officials -- is still dramatically undercovered by the media. So you might easily have missed some of these 10 most disgraceful examples of bigotry, ignorance and hate -- from obscure county parties to the halls of Congress -- during an election cycle with plenty to go around:

10. Allen West is Allen West -- Florida Rep. Allen West is known for making inflammatory statements about pretty much everyone, but he has particularly targeted Muslims. This cycle alone, he’s commemorated 9/11 by screening an anti-Islamic film, said that Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison “really does represent the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established," and another time theorized that “George Bush got snookered into going into some mosque, taking his shoes off, and then saying that Islam was a religion of peace.”

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During a parliamentary session Tuesday, Gillard skewered opposition leader Tony Abbott for a career's worth of patriarchal comments. She tells the chamber that she "will not be lectured on sexism by this man" (pointing at Abbott). She goes on to list a number of Abbott's misogynist remarks, including his suggestion that men might be more adept at wielding authority than women.

Gillard's speech came in response to Abbott's call to have Australia's speaker of the house, Peter Slipper, removed after a scandal involving lurid text messages. As Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams noted on Monday, Gillard has faced misogyny from a far wider base than just her parliamentary colleagues. Taking to Facebook to discuss education policies with the public, the PM was bombarded by trolls calling her a "slut."

We wonder if Gillard takes requests: Todd Akin, R.-Mo., and Allen West, R.- Fla., to name just a couple, could certainly use a similar treatment.

Watch Gillard's speech below:

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The frequency and outlandishness of their conspiratorial imaginations grows in sync with their desperation. With Obama leading in most polls and the election season drawing to a close, it seems like a good time to recap some of the more ludicrous conspiracies hatched by our conservative fearmongers. So with our tin-foil hats securely strapped on, let's  venture down the primrose path of hair-raising hypotheses.

1. Cooking the Unemployment Rate

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With such remarks in mind, Florida-based reporter Jose Lambiet published lines from a personal letter West sent to his wife, Dr. Angela West, from Iraq in 2003. In the missive, obtained by Gossip Extra, West tells his wife  that she is to perform sex acts that are "standard and non-negotiable" on his return.

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Watch:

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Asked a second time specifically about a fact-checker article the AP ran this morning refuting numerous key points in Ryan's speech, West responded, "That's between Paul Ryan and the speechwriters. Not me." Given his famed loquaciousness, West's silence may speak loudest.

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So you're new to politics after working in the private sector for a long time. Why get involved now?

I guess it started when I worked at Deloitte & Touche as an auditor. I dealt with Sarbanes Oxley quite a bit, so my eyes were opened quickly to where the government could do a better job. Then I left Deloitte to start an environmental company called Coastal Environmental, and spent about six months in the Gulf of Mexico cleaning up after the BP oil spill. And again I saw where I thought the government could do a better job. A lot of the regulations in place on these oil rigs and the safety requirements are regulations from the '70s, when we were drilling in 100 feet of water and now we’re in 6,000 feet of water.

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After redistricting made West’s 22nd Florida congressional district slightly more liberal, he moved to the 18th. Running in his place is Adam Hasner, the former Florida House majority leader who abandoned a previous bid for the Senate. Hasner has already earned top-flight endorsers, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and West himself, as well as several major conservative organizations.

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